Last modified: 2024-09-23 by rick wyatt
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![[Flag of Glen Echo, Maryland]](../images/u/us-mdgle.gif)
image by David Sigley, 23 September 2024
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The flag was adopted on October 10, 2016 during which the Glen Echo town council voted in adopting the flag, which had previously been an unofficial design, as the official town flag. It was designed to meet the five rules of a good flag, while also making sure that the flag symbolizes Glen Echo perfectly.
Town council notes on the flag can be viewed here: https://glenecho.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/echo_2016_11.pdf
Vexillology: A Proposed Design
This whole discussion of adopting a Town flag started when an unofficial flag design was created and began appearing around Town. A simple rebuttal to some of the objections listed above is that a flag already exists and would require no further effort or expense other than the Town Council choosing to make it official. It seems pertinent to explain the thinking that is behind that proposed flag. When Aaron Hirsch approached me about designing a flag, he sent me first to the TED talk on flag design by Roman Mars. View that entertaining video online and you too might catch the enthusiasm for a Town flag! Accordingly, we adhered to the 5 principles of good flag design that were layed out in the talk:
1. Keep it simple. The design should read well at a small size, a 1†by 1 ½†rectangle, as shown above
2. Use meaningful symbolism. We chose to use a sycamore leaf, as it is the official tree of Glen Echo. The image was traced from a fallen leaf from one of our Town’s towering sycamores, then simplified and refined. It reflects the Town’s affinity with our lush natural habitat.
3. Use two to three basic colors. Green and white.
4. Never use writing of any kind. Check.
5. Be distinctive. In order to add a bit of design sophistication, we divided the ground of the flag into quarters. This is a nod to the Maryland flag, which is divided in quarters, and displays the family crests of the second Lord Baltimore. You can see that our flag design echos the Crossland family crest in particular. Our flag design suggests that we are proud citizens of both Glen Echo and Maryland.
Source of the drawing: https://glenecho.org/town-hall/
David Sigley, 23 September 2024
