PhotoShop: Flags and Color

Posted by Mary Rayme Feb 21, 2007

As we compare learning to compose to learning to juggle, we focus on adding another element of design into our rotation: Color.

Flag design is a good way to engage a student in the idea of symbolism in color and shape. There is a great entry for Flags on wikipedia. I suggest showing some excellent examples of state or local flags and to provide some context behind the flags. For example, the Maryland state flag was originally only yellow and black diamond shapes that were a part of Lord Calvert’s family coat of arms. After the Civil War, the red and white shapes were added as a tip of the lid to the secessionists whose colors were the same. Now, I think the Maryland flag looks like bad argyle socks, but some people just love it.

The intention of a flag is that it needs to communicate a lot of information quickly and graphically. For example, the United States flag has 50 stars, one for each state, and 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies. The colors have various meanings attached to them. White for purity and innocence, blue for vigilance, perseverance or justice, red for hardiness and valor. But you know what else? Red, white and blue also look good together. The red and blue are of similar value and have resonance, and the white provides the necessary contrast or visual relief. The repetition of the 50 white stars stacked on a dark blue background is absolutely stunning.

Have students redesign the flag of their home state or the state location of the school using PhotoShop. Remind them, flags can be seen as pleasing arrangements of shape and color. Ask them to keep each separate element on a different Layer in PhotoShop to encourage use of this palette. Also encourage students to think about their color and symbol choices. Any colors must represent some part of the state that is unique or special.

Discourage the use of fonts or words on the flag. These are usually hard to read and the purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to think using shape and color, not words or letters. Discourage the use of too many elements that may then appear too small to read or discern. Remind your students to save their PhotoShop documents as .psd files so that they automatically remain in layers.