Some of my flag designs to date

The famous Xperience flag

As I mentioned in my post about my wedding promotional effort, flags featured quite prominently in the promotional campaign.

The truth is, like many of my interests, I’m not quite sure how I even got ‘into’ flags.

And, like most of my phases, it has kind of run its course.

If there’s anything my flag interest has taught me, it’s that flags (and custom t-shrits) bring people joy! And as every Tomorrowland video demonstrates, people’s love of flags increases in direct proportion to their blood alcohol concentration.

A family member describes me as going through ‘fads’ — I simply see it that I explore a topic until I have nothing left to learn about it that interests me. And fortunately for any remaining social credibility I can muster, I’ve reached that point with the world of vexillology.

That aside, this year did see me design quite a number of flags!

In addition to making flags quite a design focus of the wedding (I believe I created no less than 15 different variations!), I have taken to designing and printing custom flags as gifts for friends — for weddings, housewarmings, etc.

It’s great to see people appreciate a gift that has taken a bit of thought and effort to put together!

All were developed using Inkscape, which is a a vector image editor for Linux. I typically have them printed on Aliexpress — so they take a few weeks to arrive in the mail.

Without further a-do, here are some of the concepts I came up with this year.

This was the main wedding flag. It’s a standard flag size (150 x 90 cm) and consists of the wedding seal emblazoned upon a blue background. The shade of blue and gold used are the exact same as those of the Jerusalem Municipal flag, in homage to the city.

Every self-respecting gentleman needs his own personal standard.

This is mine, which has the Paleo Hebrew letters for daleth (right) and reish (left), representing my initials and English. The shade of gold is the same as in the wedding seal flag. The royal blue in the background is the same shade as used in the Irish Presidential Standard — not that I’m drawing any comparisons!

One of my earliest and most colorful designs. The colors are those of the State of Texas.

Another interesting one for Jerusalem Falafel Trail.

Some other concepts:

The by now iconic Taverne Du Dan flag, which also bears my initials. I may have drawn design inspiration from a certain world-famous stout.

A Canadian I know is moving into a new apartment with a rooftop. My first thought was to design a flag for the housewarming — and of course, I must also call it a ‘Taverne’. It’s one of my favorite designs yet!

The “Thank you, dear friends,” and “thank you, dear family” flags were also hits.

Before I left my old apartment, my old neighbor came in to tell me how much she will miss my elaborate flag displays.

My tradition was to honor any overnight guests by displaying their national flags out the window, which allowed me to both grow my flag collection and increase my vexillology prowess (Australia is white stars; New Zealand is red).

In addition to the wedding flag (far left), the flags of Ireland and Hong Kong are seen flying — for the second time in six months!

Above is the window flag display before the arrival of a visiting dignitary from Australia (when a friend is formally welcomed to your house by the display of their national flag they must be referred to for the rest of their trip as a ‘dignitary’).

I also picked up some Anley floor flag stands from Amazon and a few table stand holders — along with a couple of meters-worth of budget red carpet. I’m thoroughly equipped to receive high level dignitaries wherever I live now — or just friends — or I mean dignitaries. Great purchases!

The flags of Hong Kong and the City of Jerusalem stand proudly next to my old beer fermenter.

My personal standard seen flying over a Jerusalem roof. The benefit of Paleo Hebrew is that nobody (besides very few archaeologists) can read it — so you can stake out a territorial claim over an entire building without anyone being any the wiser.

Below was the LockIn flag. “LockIn” was the overnight accommodation program.

Friends improvising with flags as fashion accessories during the wedding festivities.

Another friend showed us that flags can also triple as bed linen, swimsuits, and daytime casual wear.

Other ridiculous promotional swag I’ve learned how to design this year and had fun with:

  • Bunting flags and beach flags
  • Fridge magnets
  • Stickers

Maybe it’s the latest evolution of my interest in marketing? In any event, I’m sure there’ll be more photos to come.