People's Flag
of Milwaukee

flag design / web design / dev / merch

In 2016, an initiative was held to create a new flag for the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Amongst over 2000 entries, my flag design Sunrise Over the Lake was voted on by the public to become the “People’s Flag of Milwaukee”.

Over the years, it has become a symbol of the public and an icon of the city. From boats to billboards, and bikes to beer—you can find the People’s Flag of Milwaukee just about everywhere.

I also designed and developed the MilwaukeeFlag.com website which goes in depth about the history of Milwaukee’s flag and the People’s Flag of Milwaukee initiative.

Symbolism

The color gold represents wheat (or beer, if you’d prefer).
The centered circle represents the sun rising over the horizon of Lake Michigan. This is the view seen in the morning, looking East over the lake from Milwaukee. The rising sun symbolizes hope, and a new day.
The bottom half is broken into three stripes, representing the three founding towns (Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker’s Point), while the top half is unified, representing their incorporation as the city of Milwaukee.
The color blue represents Lake Michigan and the 3 rivers (Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic).
Reflection of sun shows three waves/stripes representing the three founding fathers of Milwaukee (Solomon Juneau, Byron Kilbourn, and George Walker).