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How Columbia’s flag came to be

Read through the timeline of our city flag.

Columbia, S.C. city flag

Columbia’s current city flag

The flag was designed by Nate Puza

Table of Contents

Last week, we announced Columbia’s inaugural t-shirt design contest and it reminded us that Columbia’s current flag was born out of a design contest. Let’s take a look back to see how our city’s flag came to be.

January 10, 2017

June 26, 2017

  • COLAtoday wrote a conversation that recapped the contest, highlighted the 19 finalists, and shared Soda Citizen’s thoughts on the designs.

July 5, 2017

September 12, 2019

  • COLAtoday recapped the history of our flag and explained why we still had the same design two years after the initial announcement in 2017.
  • Columbia Design League, the Columbia City Council, and former Mayor Steve Benjamin announced a new extended process to adopt a new city flag. Five selected designers were given six weeks to present a design based on the new guidelines.

February 4, 2020

  • After three years, Columbia adopted a new flag that was designed by Nate Puza. The flag represents the three rivers, that our city is a capital city, and showcases the wing imagery.

March 10, 2020

November 16, 2022

  • A six-and-a-half week North American City Flags Tournament started on Twitter — thanks to Brian Stokle — where people could vote on the best flag designs in North America.
  • Out of 80 flags, Columbia’s flag came in second. “Second is the best,” because our flag still had a total of 10,567 votes — taking the top spot for most votes throughout the whole tournament. Talk about some pride in place!

Click here for more information about our flag, its history, and its symbolism.

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