The Clatsop-Nehalem are an unrecognized confederation of Native Americans in Oregon with a truly striking flag. According to its designer, Mark Scovell (son of tribal chief Joe Scovell): The circular design of the yellow touches all of the other colors because it represents the Creator whose presence relates to all of life. The red represents blood… Continue reading The Clatsop-Nehalem Flag
Author: SDM
Ethnography * Technology * Design
An Early Attempt at a Portland Flag
Anyone interested in American city flags should have a copy of the book of that title: American City Flags: 150 Flags from Akron to Yonkers, by John M. Purcell with James A. Croft and Rich Monahan, published in 2003 as a special issue of Raven: A Journal of Vexillology by the North American Vexillological Association (ISBN 0-9747728-0-1;… Continue reading An Early Attempt at a Portland Flag
Hidden Beauty in Flag Icons
The internet is awash in flag icons -- tiny representations of flags, in dimensions of a few pixels per side. Here are some 11-by-16 examples in the public domain, from http://www.famfamfam.com: Here's what happens when you blow them up. (Technically, these were enlarged to 413-by-600 size with the resize/resample function of IrfanView, using the… Continue reading Hidden Beauty in Flag Icons
What’s that Flag? (from VexTab #35)
Josh Thorpe – Heavy Ambivalent Flag
In 2010 Canadian artist Josh Thorpe created a flag that contradicted itself -- white on one side, black on the other -- and flew it from a pole at the entrance to the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery on the University of Toronto campus, which had commissioned the work. About this work, the artist writes: With its… Continue reading Josh Thorpe – Heavy Ambivalent Flag
Complexities
The first principle of effective flag design is: Keep It Simple. Effective flags are meme-like, able to propagate themselves through human perception, memory, and action, and in this simple flags have an advantage. On the other hand, there are certainly many highly complex flags. As the simplicity principle suggests, these tend to be obscure, expensive,… Continue reading Complexities
Anti-Bullying Flag
Pink Shirt Day (February 25) is an annual event in Canadian schools to draw attention to bullying and its prevention. Last year a seventh-grader in New Brunswick, Grace Fenton, won a contest to design a flag for the event. The Flag Shop, a chain of flag stores in Canada, has exclusive rights to manufacture and sell this… Continue reading Anti-Bullying Flag
New Brunswick’s flag turns 50
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the flag of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Is it a coincidence that both this flag and the Maple Leaf flag of Canada both celebrated 50 year anniversaries this February? As explained by Alistair B. Fraser in his book Flags of Canada, it most certainly is not! In the… Continue reading New Brunswick’s flag turns 50
Happy Mexican Flag Day!
February 24th is El Día de la Bandera de México, commemorating the day in 1821 on which the Plan of the Three Guarantees -- religion, independence, and unity -- was proclaimed by Generals Agustin de Iturbide and Vincente Guerrero, and the first three-color flag for an independent Mexico was created by José Magdaleno Ocampo. Flag Day has gotten a lot… Continue reading Happy Mexican Flag Day!
Szabolcs KissPál’s negative flags
Szabolcs KissPál is a Romanian artist based in Budapest whose work has focused on dualities: KissPál ´s works are about doublings and dualities, positives and negatives, the two appearances of one object. Among them is the complex and multi-layered work ´Rever´, part of a series installations, which KissPál exhibited in Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Moldavia, Rumania,… Continue reading Szabolcs KissPál’s negative flags
Portland Flag Association 