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
Blog
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
What’s that Roundel?
Einarsson’s Black, White, and Burned Flags
With his art Gardar Eide Einarsson examines fundamental structures of social conflicts in modern societies based on the interplay between authority and rebellion. He focuses on expressions of power, on control and suppression, on methods and manifestations of sub- and countercultures, as well as on individual people who gained international renown as dictators, terrorists or… Continue reading Einarsson’s Black, White, and Burned Flags
Musical White Flags
The white flag of surrender is a recurring motif in popular music. Here is a brief survey, courtesy of YouTube: Our first and most popular musical white flag was a 2003 pop hit by Dido with a video featuring Whedonverse actor David Boreanaz. "White flag" appears in the chorus: I will go down with this ship / And… Continue reading Musical White Flags
The Wild Standard
The Wild Standard is a small Austin-based business designing, producing, and marketing handmade, limited-edition, minimalist art-flags. Their one-sided, black-and-white designs and emphasis on hand-lettering would not work well in the normal context for a flag: flying in the wind atop a flag pole. However, as home decor hung vertically or horizontally on an interior wall… Continue reading The Wild Standard
Flags Buried Alive
The artist AA Bronson returned to his New York home after the 9/11 terrorist attacks: What I found there is inscribed indelibly on my brain: a thick chalky dust of glass, concrete, paper, asbestos and human flesh that covered everything; and American flags, everywhere. Within a month I had purchased my first flag on eBay. I… Continue reading Flags Buried Alive
Portland Flag Association 