Vexillography, defined as the design of flags, is an important but often overlooked part of global and cultural identities. The United States flag, for instance, has gone through many different iterations of its flag design, resulting in its current iteration with 50 stars and 13 stripes. But, like many territories and nations throughout global history, flags are changing with current social, political, and symbolic interests. Most obviously, we see that the U.S. flag has evolved to signify a greater amount of states, as well as the country’s removal from the United Kingdom’s rule.
While the U.S. has maintained its red, white, and blue color scheme, it has certainly experimented with the fluidity of vexillography. In such a way that the history of flags is a collage of eras in time, particularly of a nation’s history, the visual process of flags is one that is expansive and wholly unique to the country. Some questions that might arise are: Who has the responsibility of designing these flags which will be seen and internalized by millions of people? Or who decides what is tradition? What gets to stay? What types of committees and deliberations ensue behind the scenes?
Vexillography is an art form that merges graphic design, symbols, and branding in a way that is special and permanent.
