Use | Civil and state flag |
---|---|
Proportion | 3:5 |
Adopted | September 4, 2002 |
Design | Nordic-style Brigid's cross design with Blue stripes/arms double-fimbriated by gold on white esquarres, in the center a white astroid hypocycloid, on a green background. |
Designed by | Douglas Lynch |
The city flag of Portland, Oregon, consists of a green field on which is placed a white four-pointed star (a truncated hypocycloid) from which radiate blue stripes, each bordered by L-shaped yellow elements (esquarres). Narrow white fimbriations separate the blue and yellow elements from each other and from the green background. The official ordinance specifies a height of 3 feet and a length of 5 feet.
City ordinance 176874, adopted September 4, 2002, designates the design and its symbolism. Green stands for "the forests and our green City"; yellow for "agriculture and commerce"; blue for "our rivers".[1] Portland straddles the Willamette River near its confluence with the Columbia River. City Ordinance 186794, adopted September 3, 2014, updated the proportions and the Pantone color specifications: White, PMS 279 (Blue); PMS 349 (Green); and PMS 1235 (Yellow).
The flag was designed in 1969 by a longtime Portland resident, noted graphic designer R. Douglas Lynch (1913–2009). That version of the flag was adopted in January 1970 and at that time included, over Lynch's objections, a dark blue canton containing the city seal in yellow and white; in 2002 Lynch and fellow members of the Portland Flag Association persuaded the Portland City Council to simplify the design to better reflect his original intent.[citation needed]
The flag's design ranked seventh among the flags of 150 US cities in the North American Vexillological Association's "American City Flag Survey of 2004".[2]