Portland Association Publication 1

Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 24 January 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: A Ramble on Design Rules A Ramble on Design Rules 1 By David Rudolf Koski straints can be very strong, such We like to complain about the A Flag from the Low-Lands 2 as when the artist is commis- guidelines we must follow some- sioned to paint a portrait. The Veteran’s Day 3 times, but it bears thinking portrait may have to look like Did You Know? 3 about: would we be better off Cuthbert, suggest Cuthbert’s pro- January 2010 Flutterings 4 without them? fession, show some of Cuthbert’s possessions and place in the Flag Related Websites 6 A populated with a motley world, plus match the color of the Next Meeting Announcement 6 crew does not make a game. At couch in the living room. Graphic the very least there has to be a The Flag Quiz 7 design has almost unlimited free- goal (“have fun”) and a rule dom with the visual elements, but (“frolic”) before the semblance usually is two-dimensional and of a game emerges. If more rules must identify, communicate are added, the game is likely to promote a company or product. be better — until the point Heraldry is rife with rules that where additional rules start to serve the original purposes very stifle. Likewise, nothing happens well, although they prevent us for an artist or designer until from using all the colors and ef- some constraint is placed on the fects we might want. In the “Wild project at hand. It is easier to West” of flag design we have write about than it is to wider latitude, but hopefully rein just “write,” and it doesn’t mat- it in for the sake of beauty and ter so much if the rules are self- clarity. imposed or if they come from without. Editor’s note: David, a disciple of the late Doug Lynch, is a graphic designer/ Each area of visual arts has a artist who found us by way of submit- traditional set of rules that are ting a design for the proposed Oregon “We have two American al- followed, however loosely. Fine . It is fortuitous he should ways: one for the rich and one for art has the least, sometimes con- write this article for the same issue that the poor. When the rich fly it, it sisting only in “framing” what is carries a piece on the actual designing of means that things are under con- within and without the artist’s a village flag (see page two). trol; when the poor fly it, it means work or expression, but the con- danger, revolution, anarchy.—Henry Miller in The Air-Conditioned Night- If you wish to compliment the editor, or to contribute in the future, contact John Hood mare at 503-238-7666 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother. 2 Portland Flag Association Publication A Flag from the Low-Lands

This is a story of how a flag, a Dorpsbelangen received the fol- The village silhouette dropped out good flag I might add, can be de- lowing questions: of the options, because that was signed by a committee. Any of too complicated. Next experi- you of Dutch extraction might be  Which are the colors which ments were carried out with the interested to know that almost characterize the village? letter "L", with a flash of light- every city, town and village in ning, and with a combination of  Which are the specific charac- Holland has a flag, and most of both. Finally, two trapeziums teristics of the village? them are “Good Flags”. were found, connected in such a Leermens is a typical Gronings way that they formed a regular Leermens is a village in the mu- terp-village with a Romano- octagon, which represented the nicipality of Loppersum, Gronin- Gothic church, devoted to St. village plan, and other elements, gen Province. It used to be in the Donatius or Doonaart. There is mentioned above. The red stripe former municipality of 't Zand. no borg (old fortified stately was found too somber, and this Every year, all six villages of 't house) to which it owed alle- color was replaced by bright yel- Zand meet for a village contest. In giance. In ancient times law was low, the color of flowering cole 1985, it was the turn of Leermens administered here. Around the seed fields and ripe corn. to organize the competition. For village is the old osseweg (ox- that event, it wanted to have its The final product became: three road), and the small canal, own village flag. The society for horizontal stripes of blue, yellow, named Maar, which is un- village interests, the Dorpsbelangen, and green, proportioned 3:1:2; the touched. In the Gronings ver- organized a contest and asked Mr. middle stripe widened to a regular nacular "om Leerse koomm" means J. A. de Boo to pick a winner. octagon, with sides equal to the “To know what there is to However, it appeared that some width of the stripe, the octagon know.” minor matters had been over- placed at a distance of the width looked, such as the question: The colors blue for the sky, and of the yellow stripe from the "What is a flag?" It was decided to green for the fields were chosen. hoist. start a new competition, aided by As a dividing a red stripe this definition: was preferred for the brick houses. Several geometrical "A flag is colorful, waving piece of cloth, forms could represent the terp which can be hoisted on a mast, or can (mound); other geometric pat- be carried around on a stick, which is a terns were offered for the letter recognizable sign and a coherent element “L”. The attributes of St. Dona- for a group of people." tius (an axe, a lightning flash, or Leermans, Netherlands The flag has to be simple in de- a wheel with a sword) invited sign, so anyone with a sewing ma- other alternatives, etc. Source: article in Vexilla Nostra chine can make it, and it should 138-139, 1985, by Mr. J. A. de First some simple tricolors were be different from other flags in Boo. tested. It was found out, that to be recognizable. No stripes with unequal width were Editor’s note: This article was words. preferred. At the end, stripes taken from the FOTW web site Before the deciding meeting, the proportioned 3:1:2 were chosen. and minimally edited.

