Riverside trustees chose this preliminary design for a new village flag from seven others that featured minimalist depictions of nature. | Courtesy of the Village of Riverside 
The sesquicentennial committee preferred this flag design alongside the design that trustees selected. Some board members seemed to prefer the color palette used in this design. | Courtesy of the Village of Riverside
With a year of celebrations for Riverside’s 150th anniversary approaching, the village is looking at updating its flag.
At their Nov. 21 meeting, village trustees gave feedback on eight initial designs for a new flag to replace the village’s current one, which has been in use since 2005. Each design featured a green silhouette of Riverside’s iconic Water Tower against a minimalist depiction of natural scenes, such as the village’s trees or the Des Plaines River from which it takes its name.
Ultimately, the board agreed to direct Riverside’s sesquicentennial committee, which is responsible for planning the celebrations, to pursue designs similar to one featuring the Water Tower blending into a tree line above the river with a rising sun in the background, though with some tweaks to the flag’s exact coloration.
Before the board weighed in, Village Clerk Ethan Sowl clarified that the designs being shown were far from final.
“These are very preliminary design concepts not done in professional editing software,” he said. “They’ll look a lot cleaner and sharper when they are brought into that prior to being put on a flag.”
Trustee Alex Gallegos, who co-chairs the committee alongside Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga, explained the group’s intent in presenting options dissimilar from the current flag.
“When you look at our flag, it has letters, it has pictures, and it really looks more like a banner, whereas, if you look at the city of Chicago, if you look other nations, those are more about colors, shapes, symbols,” Gallegos said. “We want it to be more like other flags of the world.”
He said Riverside resident Randy Kaden, who designed the village’s current flag, volunteered to create the eight concepts for a new flag.
Gallegos also made a case for the design the board later agreed they liked most.
“When you look at the Water Tower — it’s the second most historic water tower in the state — that’s probably the biggest icon we have in the village. It’s recognizable,” he said. “Behind there is the sun; some might even see the harvest moon. But we are a village in a forest, hence the nature, and the water is more flowing as a river. It doesn’t have the waves like you see in some of the others.”
Before opening the discussion to the other trustees, Marsh-Ozga said the board ought to consider the importance of a flag when picking a favorite design.
“We really do want genuine feedback on these, because we’ve had one flag that has taken us through a point in history, and this next flag that is selected will take us through yet another point in history,” she said. “Looking at and thinking about longevity and, ‘Is it a classic design,’ those are the types of things that we would like to hear from you.”
Trustee Cristin Evans expressed her preference for the sunrise design, though she took issue with the coloration and minimalist style.
“The vibe is a bit dark. I wonder if we could brighten it up a little bit,” she said. “I get the aesthetic of it, so I’m not asking for a ton of detail, just a little bit more detail. Maybe a bright outline somewhere just to put some more contrast in there around the dark parts.”
Village President Douglas Pollock agreed that the flag’s color scheme should be brighter.
“The [design] did strike me as harvest moon and not sunrise, so that’s consistent with what Trustee Evans was saying. It’s more of a nighttime shot to me,” he said.
Trustee Jill Mateo agreed the colors were too dark and said she preferred the color scheme of the committee’s second preferred flag, which features brighter shades of green for the Water Tower and tree line.
Village Manager Jessica Frances said the design’s colors were drawn from Riverside’s own color palette.
“If the board doesn’t like how that looks or feels, providing [the sesquicentennial committee] guidance on that would be helpful, but that’s why you’re seeing the consistent green colors, blues, because those are part of the colors that are part of our branding,” she said.
The board agreed to have Frances get input from trustees Megan Claucherty and Elizabeth Kos, who were absent from the meeting, before having the artist make changes based on the group’s feedback.
The sesquicentennial committee is hosting a raffle of three signs of iconic Riverside streets before auctioning off the entire lot through the end of this week to fund programs and celebrations for the village’s triple golden jubilee. Raffle tickets are $5 each for the street signs of Riverside Road, East Burlington Street and Olmsted Street; you can buy tickets on Riverside’s website through Thursday, Dec. 12, before Riverside draws and contacts the winners on Friday, Dec. 13. Tickets are also sold at Riverside Village Hall and were available at the village’s Holiday Stroll last Friday, Dec. 6.
