Anatomy of Design

4

Flags imbue the modern graphic design ethos even though their origins date to

antiquity. Less is usually more. Simplicity and economy are paramount to

functionality, and symbolism is their primary function. The Stars and Stripes,

after all, is the most evocative example of pictorial modernism coming from the

tradition-bound United States, and it was designed in the late eighteenth century.

With the most effective flags, color and shape are dominant components—and

they tell stories without the need for other narrative devices. When symbolic

images are employed, they must be efficiently minimalist and immediately

identifiable. Every graphic component of a flag must be charged with significance.

After its white apartheid government collapsed and South Africa was returned to

black leadership, the new national flag was carefully designed to symbolize the

intersection (and integration) of many African tribes; each color has a unique

designation, but the abstract result is nonetheless perfectly comprehensible.

A flag (the term is a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century Teutonic word meaning

“a piece of cloth displaying a sign or insignia”) is a rousing object that triggers all

kinds of emotion. Originally, flags were used during warfare as an identifier or

credential. Originally known as a

vexillum (or Roman battle flag), the flag became

one of the most universally recognized design objects. When unfurled, these

otherwise austere pieces of fabric communicate ideas about patriotism and

nationalism more directly than other designed objects; they are also loaded with

so much history that they are ready-made tools for propaganda.

Icaro Doria, a Brazilian artist and designer for the Lisbon-based magazine

Grande Reportagem, uses common national flags to graph social issues. “We

started to research relevant, global, and current facts and, thus, came up with

the idea to put new meanings to the colors of the flags,” he explains on the

website Brazilianartists.net. Based on accurate data from the websites of

Amnesty International and the United Nations Office, the flags are a vivid device

for showing how key social issues affect particular nations and their populations.

The campaign (coproduced with Luis Silva Dias, João Roque, and Andrea Vallenti),

which has been running in Portugal since January 2005, includes eight flags that

illuminate current topics like the division of opinions about the war in Iraq in the

United States, violence against women in Africa, social inequality in Brazil, drug

trafficking in Colombia, AIDS and malaria in Angola, and more. The images are

distributed around the globe via email chain letters.

The idea is deceivingly simple: Each flag represents a theme (e.g., Brazil is

an examination of base family incomes, while Angola is people infected by disease

and denied access to medical care), and the colors on each flag represent specific

demographics (e.g., Brazil green: “live on less than $10 a month,” white: “live on

$100,000 a month”; Angola red: “people with HIV,” yellow: “people with access to

medical care”). One of the most startling ratios is China’s chart for working

teenagers (red: “working fourteen-year-olds,” yellow: “studying fourteen-year-olds”).

While this is a novel means of conveying critical information, the

conceptual transformation of flags recurs in graphic design. In the 1960s, Earth

Day proponents substituted the stars in the American flag with the ecology

symbol; similarly, antiwar activists replaced the stars with a peace sign. More

recently,

Adbusters included corporate logos in the star field. But the U.S. flag is

not the only one to come under such scrutiny.

During the 1980s and 1990s, information graphics received a goose in

newspapers and magazines when graphic designers used both conventional and

unconventional means of exhibiting and explaining raw data, often in humorous

ways. These flags fit neatly into this tradition as well.

Meet the World

Designer: Icaro Doria

2004 Meet the World, ad campaign

cd: Luis Silva Dias, Duarte Pinheiro de Melo ad: João Roque d,cw: Icaro Doria

s: FCB Portugal c: Grande Reponbagem

Icaro Doria, a Brazilian artist and designer for the Lisbon-based magazine Grande

Reportagem, uses common national flags to graph social issues.

Historical development of flags

Having “fun” with flags

Unusual charts

ANATOMY OF DESIGN