South Haven has a flag that can be found, for example, by the Marina, in the High School Gym, and in the median on Phoenix Street near City Hall. You can see an image of it here. The flag bears the South Haven Seal, which is a very recognizable symbol in South Haven, but is not quite suitable for a flag. The North American Vexillological Association (Vexillology means the study of flags) put out five principles of good flag design:

1 Keep it simple. The flag should be so simple that a child could draw it from memory.

2 Use meaningful symbolism. The flag’s images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.

3 Use 2-3 basic colors. Limit the number of colors on the flag to three, which contrast well and come from the standard color set.

4 No lettering or seals. Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal.

5 Be distinctive or be related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.



The South Haven flag clearly breaks rules one and four. The main problem with South Haven's flag is that the seal is too detailed to be picked out up on a flag pole and the words are unreadable in the wind and backwards on one side.

What we have is a seal, a very nice on at that, but not a flag. What South Haven needs is a flag that can represent our community from up on a flagpole without being too complicated.

The goal of this petition is to have the government of the City of South Haven change the city flag to something more suitable to fly according to the principles of good flag design.

For more information about flags and the set rules for them, feel free to check out this TED Talk by Roman Mars

This is an example of a possible proposal that uses existing symbols from our city, put into a flag format, that follows the basic framework of flag design:

Proposed Flag Redesign

Proposed Flag Redesign Symbolism