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I recreated the flag of Gilbert, West Virginia in Wplace.

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Autistic pride flag survey!

There are LOTS of flags that people (myself included) have designed and proposed to be autistic pride flags.

I thought I'd run a survey on which designs folks prefer! My plan is to first do a long and comprehensive survey, and then based on its results possibly do a second survey (or Tumblr poll) with a shortlist from the first survey.

Here is a link to the survey on autistic pride flags! Please note:

Its purpose is to be comprehensive... so it is long!

You'll be asked to rate over 40 flags on a scale of 1 to 5

You do not have to rate every flag

If you get tired, you can just hit the submit button!

When you hit the submit button, you'll have an option to edit your response: right click this link and save the URL to a text file or somewhere else. You can use this URL to change your answers, or just fill in the survey bit by bit.

Here is a google doc with all the flag options in it, if you'd like to see them first, or to have as a reference when looking at others' responses.

You do not need to be autistic to fill in the survey, but I do hope any non-autistic folks filling it in are familiar enough with the community to know why I excluded flags that have puzzle pieces or a blue theme (i.e. references to Autism $peaks). 💛

Survey link again! <3

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The flags are indeed ginormous

I met @redbeardace of the "How to Make Ginormous Flags" fame today at Capitol Hill Pride in Cal Anderson Park in Seattle!!!

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Happy birthday to the Pride Flag!

The gay (later LGBTQ+) pride flag was devised by Gilbert Baker in 1978, and first flown at the San Fransisco Gay Freedom Day parade on June 25th of the same year.

The flag originally had eight stripes of pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. These were assigned the symbolism of sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, serenity, and spirit, respectively.

The flag was partially inspired by the earlier Brotherhood flag. Designed in 1938, the Brotherhood flag symbolized peace amongst the world's races, and was popular in the counterculture of the 1960s.

The 1938 Brotherhood flag, intended to represent the human race. It has five horizontal stripes of red, white, brown, yellow and black.

The pink stripe was removed not long after the pride flag's inception due to a scarcity of pink fabric. In 1979, the turquoise and indigo stripes were consolidated into a single blue stripe, such that the number of stripes would be even, allowing for three-stripe banners to be displayed on both sides of the parade route. This is how we got the six-stripe variant most people are familiar with today:

In 2018, Portland artist Daniel Quasar created a variant of the six-stripe flag, known as the "Progress flag," that includes concentric chevrons of black, brown, pale blue, pink, and white. These colours symbolise transgender people and people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community. The black stripe also represents those who have been lost to AIDS. The chevron shape indicates forward movement, representing progress.

In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK debuted an altered Progress flag which includes a yellow triangle containing a purple ring, a design taken from the intersex pride flag.

Left: The intersex-inclusive Progress pride flag. Right: The intersex pride flag, designed in 2013 by Australian activist Morgan Carpenter.

Both variants of the Progress flag, as well as the simple six-stripe version, continue to be widely used by the LGBTQ+ community.

All images: Wikimedia Commons.

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Flag Design Commissions!

Will design flags for countries, factions, characters, organizations, etc., real or imagined. Will also design pride flags, coats of arms, or redesigns of existing flags. Will not design certain political flags at my discretion.

$10 USD for one design, $5 for add-ons such as variants and coats of arms. If you want an especially complicated design, that might be an extra $5 as well at my discretion. If you have a preexisting design in mind, I can also make a digital rendering of your idea for $10.

For more information, DM me here or on Discord (@ the-omniscient-tardigrade). My Tumblr is having technical issues regarding DMs at the moment, so Discord is probably your best bet.

A selection of my past designs:

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Two spirit pride flag created by Patrick Hunter for 35th anniversary of the term "Two-spirit"

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antecessors or precursors of progress flag: an exploration

everyone knows that progress pride flag uses black and brown colors from Philadelphia's pride flag plus rainbow flag colors and iteration of trans flag colors. but were there other similar flags? let's explore and see.

where does the chevron come from? the first rainbow flags with chevrons were "Pink Triangle on the hoist of a Rainbow flag" (1996) and "Rainbow Flags with white triangle" (2006 or before; need to comment that white color in this flag represents, in Japan, "those who died from hate crimes and coexistence with friendships that still resist or face suffering"). Demigay flag (2010s) uses black chevron. Maybe these were all unrelated and H. Clinton logo may influenced the direction of the chevron as well.

Victory Over AIDS flag (1980s) is a rainbow flag with black stripe, using black color to represent "living with HIV/AIDS, and those lost to it". This meaning is also used in Progress flag, along signifying BPoC people/Blackness. there are also flags that use black stripe in the middle to represent Black people, likely based on Raquel Willis' design (2015).

white stripe is also seen in Love Fest (São Paulo) 9-striped diversity flag (2018). BLM fist and raised fist are also seen in QPOC flags since 2016 (also QTPOC), along with different shades of brown and black skin colors.

trans flag colors were also seen in rainbow flags or flag combos since at least the middle of 2010s.

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Tokyo, Japan: Carp-shaped streamers known as "koinobori" are flying the skies.

