About & Methodology
Flag Chronicles tells the hidden history of American cities through their flags: 99 cities, 99 flags, 99 stories. Each banner is a compressed piece of history, from industry and civil rights to colonial pasts and modern reinventions. This page explains how to read a flag, and how these stories are written.
The five principles of good flag design
Vexillology, the study of flags, has a simple rulebook. In "Good Flag, Bad Flag" (2006), the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) distilled good design into five principles. They are the lens through which this site reads every flag.
1. Keep it simple
A flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
2. Use meaningful symbolism
The flag's images, colors or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
3. Use two or three colors
Limit the palette to two or three colors that contrast well and come from the standard set.
4. No lettering or seals
Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal. A flag is not a banner to be read.
5. Be distinctive (or related)
Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.
Source: Ted Kaye, "Good Flag, Bad Flag: How to Design a Great Flag", NAVA, 2006.
How the stories are written
Every story follows the same arc: read the flag, then read the city behind it. A white field with an anvil becomes the gateway to Birmingham’s steel, and to its civil-rights scars. The flag is never the whole story; often it is what the city chose not to say.
Stories draw on municipal archives, historical research, NAVA surveys and reference encyclopedias. Where a flag has a documented designer, adoption year or design rationale, it is named. Sources are listed at the bottom of each article so you can go further and so the work can be checked.
The site is fully bilingual (French and English). Every city, every story, every summary exists in both languages, written for each audience rather than machine-translated.
Who is behind this
Flag Chronicles is a personal project by Gaëlle Boucher, an editorial web developer who likes building things where design, code and storytelling meet. The goal is simple: make American vexillology genuinely interesting and beautiful to browse, for everyone, not just flag nerds.