Portland Flag Association Publication 3 Veteran’s Day of stars. World War II veterans Did You Know? fought under the 48 star flag so Michael Orelove is a veteran and a 48 star flags were hung to honor In heraldry, there are at least nine member of the Columbia River them. Michael also set up a table and postures for the ? Most apply Gorge Kiwanis Club which hosts a wall display with various flags and to other beasts, also, but some have Veteran's Day breakfast each year. Mi- flag books, including a 49 star flag unique references. chael helped decorate the hall with representing Alaska becoming a state Rampant: erect with one hind paw American flags of all sizes and number in 1959. Michael moved here from on the ground. Juneau Alaska in 2006. Also in- Salient: springing with both hind cluded was a 15 paws on the ground. star and 15 stripe flag, the flag that Passant: walking with three paws on Francis Scott Key the ground. saw and wrote the Statant: standing with all four paws Star Spangled on the ground. Banner about. Sejant: seated with fore paws on the ground.

Sejant rampant: as sejant but with fore paws raised.

Affronty: showing the full front.

Couchant: crouching with legs and belly on the ground.

Dormant: as couchant but with head lowered and tail on the ground.

These are just some positions for the body. The head and tail, claws and tongues all have very highly developed rules (see David Kiosk's article on page one).

Good flag design relies on many of these rules for good reason—they have provided a commonality over the years that works.

To get a taste for heraldry, I suggest dipping into Discovering Heraldry, by Jacqueline Fearn, Shire publica- tions, Ltd., or Flags and Heraldry, by Alfred Znamierowski and Stephen Slater, Fall River Press. 4 Portland Flag Association Publication January 2010 Flutterings You Need to Know Mike Hale showed off a replica of an attempt to change the state few months. the 1935 Cycling World Champion flag. He said there will be a cere- shirt that was given to him as an mony to present this flag to the Werner Bittner is still designing incentive to get back to riding his designer, Randall Gray. burgees for his Gull Island friends. bike. He wasn’t sure why only One for a chef has a garlic plant those flags were shown, perhaps David Ferriday has been shopping dormant; another depicts the Gull they were the only countries partici- at Goodwill again and came up Island (remember, it is op- pating in those days. with a 4”x6” Canadian table flag tional) beaver. Some thought it of pre-1965 vintage which was would be an improvement over the still in pretty good condition. He beaver on the state flag. also found a U.S. car flag with embroidered stars—a very rare Max Liberman is ready for the PFA item. For those who may not flag to become official. He has ten- have seen it, David passed around tatively come up with ensigns for the article on Doug Lynch’s me- the various departments. Probably morial from The Oregonian that the only usable one would be the showed his linoleum mural panels Merchant Ensign for Werner’s sail- at Timberline Lodge. boat and Mike’s drift boat. Max will pursue this further when the A few months ago, David Koski final PFA flag is chosen. showed us some flag apps on his cell phone and bemoaned the fact In the July 2007 issue of this news- that there were not more and letter, Michael Orelove wrote an their inaccuracy. By way of im- article presenting the Portland Flag provement, he showed us an app Association Teaching Flag. On the that allows the user to interact obverse, it had all the parts labeled with the flag by causing it to and the reverse showed what a wave, drape, etc. Things have “good” flag would look like. It improved considerably in just a generated a good deal of stimulat-

Mike also had the flag his company made for the winner of the contest The Oregonian put on last year in

Michael Orelove surrounded by most of the PFA holding their teaching flags. (Continued on page 5)

