People living in Hillsboro, Oregon, will soon see their first-ever city flag flying as the city prepares to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its incorporation.

On Tuesday, Jan. 6, the city council is set to approve a resolution adopting the Hillsboro community flag, which was selected by nearly 3,000 members of the public last fall. A total of 4,200 people voted online among three finalist designs.

The physical flag will make its debut at the Hillsboro Civic Center — home to city offices and the municipal court — during the State of the City event on Feb. 19. At the event, Mayor Beach Pace will lead the commemoration of Hillsboro’s incorporation as a municipal government on Oct. 19, 1876.

The winning flag design, along with two alternates, was created by the city’s graphic designer in collaboration with the Civic Leadership Academy. The academy is an annual, cohort-based leadership program organized in partnership with Portland State University that allows Hillsboro residents to research a topic of community interest, share their perspectives and make recommendations to the City Council.

The flag features four main elements that the city says reflect the themes of community, nature, history and technology:

• Four green rectangular panels that evoke a bird’s-eye view of the city’s agricultural roots, farming heritage and deep connection to nature.
• A marigold circle symbolizing the city’s historical richness, connection and unity.
• A blue circle that creates a welcoming and unifying feeling.
• A trillium flower representing the city’s commitment to harmony and honoring Indigenous communities who use the plant as traditional medicine.

Hillsboro joins a growing number of municipalities in Oregon and Southwest Washington that have adopted new city flags over the past decade to refresh their civic identities. Still, cities such as Ashland, Beaverton, Bend and Depoe Bay do not yet have official city flags.

Flag expert weighs in on design

Portland-based vexillologist Ted Kaye has studied flags for years. As secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, he has served as a flag design consultant for about 200 municipalities and states across North America. Among them is Vancouver, Washington, which worked with Kaye for months before adopting a new city flag in November to replace its three-decade-old original design.

Kaye said that when a member of Hillsboro’s Civic Leadership Academy contacted him last fall for guidance on flag design principles, he pointed to Vancouver’s finalist designs as examples that follow the five core principles: simplicity, meaningful symbolism, two to three colors, no lettering or seals, and distinctiveness.

Over six weeks, academy members and the city’s graphic designer reviewed public survey results and conducted hundreds of interviews with community stakeholders before developing three finalist designs.

Kaye agreed that the winning design was the strongest of the three and praised its boldness, proportions and stylized symbolism — particularly the trillium, which he said is distinctive and versatile.

However, he says the design tries to convey too many ideas and uses five colors instead of the ideal of three.

“Having dark green and light green next to each other is a real challenge,” Kaye said. “At a distance, those are going to blend together.”

Still, Kaye said Hillsboro’s flag compares favorably with many other city flags and emphasized that residents should feel a sense of ownership over it.

“I hope that in Hillsboro, we’ll see postcards with the Hillsboro flag, and patches and hats, and small flags on people’s desks, and that flag flying from people’s homes, as well as on firetrucks and police cars and garbage trucks.

“That flag represents everybody in Hillsboro,” he said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/06/hillsboro-first-city-flag-trillium-adopted-2026/