Vexillology: The study of flags. Coined by Whitney Smith in 1957, as a combination of the Latin word Vexillum and the Greek suffix -ology. Vexillum (pl. vexilla): In ancient Rome, a square military banner hung from a crossbeam carried on a staff. It's the diminutive of velum ("sail"), itself derived from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave a web”) or *weǵʰ- (“to ride”), thus… Continue reading The Vexillum: The Original Vexilloid
Category: Posts
Mayor Hales sails with the Portland flag
From the regular Portland Flag Miscellany section of Vexilloid Tabloid #49: Portland’s mayor, Charlie Hales, reports to us: “We flew the Portland flag all summer on the s/v Elizabeth, in Puget Sound and Canada’s Gulf Islands. Lots of comments and questions. This image is from our return voyage, nearing the mouth of the Strait of Juan De… Continue reading Mayor Hales sails with the Portland flag
Areal Density by Susan Murrell
From Ted Kaye's report on his trip to the Bay Area in Vexilloid Tabloid #49: In Portland Airport’s Concourse A, Susan Murrell’s installation Areal Density utilized multiple flag-shaped objects (although apparently not representing actual flags). She teaches art at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. From the Port of Portland News Release: “Technology has fundamentally changed our… Continue reading Areal Density by Susan Murrell
Ted Kaye on the air
Your loquacious Vexilloid Tabloid editor has recently been interviewed on Slate (Mike Pesca’s podcast “The Gist”); 99% Invisible (the “tiny radio show about design” by Roman Mars); and National Public Radio's All Things Considered (“What does its chosen banner say about ISIS”). In the interviews he discussed the flags of the UK (after Scotland...), New Zealand, Ukraine… Continue reading Ted Kaye on the air
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The Vexilloid Tabloid is the bimonthly newsletter of the Portland Flag Association, edited by Ted Kaye. Each issue features the What’s That Flag? quiz, Flags in the News (news stories featuring flags), Flutterings (highlights from the last PFA meeting), and Portland Flag Miscellany (news about Portland's city flag), as well as feature articles on flag-related topics… Continue reading Join our mailing list
Flag Wrapping Paper
Ted Kaye reporting on PFA's last meeting in VexTab #49: David Koski is experimenting with repeating designs derived from flag images, using various transformative algorithms. Every one is based on a component of the full flag. Here are examples based on the United States flag. David has also developed versions based on the Union Jack… Continue reading Flag Wrapping Paper
San Francisco’s Hayes Valley Flag Wall
More from Bay Area Flag Report by Ted Kaye, in VexTab #49: In San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, Joe Theisen spruced up his building at 540 Laguna St. with 33 holes in the façade and first famously displayed the flags of all 2014 World Cup countries (plus Ireland). In September new flags went up. Now… Continue reading San Francisco’s Hayes Valley Flag Wall
What is the Most Patriotic Color?
...asked Time Magazine in its “Answers Issue”, Sept. 8–15, 2014. After downloading images of 196 national flag from Flagpedia.net, Time added up the number of pixels of each color, simplified them, and grouped them into categories of white, black, red, blue, green, and yellow using a simple algorithm. Time thus determined the frequency of colors… Continue reading What is the Most Patriotic Color?
License Plate Slogans Flag
From Bay Area Flag Report by Ted Kaye, in VexTab #49: In Sausalito, Hanson Gallery Fine Arts offers owner Scott Hanson’s American Flag with License Plate Slogans. Made from real license plates and 100-year-old barn wood, and measuring 52” x 84”, it sells for $17,500.
How did Portland get such a nice flag?
Our very own Ted Kaye sat down with popular design podcaster Roman Mars to talk flag design and tell the story of the Portland flag: how a good design was botched by bureaucrats, and many years later -- with some activist vexillology on the part of its designer Douglas Lynch and the PFA -- ultimately restored. For this work, Lynch received… Continue reading How did Portland get such a nice flag?
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