Portland Flag Association Publication 5 January 2010 Flutterings Even though it had the colors and designs of the Buddhist religion, (Continued from page 4) no one realized that the Thai Bud- dhists have a different flag from ing discussion. Now he has gone a the regular, five stripped flag. step further and has had table flags Patrick had picked up the flag at a made for all the PFA members. Buddhist monastery for a modest Central Saanich, BC contribution. The ferry trip back to Port Angeles was unusual in that it was the M.V. John Hood was in Canada over Coho’s fiftieth birthday. It began the holidays and picked up some service between Port Angeles, local flags from The Flag Shop in Washington and Victoria, British Victoria. Since the Olympic torch Columbia on December 29, 1959, route is strictly in Canada this so they threw a birthday party with year, a flag has been created for cake, beverages and flags for the each community along the route kids. to fly. The dye process for this flag is unique, having been devel- oped by Cirque du Soleil for their costumes. The other flags were

Olympic Torch Relay Flag

from towns surrounding Victoria Black Ball Transport, Inc. on lower Vancouver Island.

After the show and tell we dis- cussed the proposed designs for the PFA flag. The survey from the last meeting narrowed the field to five Patrick Geena is a new member designs, two of which were nearly who showed up at Mike’s store identical. It was unanimous which Sidney-by-the-Sea, BC with a healthy interest in flags. The of those would be included in the flag he stumped us with was this: final cut. Ballots were passed out and most voted on the spot. When the absentee ballots came in, two designs finished one vote apart, so at the risk of driving this into the ground, we need one more vote.

Colwood, BC (Continued on page 6) 6 Portland Flag Association Publication March Meeting Some Flag Related Web- January Flutterings The next meeting of the Portland NAVA http://www.nava.org Flag Association will be at 7 p.m., (Continued from page 5) Thursday March 11, 2010, at John (United Kingdom) http://www.flaginstitute.org Hood’s house, 208 SE 39th Ave., That ballot is included with this telephone (503) 238-7666. See the Flags of the World http:// mailing for the local members. map below. www.fotw.net As the last meeting was breaking Lets see how this two month inter- Elmer’s Flag & Banner http:// up, it was suggested that since our val works out. It certainly will ef- www.elmersflag.com group has expanded and not every- fect my procrastination of getting Darwin, Northern Territory one can share as freely, perhaps we this newsletter out. (Australia) http:// should meet more often. At this meeting it was decided to try two By this time we will have the final www.nationalflags.com.au month intervals for a while and see decision on our flag design. The Flag Society of Australia http:// how we like it. There were pros next decision is what to do with it. www.flagsaustralia.com.au and cons, but generally we agreed Of course Max can then create the to give it a try, so the next meeting proper ensigns for our unit. Flag Research Center http:// www.flagresearchcenter.com will be in March. Bring any interesting flags or books Southern African Vexillological you may have acquired lately, topi- Assoc. http://www.savaflags.org.za cal pictures or articles you have Joke Time come across, or stories you wish to cles from anywhere can be Michael Orelove contributed this: regale us with. used—don’t make me twist your arm. A visitor from Holland was chat- If you can’t make the meeting, ting with his American friend and please send something for publica- was jokingly explaining about the tion in the next newsletter. As you red, white and blue of the Nether- can see, snippets, pictures and arti- lands flag. “Our flag symbolizes our taxes,” the man said. “We get red when we talk about them, white when we get the bill, and blue after we pay them.” “That’s the same with us,” the American said, “only we see stars, too.”

Portland Flag Association Publication 7 What Was that Flag? Answers to the last quiz What’s that Flag? In honor of Thanksgiving we off”, held on the first Saturday of Here are some couterchanged flags found some flags with depictions October. The town’s official flag and, to make it easier, they all come of the holiday. In some cases the is less commercial. from the same country. names were erased to make it more of a challenge.

Laeva, Estonia Here are the cranberries for the dinner, but why this town has them on their flag is beyond me since I do not read Estonian or Finnish East Bridgewater, Massachusetts (the web site is not translated). This is more a banner than a flag. It is the town showing the

Europeans (perhaps Miles Stan- dish among them) and the na- tives.

Gansingen, Switzerland The goose is canting (a pun) for “Gans”; German for goose. I could not find a recognizable tur- Froidchapelle, Belgium key on a flag. The autumn Oak leaves refer to the forest environment and the wavy stripes probably refer to the five lakes of Eau d’Heure in the area.

Smoky Lake, Alberta, Canada This is a special flag for the “Great White North Pumpkin Fair and Weigh-