Who designed Guyana's national flag, the Golden Arrowhead?

Whitney Smith designed Guyana’s national flag, the Golden Arrowhead.

Smith was an American vexillologist, or scholar of flags, and created the design for Guyana as it moved toward independence from the United Kingdom. The flag was adopted on 26 May 1966, the day Guyana became independent.

The design uses a green field with a gold triangle pointing toward the fly, overlaid by a smaller red triangle. Black and white borders were added after Smith’s original proposal, following suggestions from the College of Arms in the United Kingdom. The arrow-like geometry gave the flag its familiar nickname.

Its colors carry national symbolism: green represents agriculture and forests, gold mineral wealth, red zeal and dynamism, black endurance, and white rivers and water. Francisco de Miranda is a common distractor because his ideas influenced several South American flags, but he did not design Guyana’s Golden Arrowhead.