Brother-sister team produces flag to reflect Mishawaka's heritage

Greg Swiercz, South Bend Tribune
·4 min read
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In this undated photo, Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood joins Kelsey and Joshua Lange in holding up a version of a city of Mishawaka flag prototype the Lange sister-brother duo has designed. The two showed it to the Common Council in a presentation last month. The city is still gathering input on the proposal.
In this undated photo, Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood joins Kelsey and Joshua Lange in holding up a version of a city of Mishawaka flag prototype the Lange sister-brother duo has designed. The two showed it to the Common Council in a presentation last month. The city is still gathering input on the proposal.

MISHAWAKA — Josh Lange has a dream: to bring the citizens of Mishawaka a new city flag.

In fact, Lange would love to take the time to explain his love of vexillology — the study of flags — and his four-year quest with his sister, Kelsey Lange, to offer a new design for the city's flag.

Lange is working his way through Indiana University South Bend. His sister is operations manager IT with the city of South Bend and has talent in graphic design.

The quest to do something for his community stems from his interest in history through flags and the symbolism that countries have incorporated in them.

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In high school, Josh served on the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, a group of students who study, meet and learn about city government under the auspices of Mayor Dave Wood.

"My dad told me that the local government is the foundation for all other governments," Josh said, adding that he feels that city government is overlooked. "(With the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council), the whole point is to get youth involved."

This is the current city of Mishawaka flag.
This is the current city of Mishawaka flag.

Love of flags

Josh's interest in flags led him to join the North American Vexillology Association, where he could access flag research and issues. That interest resulted in him and his sister producing a newer version of the city of Mishawaka's flag in 2019. The city's current flag is a white flag with the city seal in the middle.

Josh said that although the city flag presents the seal, he believes that many cities, countries and others use flags to place elements on the flag that reflect the community they represent.

"A flag is supposed to convey more than just the seal," Josh said. "The U.S. government has a seal, but our flag has to be distinct of that."

So the proposed flag he produced was shown to people in the city. Responses forced Josh and Kelsey to return for revisions.

Many revisions. Josh says he has produced at least 40 different versions of the flag, spending more than 100 hours over the years tweaking and changing the versions from community responses to them.

This is a version of a city of Mishawaka flag prototype that Joshua and Kelsey Lange presented to the Common Council in a presentation last month. The city is still gathering input on the proposal.
This is a version of a city of Mishawaka flag prototype that Joshua and Kelsey Lange presented to the Common Council in a presentation last month. The city is still gathering input on the proposal.

Meandering 'M'

The guidelines from the North American Vexillological Association call for flags to be simple, recognizable, meaningful and unique.

Josh said his most recent version of a city flag is a blue flag with four stars representing the four towns that joined together to become Mishawaka: St. Joseph Iron Works, Indiana City, Barbee Town and Fowler's Addition. The white "M" represents the St. Joseph River, and it meanders rather than being a straight block letter.

"We tried a letter M and it just did not work, and besides, a river is not symmetrical," Josh said.

Peter DeKever, local author, historian, and president and curator of the Mishawaka Historical Museum, said while the four communities that were incorporated into the city, only one — St. Joseph Iron Works — had a functioning governmental structure. The others were not known to have been organized, and he added that it was possible the areas may not have had homes yet in the platted areas.

Showing the flag to as many people has been a good task for Lange, but others say his passion for flags has been admirable.

Matt Lentsch, executive director of development and government affairs, said the city is going to take its time to gather more feedback and evaluate the flag as proposed.

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“Mayor Wood is extraordinarily pleased with the good work that Joshua has done with the new proposed Mishawaka Flag," Lentsch said in a statement. "Joshua is a great example of how our youth council alumni continue to serve the Mishawaka community.

"I’m blown away by the good work that Joshua and his sister have done on that proposed new flag for the City Of Mishawaka," Lentsch said. "The time that Josh has put into the development of his flag is a wonderful testament to his character and love for his community."

The mayor will continue to evaluate the flag as proposed and make a determination moving forward related to a potential change from the current flag.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: brother sister create a Mishawaka flag to reflect heritage