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What Does the ___ Flag Mean?

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RealLifeLore is a new YouTube channel presenting a mixture of geopolitics, history, and vexillology.  This includes an entertaining and informative series with titles of the form "What Does the ___ Flag Mean?" So far, there are installments for the UK, France, and Spain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBhVJf8n_NM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFt7TOWq0w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsxBalxAqzg We hope more installments will be forthcoming. In the mean… Continue reading What Does the ___ Flag Mean?

Pride, Unity, and Flag Design

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In Vexilloid Tabloid #57 we reported on a research project by Australian high school senior Max Pickering.  Since then, he has interviewed a number of vexillologists; conducted surveys of residents of his home town of Adelaide, South Australia; and revised his research question to the following: To what extent does the design of a flag… Continue reading Pride, Unity, and Flag Design

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

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The province of New Brunswick has a fine heraldic flag, depicting a ship (a three-flagged, single-masted, oared galley called a  lymphad, as traditional in Scottish heraldry) beneath a  fantastically elongated golden lion passant (a symbol of the Canadian monarchy, and of German Brunswick) . What's wrong with this picture? You might point out that lymphads have never been used in… Continue reading What’s Wrong With This Picture?

More US Flag Improvements

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We announced a provocative design exercise in Vexilloid Tabloid #57, namely: Ignoring the political near-impossibility of change...simply from a DESIGN perspective, how could the US flag be improved? We reported earlier on two proposals emailed to us, but there have been some other ideas presented since then, on our Facebook page, in the Flags and Vexillology discussion group, and at our meeting… Continue reading More US Flag Improvements

Register Now for NAVA 50

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The annual meetings of NAVA, the North American Vexillological Association, are fantastic events for anyone interested in flags, attracting all flavors of vexillologists -- historians, activists, collectors, vendors, designers, and general enthusiasts -- from the US, Canada, and beyond.  2016 is a milestone year for NAVA, as it celebrates a half-century of these meetings. NAVA 50 takes place… Continue reading Register Now for NAVA 50

Improving the Design of the US Flag

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In the most recent Vexilloid Tabloid, we announced a design challenge: Ignoring the political near-impossibility of change...simply from a DESIGN perspective, how could the US flag be improved? Readers were (and still are!) encouraged to send proposals to editor@portlandflag.org, to be discussed at our next meeting. Here are two proposals readers have sent in so… Continue reading Improving the Design of the US Flag

Czech Municipal Flags

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An interview with Ing. Petr Exner of the Czech Flag Data Center Petr Exner runs FLADAC, the Flag Data Center (SVI, the Středisko vexilologických informací) in the Czech Republic.  The Center maintains the website vexi.info, which includes a giant online database of thousands upon thousands of Czech municipal flags. In 2005 the International Federation of Vexillological Associations… Continue reading Czech Municipal Flags

Ted Kaye on Flag Stories

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Jeppe and Birger Morgenstjerne of the Danish design agency Ferdio recently released an extensive set of beautiful vexillological infographics entitled Flag Stories. These have attracted, deservedly, considerable attention around the web, including that of Linda Poon of The Atlantic's Citylab.  In her article What's in a Flag's Design? she asked our very own Ted Kaye… Continue reading Ted Kaye on Flag Stories