Menifee has only been incorporated since 2008 and has no flag.
Jonathan Nicks is the Community Services Director with the city and says Menifee wanted to do something fun and get the community involved. He said, " Menifee is a very much growing community; we're the third fasted growing community in California. And so with that, there's a lot of new people moving into town, so it's kind of also to draw people in."
Menifee is accepting designs from all city residents and will first judge flags based on the age groups of elementary, middle school, high school, current college students, and Adults.
Ted Kaye is the Secretary of the North American Vexillological Association. Vexillology is the study of flags. "A flag is the ultimate symbol of a person, place, or thing. It's in effect an icon or a logo that is the one symbol that is used to represent that place."
Kaye authored the book Good Flag, Bad Flag, which lays out five simple flag design principles. Those principles are Simplify, meaningful symbolism, two to three colors, no lettering or seals, and distinctiveness.
Menifee themselves included those guidelines in their submission rules.
Kaye added, "You need to be able to remember it and recognize it, and once you do that if you have a great design in Menifee, that Flag will recognizable and memorable."
Submissions for the contest will be accepted through Nov. 19, with the design expected to be determined sometime in the Spring of 2022.
You can find the city's entry form on their website at www.cityofmenifee.us/753/City-Flag-Design-Contest.