Friday, April 1, 2016

Week 10_4/1/16_Shorewood Flag

Flag Design: Take a look at the video above to know the do’s and don’ts about designing a flag for a country or city.

            From watching the Ted Talk about designing a flag, it made me think about the different flags around the world. Each country and most major cities have a flag to represent where they are from. Flags are used to represent an area and have a special meaning to the people of that area. The fact that there are rules on how to handle the flag of the United States of America shows how important the flag is. With being a south suburb of Chicago, the Chicago flag means a lot to me. I am a Chicago sports fan and have clothing with the Chicago flag on it. Being from a small town in Illinois, I was not sure if we had a city flag, but we do!
            The original flag of Shorewood followed all of the rules; one part of the flag could be questionable. The flag is green and white following the rules on two to three basic colors. The flag does not have any lettering or seals. The flag had green areas on the corners jus like it does now, but there was a white river like part going through the entire flag. In my opinion, it was a little more complex and could be simpler in order to follow the rules. The river/tree branch going through the flag represents the DuPage River that flows through the heart of Shorewood.
            The flag that I created is very similar and very simple. It is only green and white as well. It does not have any complex features to it; it is simple white with green corners. The white going across the page represents a river just in a simpler way. It makes the sign of a cross, but is meant to be a river. I chose the color green because Shorewood is surrounded with corn fields. The color green makes me think of agriculture, which is what the city does a lot of. Green also represents the forest preserves in Shorewood. Hammel woods is a beautiful forest where many people of the city go for walks and picnics. It is a nice place to relax. Each green corner of the flag represents about four thousand people with the total population being around 16,000 people.
The white going through the flag is very simple and make the flag look more appealing in my opinion.
            After hearing about the rules of flag design, it is harder than it seems to create a flag. There is not much space to be very creative and complex. That means that you much choose wisely when creating something to represent a city or country. When choosing, the figure must be related to the city. From watching this video, I learned about not having letters on a flag. I never knew that was frowned upon and never realized that most flags do not have writing. The reason for that is because it cannot be read from far away. Flags are a huge representation of an area and have a meaning to the people in that area.



2 comments:

  1. Good job! It is very simple and I can see that you thought a lot about it. I like how you made it very meaningful in your own way and it is definitely a flag people can gather under. However, if one does not know about the meanings behind the symbols you used, they wouldn't be able to find it inspiring. I'm not sure if what you described are the best ways to represent your city.

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  2. I really enjoyed your design. You only used one main color other than white, which he highly recommended in the video. The simple lines and design make the flag very classy and universal. And the symbolism and meaning of the green corners and the amount of people it represents. Good work!

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