Are any of you folks also into vexillology?

Here’s a fun fact that many of you may not know: State College doesn’t have a flag. That’s not super surprising, especially considering it isn’t that big of a town. Flags are cool though, so why shouldn’t our little valley town have its own?

To save the borough some time, I took the liberty of designing some ideas. To do this, it was important to remember what makes a good flag. Flags should be simple and clean, easily recognized at a distance, no matter how the wind is blowing.

Personally, I don’t think flags should feature words or complex designs. (Yes, that means I think the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a bad flag, along with most other U.S. States). The best flags are simple and iconic. Think of examples like Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Greece.

I’ll share my ideas and explain the symbolism and my thought process. Who knows, maybe we’ll see one of these flying over the Municipal Building in a few years.

This flag was the original idea that inspired me to write this article. The two lines represent College and Beaver Avenue, angled exactly as they are on any north-oriented map. The beige color represents downtown State College, hence why it is in between the two lines.

The blue color represents Penn State. Even though this is a flag for the town, not the school, there’s no denying the role that Penn State has played in State College’s existence. Finally, the state symbol of the keystone is featured on the left for some design balance.

This idea plays similarly to the previous, with two lines representing the main streets of downtown State College. But this idea doesn’t follow any specific geographical orientation. The darker color scheme allows the white elements to pop off the surface.

This flag is organized similarly to the Texas flag, with a vertical stripe on the left and two stripes on the right. The blue and white stripes on the right once again represent Penn State’s importance to State College, while the beige stripe features a map of Centre County with a star over State College’s location.

My final design represents the nickname of “Happy Valley.” The two green triangles on the side represent the mountains surrounding State College, forming a valley in the middle with a bright blue sky. To fill in the extra space, the design once again features a keystone.