Maybe designing flags is not really that especially different from the elements of making Art that an Art student is introduced to as basic to almost everything to be learned as beginning “rules” in any Art curriculum. Courses titled: Composition; Elements of Art; Design I; Color I, etc.,–beginners’ work.
Vexillology; from the Latin word “vexillum;” which was the name for a “flag” of ancient Roman cavalry–actually these were more like “standards;” more like plaques, tablets or posters–or small flags similar to what the military call GUIDONS.
Even earlier than Roman use of such markers, among Egyptian carved reliefs there are seen, plaque-like shapes with insignia atop staffs being carried in processions.
Origination of the word, “vexillology” is credited to Dr. Whitney Smith, long-time flag-guru of NAVA who coined the term when still a teen-ager, at a time when his unending research in the history, heraldry, and designing of flags had so early begun. (see Sidebar)
My own interest in the study of flags came late–after teaching Art for thirty years in a Minnesota State University. It is known that “ART” as a vocation, is really a life-long dedication–the connection of it to one’s life never ends when the Academic studio door is shut upon leaving the premises. I’d have to classify my turn to flags at the first stage as a “vexillophile”–a hobbyist; that is, collecting colorful designs, interesting stories of a flag’s origin, its meaning to the people whom it represented as well as the pride in which the flag was held by patriots of a state. Still an amateur, but rising to the level of “vexillographer”, a designer; revived my prolonged immersion in the world of Art; most all of the rudimentary aspects of Art emerged. This is the serious hobby that has begun. The shapes, the colors, the symbolism of them, the response to a demanding need to make an old, tired design “better” in all the ways one is able.
Continue reading ‘The ‘Special Art’ of Flag Designing’
Posted in Home
You must be logged in to post a comment.