The Case For a Waxahachie City Flag
Flags.
There is something about flags that evokes emotion inside of the people they represent. A good flag is seen as a dignified banner, a point of pride that a community can rally behind in good times as well as bad. They establish an identity for the city, state, or country they represent and boldly proclaim to the rest of the world, “I am here, and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Cities such as Chicago, Amsterdam, Portland, and Hong Kong all have beautiful flags, which have become so deeply ingrained into the culture of those cities that it is near impossible for a resident to look at the flag and not think of home.
The flags of Chicago, Amsterdam, Portland, and Hong Kong (left to right)
However, as one wanders around the historic streets of Waxahachie Texas, you will notice no city flags flapping in the summer breeze, no shirts proudly displaying the city emblem, and a significant lack of visual city pride. In a city with such character and diversity as Waxahachie, it is easy to imagine that a well-designed flag would immediately be used in a variety of ways by its citizens.
Design
Proposed Waxahachie Flag
Often, a poorly designed flag can be worse than no flag at all. With this in mind, I set out to make a flag that satisfied the five major requirements of flag design
- Keep it simple
- Use meaningful symbolism
- Use two to three basic colors
- No lettering or seals of any kind.
- Be distinctive
The overall goal of a city flag is to have an identifiable banner that can be seen from dozens if not hundreds of feet away. In addition, I wanted to keep the design simple enough that it could be reproduced even in crude drawings, leaving it available to be recreated by even a Dunaway Elementary School Student.
Symbolism
In addition to a simple design, the other major motivating factor came from the desire to represent the city in the best way possible.
The colors for the flag came from colors already prominent around Waxahachie. The green represents the beautiful foliage and fields that are found throughout the city. In addition, the color matches the green of the signs along the roads that point out historic sites. The brown color comes from the city courthouse and represents the historical aspect of Waxahachie. The white represents a new beginning in the chapter of Waxahachie, one that has spurred tremendous growth in the city for the past few decades.
The Waxahachie City Seal
These colors were chosen because many of them are already closely associated with Waxahachie, and can even be seen on the Municipal seal. These colors can be found throughout Waxahachie, and are closely tied to the city.
The emblem seen on the proposed Waxahachie Flag
In addition, the emblem in the center of the flag contains multiple meanings as well. The top part of the emblem shows a simple graphic of a building, the likeness of which can be seen throughout Waxahachie, from the Texas Theater to the iconic city courthouse. This points to the fact that Waxahachie has some of the most historic and beautiful buildings found anywhere in Texas.
The bottom half of the emblem depicts a spearhead, the same symbol that can be found on the logo for Waxahachie High School. This represents the multi-century history of Waxahachie, and is a subtle reminder that the name ‘Waxahachie’ was originally derived from a Native American word meaning ‘Cow Creek’.
Taken together, the emblem depicts a shovel, which is deeply implanted within the green half of the flag. This represents the progress and new life that is coming to Waxahachie and will shape the city for years to come.
As you read this piece, you may have had the thought, “The city of Waxahachie has more important problems to deal with than a city flag.” To that, I say, with a well-designed and notable flag, the citizens of Waxahachie will have an ensign with which to rally under when new problems arise and will be better prepared to begin to solve them.
With this, I hope you seriously consider the adoption of an official city flag and all the great things that would come with it.
The Flag was designed by Levi Villarreal and Justin Ansley, students at Waxahachie Global High.