To commemorate World Refugee Day, carp-shaped streamers known as "koinobori" are flying the skies in various locations across Japan. The streamers were designed by Shibuya Zarny, a fashion designer and former refugee from Myanmar, in collaboration with UNHCR and Tokunaga Koinobori, a company that has been making carp streamers since 1947. The World Refugee Day “koinobori” flying at United Nations University in Tokyo.

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Flag design tip #3:

The Rule of Tincture & Fimbriation

In vexillography as in any branch of graphic design, it is generally inadvisable to put clashing colours next to each other. The rule of tincture is a standard that originated in heraldry and continues to impact flag design today. The rule states that no colour should touch any colour other than white or gold, which are called metals and are considered separately from the rest of the rainbow.* To prevent two colours from touching, it is common to place a thin band of white or gold between them. This practice is called fimbriation.

For example, look at this flag. It is a triband of magenta, green, and blue. The three colours clash with each other and the points at which they intersect are confusing and unpleasant.

However, if we put thin stripes of white or gold between them, the problem is eliminated and the flag is much more pleasant to look at.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but one of the best guidelines to make a flag look clean and elegant is to avoid mixing colours.

*Black is also considered a metal in some heraldic traditions. Black is rarely used to fimbriate, but can generally come in contact with lighter colours with no issue.

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hey guys washington state is thinking abt redesigning their flag

if you want to see this improved, tell your legislator to support HB 1938

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Vivacious Vexillology: 1. The Qing Dynasty

Here is the inaugural blogpost for a series on various flags throughout history! My interest in vexillology is damn near obsessive but I hope y'all will find this brief dive into the history and symbols of interesting flags! To start off, an iconic and frankly gorgeous flag, that of the Qing Dynasty:

History

The Eight Banners Prior to the conception of any official flags, the Eight Banners were a form of administrative and military divisions employed during the early days of the Qing dynasty, represented by eight banners of different colours and borders.

The banners began as a way of organising and unifying the disparate Jurchen tribes (a people from northeastern China who would eventually be known as the Manchus), but would grow into a formidable fighting force, gradually allowing the Qing to gain more and more control over China which culminate in the complete overthrow of the Ming dynasty in 1863. Machu clans were associated with the Banners based on their power and influence within the early Qing state (also referred to as the Later Jin)

The banners were Blue, Red, White, and Yellow, and were also distinguished by their border. They were further subdivided into Upper and Lower banners (3 upper, 5 lower), with the Upper banners being composed of the more influential and powerful clans within Manchu society. The Upper banners were nominally under direct command of the emperor and the Lower Banners were commanded by nobles from the clans.

The Three Upper Banners: Plain Yellow, Bordered Yellow, and Plain White

The Five Lower Banners: Bordered Red, Plain Red, Bordered White, Plain Blue, and Bordered Blue.

The Triangle 

The first official flag of the Qing empire was a triangular version of the flag featuring the same design which was adopted after 1862 following protests from British officials that were unable to recognise Chinese vessels as the empire had not previously had an official flag. This prompted Prince Yixin to call for the creation of a national flag. The standard design of rectangular flags was rejected for fear of being too similar to that of the Plain Yellow Banner, thus leading to the adoption of the Triangular Design.

The Rectangle 

The encroachment of the European powers and Japan in the 19th century led to attempts to implement policies of Westernisation within China to varying degrees of success. This period also coincided with the decline of the eight banners, particularly with their failures to suppress the Taiping rebellion between 1850 and 1864, thus lessening their influence and significance within the Qing government and society. Thus in 1881, statesman Li Hongzhang sought to make the Qing flag more similar to flags of other countries, adopting the rectangular design. 

Symbolism

The Qing flag was often referred to as the Yellow Dragon Flag. Yellow holds to this day a position of great importance within Chinese colour symbolism. The 五行 (Wuxing) theory of Taoist ties Yellow to the earth element, placing it at the centrepoint of the other 4 elements and generating both Yin and Yang, attributing properties of balance, neutrality, and good luck. Yellow was the colour representing the emperor and both the plain and bordered yellow banners held the highest ranks amongst the eight banners. 

The red circle  in the top corner on the left side of the flag towards which the dragon is facing is a flaming red pearl, facing is a common symbol in Chinese art involving dragons, and is representative of wisdom, prosperity, and power. Joy itself represented joy and good fortune, tying into the properties associated with the flaming pearl. 

Finally the blue dragon is once again a common symbol in Chinese art and has been associated with the Emperor and Imperial power from as early as the Han dynasty. The dragon was a symbol of harmony and good luck, often regarded as a deity of rain. Blue itself was associated with many of the same  properties, tying them to the dragon in the flag design.

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With Pride month coming up soon I thought I'd share this tutorial I made for drawing flags!

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is this a flag. discuss.

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Malicious compliance, Pride flags division

In March, the state of Utah passed a law restricting which flags could be flown by city councils. This stopped the council of Salt Lake City from flying the pride, trans, and Juneteenth flags.

One of the kinds of flag allowed by the new law is an official city flag. Therefore, Salt Lake City has just introduced three new flags, which are the three flags just mentioned with a sago lily in the corner.

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happy saint patrick. have an ireland and ivory coast

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Alternate history and mapmaking is possibly my biggest hobby and i've never brought it up here, so here is the piece i'm the most proud of, i drew the borders first and then made all the flags by myself using the pixel art tool in Paint tool sai 2. I'm super proud of this ngl