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?
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
The contest being run by the Bangor Daily News to propose a new flag for Portland, Maine is asking for your feedback on 10 semifinalist designs no later than this Sunday, 15 May. Here are the 10 semifinalists - with the designers' statements and brief notes by Ted Kaye in the captions. The three most highly… Continue reading Rate the Semifinalists for Portland
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
As we blogged about last year, many efforts are underway to improve (or to create in the first place) municipal flags. The list just keeps growing, so we have moved it into its own page, Municipal Flag Improvement. We currently have 42 cities or towns on this list of efforts, 41 in the US, one in… Continue reading City Flag Improvements Update
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
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
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
BDN Maine published an update today on the flag design contest currently underway for a new flag for Portland, Maine. It includes 84 (!) proposed designs from "around 40 designers". Judges will now select finalists from this list to be voted on by the public. Here they are in a handy table. (See the article… Continue reading 84 Designs Proposed for Portland, Maine
A quick update from Ted: As you know, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is engaged in city flag redesign. http://www.milwaukeeflag.com/ I will be heading there in two weeks to help guide the 5-person jury selecting the finalists. The organizer, graphic designer Steve Kodis, has created very active social channels: http://www.facebook.com/Greatertogether http://www.twitter.com/TogetherMKE http://www.facebook.com/milwaukeeflag http://www.twitter.com/MilwaukeeFlag I’m sure I will have… Continue reading Ted Kaye Headed to Milwaukee
Portland Flag Association 