Dan Chodrow
Creative Director, Freelance
Design Mentor: The Cone Flower of Cook County
Dan Chodrow
Category: The Cone Flower of Cook County Flag
The Cone Flower of Cook County Flag
About the Cone Flower of Cook County Flag
My color choices for the flag are navy blue and white. The navy blue represents the steady
persistence required to make Cook County a better place to live, while the white represents
optimism and faith in a prosperous future for all Cook County citizens.
The symbol on the flag’s right is a representation of the flower of the Echinacea, the official
flower of Cook County. I chose the flower, not only because it is the county’s flower, but due to
its structure. The petals of the flower represent the 30 Cook County townships that surround
the City of Chicago, while the central ovary represents the city itself. The petals and ovary of
the flower are the same size, since both Chicago and Cook County’s townships are equal in
importance in the county. The navy blue field that surrounds the flower represents Lake
Michigan, denoting the Lake’s role as a major economic factor in the County’s growth.
On the left, the six navy blue stripes represent Chicago and the five regions of Cook County:
North, Northwest, South, Southwest and West. The five white stripes represent the five essential
services offered by Cook County, comprising Healthcare, Transportation, a strong Justice
System, Environmental Preservation and Commerce.
Taken in combination, the stripes form a ladder. This communicates that, with the help of the
services of Cook County, all our citizens may climb to shared success and prosperity.
Christian Garcia
Christian Garcia (he/him/his) Student Designer
Dan Chodrow
Creative Director Freelance
Christian Garcia
Christian Garcia
Bloom Trail High School
he/him/his
Student Design: The Cone Flower of Cook County
1. How does the flag you designed represent who you are and what you care about?
The flag I have created represents one of my visions for an ideal world. I wanted my flag to reflect Cook County’s resources and its progress towards a brighter future.
2. Why did you decide to join the Flag 2021 competition?
I wanted to join the 2021 flag competition because I thought it would be a great opportunity to allow me to connect with my home. Cook County has many areas I was never able to experience firsthand, and I wanted to learn more about Cook County, I also love to design and edit graphics on my computer in my free time.
3. What did you learn about Cook County that surprised you?
I was surprised by the fact that Cook County’s official flower was the Echinacea, which gave me an interesting challenge as I originally designed my flag around another well known flower native to Cook County, the Allium Triocum, causing changes in the shape of the petals of the flower of the flag.
4. Tell us a short story about your collaboration with your flag mentor/partner(s).
My flag mentor, Daniel Chodrow, was very helpful in providing constructive advice for me to improve the design of my flag, he also helped me ensure that my flag reflected the county as accurately as possible while at the same time maintaining a unique and interesting flag design. As I was designing my flag I knew that I wanted to represent Cook County using a flower, which I see as a metaphor for unity. For this purpose I designed the flower of the flag around the Allium Triocum, a relatively well known flower in Cook County. When I was almost ready to submit my flag design, Mr. Chodrow suggested that I design the flower around Cook County’s official flower, the Echinedea, best known as the Coneflower. In hindsight, the Coneflower proved to be a much better flower for expressing unity within Cook County, as the thirty townships and the city of Chicago were much more equally represented thanks to the size of the petals in comparison to the uterus of the flower, and I have Mr. Chodrow to thank for that.