#2 Red White & Blue

Click to download hi-rez poster


#2 Red White & Blue
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

If you wish to comment (and I hope you do) please comment here.

Flag Day’s 100th Anniversary

American-Flag-Waving large free

June 14, 2016 cel­e­brates the 100th Anniver­sary of Flag Day (Unit­ed States), which was estab­lished by Pres­i­dent Woodrow Wil­son in 1916. Flag Day com­mem­o­rates the adop­tion of the flag of the Unit­ed States, which occurred June 14th, 1777 by res­o­lu­tion of the Sec­ond Con­ti­nen­tal Congress.

Red White & Blue is the sec­ond Amper­Art piece I cre­at­ed, way back in 2011. I don’t know if it was influ­enced by Flag Day or the 4th of July. I don’t even recall the con­cept behind the art­work (was the amper­sand sup­posed to resem­ble a char­ac­ter from an old parch­ment doc­u­ment?). Regard­less, I recent­ly dis­cov­ered it was nev­er offi­cial­ly released. So here is Amper­Art #2, Red White & Blue — final­ly unveiled on the 100th anniver­sary of Flag Day.

Clever concept, clashing colors

I have sev­er­al opin­ions about the design of the Amer­i­can flag — from a con­cep­tu­al stand­point, to a col­or stand­point, to a brand­ing stand­point. In order to get this “lost art” pub­lished today, Flag Day, I’ll save those com­ments for lat­er, & will add them to this arti­cle right here (& let you know when that hap­pens, if you sub­scribe to Amper​Art​.com).

But one thing I must state now, because it is fas­ci­nat­ing to me as a design­er, is the dynam­ic nature of the flag’s design, evolv­ing as the nation grows; & how clev­er­ly the stars have been (near­ly impos­si­bly) arranged to accom­mo­date the ever-​increasing num­ber of states. I applaud the clev­er­ness of each iter­a­tion. (I won­der if Bet­sy planned on that.)

38_stars2Here is a com­plete chart of the flag’s iter­a­tions. Quite inter­est­ing are the 1837 “Great Star Flag,” the star con­fig­u­ra­tions for the years 1847, 1877, & the 1890 43-​star flag which must have caused the design­er to pull out some hair. The next year, 44 stars, was most cer­tain­ly a wel­come sim­ple challenge.

Plan­ning for the future, you can also see the 51-​star flag if a new state is added (hmm…who would that be? Could there be a par­cel of land some­where in the shape of an ampersand?)


PLEDGE of ALLEGIANCE

I pledge alle­giance to the flag of the 
Unit­ed States of America 
and to the Repub­lic for which it stands, 
one Nation under God, indivisible, 
with lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all.

The Pledge of Alle­giance, writ­ten by Fran­cis Bel­lamy, a bap­tist min­is­ter,  was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in The Youth’s Com­pan­ion on Sep­tem­ber 8, 1892. In its orig­i­nal form it read:

I pledge alle­giance to my Flag 
and the Repub­lic for which it stands, 
one nation, indivisible, 
with lib­er­ty and jus­tice for all.

Note there is no ref­er­ence to Amer­i­ca nor to God. Bel­lamy antic­i­pat­ed that the pledge would be used by any coun­try, not just the Unit­ed States.

In 1923 – 24 “my flag” was changed to “the flag of the Unit­ed States” & in 1924 “of Amer­i­ca” was added (so immi­grant chil­dren would know which flag they were saluting).

In 1942, the pledge’s 50th anniver­sary, Con­gress adopt­ed it as part of a nation­al flag code. Some state leg­is­la­tures required school stu­dents to recite the pledge. In 1943 that require­ment was dropped, as some reli­gious groups were not allowed to idol­ize a such a symbol.

On June 14, 1954, Pres­i­dent Dwight D. Eisen­how­er signed the bill approv­ing the words “under God.”

Bel­lamy went on to become an adver­tis­ing executive.

Read more about the Pledge of Alle­giance, includ­ing the debate over the words “under God,” at Smith​son​ian​.com, which pro­vid­ed the above his­tor­i­cal information.


If you wish to comment (and I hope you do) please comment here.

Flag Day is everyday (somewhere)

June 14 is Flag Day in Amer­i­ca. I’m sure all or most oth­er coun­tries have des­ig­nat­ed days to cel­e­brate their flags. Flags in gen­er­al are mean­ing­ful, col­or­ful, sym­bol­ic & fun. So here is a com­pi­la­tion of the world’s flags to enjoy as a piece of art in itself, also to give hope that we can all live in har­mo­ny someday:

Flags

If you wish to comment (and I hope you do) please comment here.


chaz sez ...

Check out the new “chaz sez” blog at Des​i​moneDesign​.com, my com­mer­cial graph­ic design web­site. It’s most­ly about design, typog­ra­phy, print­ing, pub­lish­ing & mar­ket­ing, but on occa­sion I’ll divert to a side­ways top­ic that just can’t escape my rant­i­ng & raving.


Production notes for #2 Red White & Blue:
Original size: 10x15 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Font: unknown
Ampersand: Custom design by Chaz DeSimone
Credits: 
Flag against sky: stock
38-​star flag: UShis​to​ry​.org
Flags of the world: GraphicStock
You may repost the image. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

#46 Stars & Stripes

#46 Stars & Stripes
#46 Stars & Stripes
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on that day in 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

Flag Day is not an offi­cial fed­er­al hol­i­day; how­ev­er, it is at the Pres­i­den­t’s dis­cre­tion to offi­cial­ly pro­claim the observance.

On June 14, 1937, Penn­syl­va­nia became the first (and only) U.S. state to cel­e­brate Flag Day as a state hol­i­day, begin­ning in the town of Ren­nerdale. New York Statutes des­ig­nate the sec­ond Sun­day in June as Flag Day, a state holiday.

Per­haps the old­est con­tin­u­ing Flag Day parade is at Fair­field, Wash­ing­ton. Begin­ning in 1909 or 1910, Fair­field has held a parade every year since, with the pos­si­ble excep­tion of 1918, and cel­e­brat­ed the “Cen­ten­ni­al” parade in 2010, along with some oth­er com­mem­o­ra­tive events.

The Unit­ed States Army also cel­e­brates the Army Birth­day on this date.

–Wikipedia
Read the entire arti­cle here.

1917 Poster com­mem­o­rat­ing 200th anniver­sary of Unit­ed States Flag Day.
Cour­tesy Library of Commerce

Patriotic nerd

Grow­ing up, I had a favorite record album, march­ing band music, which I could­n’t get enough of. Yes, I was a strange kid. While my con­tem­po­raries were lis­ten­ing to rock & roll, my ears marched to the beat of King Cot­ton March, El Cap­i­tan, Colonel Bogey, Wash­ing­ton Post March, Stars & Stripes For­ev­er, among all the oth­ers on the LP. I also lis­tened to ele­va­tor music & pol­ka. Did­n’t have many cool friends, that’s for sure.



Production notes for #46 Stars & Stripes:
Original size: 10x15 inches

Programs: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Fonts: Futura Bold, Baskerville (modified for ampersand)
Ampersand: Baskerville (modified)

Note: &” replaces “and” in most or all text, including quotations, headlines & titles.
You may repost the image & article. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster suitable for printing & framing, click on the image.

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Rants & raves mostly about design, sometimes about the universe.
An occasional bit of useful advice.
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