by Max Liberman, Vexilloid Tabloid #58 In 2001, Australian vexillographer Brendan Jones produced a series of intriguing proposals for new Australian state flags. The designs follow the pattern established by the flags of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory: the southern cross from the national flag in a panel at the hoist, and an emblem… Continue reading New Flags for Australia’s States?
Albany, Oregon wants to join the ranks of cities with flags. Spurred by the vexillonaires of GUAVA (the Greater Unified Albany Vexillological Association), led by West Albany High School math teacher Cole Pouliot, the city is running a design contest through 5 pm Pacific Time on 5 July 2016. The design contest winner will receive a… Continue reading A Flag for the Hub City of Oregon
The latest issue of the PFA newsletter is here: The Vexilloid Tabloid #58 (June 2016). Featuring: Introduction: NZ, VT, and Albany (Ted Kaye) A U.S. Canton Honoring Alaska (Michael Orelove) A Flag for the Other Portland (Ted Kaye) Czech Municipal Flags (interview with Petr Exner by Scott Mainwaring) Redesigning the U.S. Flag (Scott Mainwaring) New Flags for Australia's… Continue reading Vexilloid Tabloid #58
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
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
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
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
Portland Flag Association 