To design a successful flag, you don't have to be a professional artist or well-connected politician. The history of flag design is full of stories about regular, every day people who wanted to make a mark on society, and created flag designs that are still used today to represent countries and causes. Click through the slideshow below to see how citizens like you have made designs that are now famous all over the world.
Alaska State Flag
Benny Benson designed the flag for the state of Alaska when he was just 13 years old. He entered a statewide contest and beat out over 700 other designs to become the winner. Raised in an orphanage, Benson would look for the Big Dipper every night while trying to go to sleep. Here's what he said about the meaning behind his flag: "The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear—symbolizing strength." The United States Flag
The first American flag is said to have been designed by Betsy Ross, a seamstress and contemporary of George Washington. But that one only had 13 stars (one for each colony). What about the modern design we see today, with all 50 stars? We can thank Robert G. Heft for that design. He created the current U.S. flag for a school project, but only received a B- grade! When congress officially adopted Heft's design, his teacher reconsidered and gave him an A. Earth Day Flag
Inspired by the breathtaking photo of Earth taken by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, the founder and creator of Earth day, John McConnell, designed a flag showing our whole planet on a field of dark blue. This flag, like the photo that inspired it, puts all of our human differences in perspective and encourages us to focus on the challenge of keeping our environment healthy. South Africa Flag
When the new Republic of South Africa needed a flag, they turned to Frederick Brownell, who was an expert in flag design. Using what he knew about color symbolism and heraldry, Brownell created a flag that represented unity: the many different colors are brought together by the converging Y shape (a pall) in the middle, which symbolizes different ethnic populations moving forward as one. |
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