California

Did you know there was a neighborhood in Cincinnati called California?  Many people don't.  California can claim part of Coney Island and is situated along the river, but feels like a small country town.  See the map below if you are one of those who couldn't find it on a map.


One can't say California and not think of the State.  Here is the flag of the state of California.


Words are generally bad on a flag but California somehow gets away with it.  It is like this flag came packaged to put on t-shrits and stickers and works great with state branding.  It also cool that it references the very brief and not really well established time that California claimed independence from Mexico as its own republic.

This is such a great flag that I have to work off of it.  I thought, what animal can I put on a flag for California Cincinnati.  Something to do with river life since California is bordered by both the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers.  I thought of a fish and then a red winged blackbird.  In case you don't know, red winged blackbirds often live in marshy type wetlands near river banks.  Below is a photo of one.

So my first attempt simply took a pretty drawing of a red winged black bird I could find on the internet.

FLAG 1

I changed the bar to blue to represent the river.  The star represents the neighborhood, all alone it feels like sometimes.

But that drawing is too much of a painting.  So I wanted something a bit more styalized.  I cannot draw a bird, I have to steal one.  When you need to steal something from a flag, British flags often have what you are looking for.  So I took this raven from the town of Tywyn, England and made him into a red winged blackbird.

I also decided to switch the text from CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC to CALIFORNIA CINCINNATI to more closely parallel the original flag.  I took the blue and red colors from the Cincinnati flag.

FLAG 2

This might be my favorite flag yet.  If I lived in California, I might just have this flag made so I could hang it outside my home.  Again the blue bar stands for the river and the lone star is for the lonely neighborhood.

I made a quick attempt at trying a fish instead of the red winged blackbird.  I don't think it is as good, but I didn't put a lot of time into it.

FLAG 3