A Sunny Yellow Flag for a Great Place, 1975

I recently came across this photo of local artist Leland (Lee) Tishler, who won a 1975 contest to redesign Milwaukee's city flag. As you might remember from my lengthy article last year, this was one of a series of Milwaukee flag design contests held during the 20th Century.

–Journal Photo

Artist L.G. Tishler displayed his winning design for a new city flag.

Tishler's entry was a notched yellow banner featuring symbols of Milwaukee's people, parks, industry and lakefront.

His original design, seen in the wire photo above, included three male figures across the top. In the inclusive spirit of the time, these were revised to an adult male and female flanking a female child.

It is very 70s in its bold iconography, isn't it?

In recognition of his work, Tishler was awarded a $100 savings bond at a ceremony at City Hall, and then his design was quietly shelved. The common council considered borrowing bits and pieces of it for another composite design, but ultimately abandoned it.

This is a fantastic find - I'm going to update the original post to include this and the 1950 design winner.