DENVER – Denver has dozens of neighborhoods, each with its own story rich in historical, cultural and architectural detail.
That’s the inspiration behind an art project from a Denver man who has set out to design a flag for each of the city’s 78 official neighborhoods.
“What makes Denver a great city is all its great neighborhoods,” said Steven Chester, the man behind Flags of Denver.
By visiting neighborhoods and researching them at the library and online, Chester attempts to learn what makes each area unique and then translates those elements into graphical form.
So far, he’s created flags for 11 neighborhoods. For Barnum, Chester’s flag shows a red elephant on a yellow background as an homage to P.T. Barnum, the circus magnate after whom the area is named. Cheesman Park’s flag depicts the neoclassical columns of Cheesman Park’s pavilion and Lowry is represented by a propeller as a nod to the Air Force Base that once called the area home.
Chester is focusing his work on the city’s officially-designated statistical neighborhoods, so you won’t find flags for RiNo, LoDo or Mayfair, among others. Those may be neighborhoods that people identify with, but Chester said he wanted to focus on the city’s official neighborhoods to make the project more manageable.
Professionally, Chester is a city planner for Denver with a personal interest in graphic design. He says Flags of Denver is entirely a passion project and doesn't have anything to do with his work for the city.
“My goal is just to get people talking to each other about what they care about in their neighborhood,” Chester said. “Flags are so meaningful and representative.”
Click or tap the image below to see the flag designs Chester has finished so far:
Chester said many people have asked what he plans to do with his flag designs. At the moment, the answer is “not a lot.” Chester said he started Flags of Denver as a fun project on his own time and for the time being, he’s just trying to enjoy it for what it is.
For more information on the flag project, log on to flagsofdenver.com.