This is my entry for the Gender Exploration Carnival July/August call for submission: "Flags". I figured I might as well write this on the one website that won't go down without my consent. Rest assured, we're going back to media anaylysis after this one ^^
In this day and age, designing pride flags has never been easier. Open up mspaint (or your image editing software of choice,) use the bucket tool to slap in some colors, and you're done! The world is your oyster! The only limit is the color wheel! Now anyone can use your cool new flags for pride edits online. Isn't it cool?
Fool! You fell for the most dastardly of traps: you've forgotten that people use pride flags in real life. Be it as a literal flag to wave at pide, or as a general color palette for pride merch, the fact is that I, personally, blogger verse dot g dot m, am gonna need to find these colors irl and assemble this thing by hand. And some pride flags designs... really aren't cut out for that.
Ultimately, the point of a flag is to be recognizeable and identifiable, so if people already recognize & identify it then it would be superfluous to redesign them, even if they're far from perfect. However, if you want to design new pride flags for your super cool gender (or sexuality, or intersex variation, or anything else you feel needs a flag!) then let me suggest a few guidelines for you. If there's one specific one you don't vibe with that's fine, but try not to ignore all of them if you don't want your flag to be a nightmare to make irl.
- No more than five stripes. Bear in mind that if I'm sewing that, then I have to assemble all those stripes by hand, and if I'm drawing that, then I need enough space to include every stripes. Drawing all seven stripes of the agender flag on my cheek for pride can be quite a pain!
- No more than four colors. Again, I presumably have to physically go to a fabric store to buy these colors. You are not competing with the rainbow pride flag. Pick a few distinct colors and stick to them.
- No shades of the same color. If you pick "red and blue," then I can go to the store and get any shade of red and any shade of blue and make my flag in peace. However if you include "dark green and light green" then I have to actually pay attention to the shades. Instead of reusing all my green for all any any green flag I need to make, I have to go out and buy more shades. It's a pain.
- Be mindful if another popular pride flag uses the exact same color scheme. Personally, I think this is the least important of all the rules I just listed off. However, as someone who is both aromantic and agender, I find it quite difficult to tell those flags apart because it's all "white grey black green." Again, the point of a flag is to be easily recognizeable and identifiable. Might as well avoid easy mix-ups!
Alright, such is my wisdom. You guy guys go have fun, I hope to see your flags flying at the next pride I go to!
EDIT 31/08/2024: I have since turned this post into a full zine, so if you want this in downloadable format with pretty pictures, just head over there and hit that download button ^^