Our latest newsletter, The Vexilloid Tabloid #55, is here! It features: City Flag Redesign (Ted Kaye) Field Report: New England & Canada (Michael Orelove) Field Report: Australia (Ted Kaye) Great Flag Resources on the Web And, as always: notes from our last meeting, the Portland flag miscellany, the What’s that Flag? quiz, and more!
Author: SDM
Ethnography * Technology * Design
Cascadia by Moonlight
Flags, Peace, and World War I
To commemorate today's Veterans Day holiday, which arose out of World War I Armistice Day, here are a few flag-related items.
A Flag for All Mississippians
According to its designer the state flag of Mississippi includes the Confederate battle flag in order to "perpetuate in a legal and lasting way that dear battle flag under which so many of our people had so gloriously fought". Dating back to 1894, the design has certainly lasted -- 121 years so far. In the widespread backlash against… Continue reading A Flag for All Mississippians
City Flag Improvement Efforts
Thanks to Roman Mars and Ted Kaye, Good Flag, Bad Flag, and 2015 having become basically the Year of the Flag, there are efforts underway in lots of US cities to improve their municipal flag designs. Here are the cases we know about: Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX; Billings, MT; Birmingham, AL; Bloomington, IN; Boston, MA; Bowling Green, KY; Columbia, MO; Dallas, TX; El Paso, TX; Grand Rapids,… Continue reading City Flag Improvement Efforts
SF Flag Redesigns
Roman Mars is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it is no surprise that the redesign of the San Francisco flag has drawn his attention. In May of this year he announced that his radio show and podcast 99% Invisible was teaming up with design software multinational Autodesk to support a redesign activity, including the… Continue reading SF Flag Redesigns
South Bend Hosts Rule-Based Competition
Add South Bend, Indiana to your list of US cities working on new flag designs this year. If you would like to participate, you have until 5:00 PM Central Time on November 16th to upload a flag design to be considered. (You can also submit by mail or in person.) South Bend's contest is a bit… Continue reading South Bend Hosts Rule-Based Competition
Who Doesn’t Like the Union Jack?
Guardian art critic and famed contrarian Jonathan Jones, that's who. The decision this summer by the British team at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing not to include the Union Jack on team uniforms prompted Jones to write an essay slamming the UK flag. He titled it We don't need the union jack on Team… Continue reading Who Doesn’t Like the Union Jack?
The Ieweras Gray Women’s Warrior Flag
Ieweras Gray (1998-2014) was a Mohawk girl who was diagnosed with leukemia at age six, battling the cancer until succumbing to it at age 16. Her story, and that of her father James Sakoietah Gray who was torn between supporting his daughter and defending himself in a criminal case regarding an Indian casino, was movingly documented in… Continue reading The Ieweras Gray Women’s Warrior Flag
Gobitis
The US flag has a sad history of being used to compel patriotism. One low point occurred in 1940 when the Supreme Court, in the throes of World War II, ruled in Minersville School District v. Gobitis that religious dissenters could be forced to salute the flag in the name of national unity (or, for example, be expelled… Continue reading Gobitis
Portland Flag Association 