Announcing the People's Flag of Eau Claire:
Clear Water Revival
by Mike Berge
We're proud to announce the winning flag design for the
People's Flag of Eau Claire, "Clear Water Revival" by Mike Berge:
About this design:
I titled this flag Clear Water Revival. Over the last 15 years or so, Eau Claire has had an undercurrent of resurgence and renewal. I wanted to design a flag that captured this revival in true midwestern modesty with clean lines, negative space, and subtle letters. Despite the seemingly modest design, the message is clear and captivating with EC being the vantage point of the horizon, where the sky meets the river.
About this designer:
I was born and raised in Strum, WI, population 1000; 20 minutes south of Eau Claire. Eau Claire was an integral part of my childhood; we would head to Eau Claire to go back to school shopping, see the blockbusters at Carmike Theater, and go out to eat for our birthday dinners.
One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories was to visit Bruce the Spruce at Prangy Way in the mall.
Eau Claire was still the main source of “big city” amenities as I attended UW-Stout; piling my dorm-mates into a car and heading to a movie or Big Falls. After graduating from UW-Stout with a degree in Industrial Design, I headed to Eau Claire to start my professional career. I have worked at National Presto Industries for the last 11 years, recently being promoted from their lead Industrial Designer to Innovations Manager.
Ten years ago, my wife and I bought our first house on the East Hill in Eau Claire where both our children were born. We have since moved on to the North Side and continue to engage in our Eau Claire community. Eau Claire has been a wonderful place to raise our family, with parks and trails throughout the city, wonderful schools and teachers, and a vibrant music and arts scene that is leading the way for economic growth and development in the downtown area. It is a truly great time to be an Eau Claire resident, and I look forward to watching our kids grow along with this city. In fact this growth is what I used as inspiration to create my Eau Claire Flag which I titled “Clear Water Revival”.
What's next?
The People's Flag of Eau Claire is now open and available to the public. The design is available to use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which means you're free to share and adapt the design for commercial and non-commercial use, just as long as you credit the original designer, Mike Berge. Design vector available at our public GitHub repository.