|
When designing your own flag,
a good place to start is looking at other already
designed flags in Band Catalogs. I recommend
Band Shoppe or McCormick's catalog. They
both have websites you can look at for flag
designs.
Flag Design Shapes:
There are many variations of flag shapes that you
can use when designing a flag, but remember that
your show is in your creative control. So, if
you don't find a flag shape you like, you can come
up with your own shape.
What to use to Design your
Flag: A great way to visualize your flag and
it's colors is to use Microsoft Paint.
Microsoft Paint comes standard on any PC running
Windows. To access Paint, go to
Start>Programs>Accessories>Paint. Open the
Program and use either the line tool, the box
tool, or the pencil tool to draw the shape of your
flag. Next, use the same tools to draw the
design in the interior of the flag.
In the image below, we use the
box tool to draw the rectangle shape of the flag,
then we used the line tool to draw the straight
lines within the flag.
After you've drawn the outline
of your flag design, now you can start to color
it. Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the
different sections of your flag with the colors
you want to use. (Tip: You can double
click on the colors in the color palette below to
create a custom color)
Now, you can play with the
colors until you come up with the perfect color
combination for your flag. (For more
information on what colors mean, Click
Here). Below, we copied
our flag and pasted four different version, using
the paint bucket to change the flag colors.
To copy your flag use the selection tool (above
the paint bucket) and select your flag. Next
copy it (ctrl + C). Now paste the image
(ctrl + V). Then, move the pasted selection away
from your original flag.
After you've come up with the
perfect design, Print it out and show it to your
band director. After it's been approved find
the colors that you want in a Catalog. Most
catalogs will send you swatches of all the fabric
colors that they have for free. Most of the
catalogs also provide the service of creating the
flags for you in the colors that you want...as
long as it's their design. This can be quite
expensive, ranging from $15-$70 per flag!
(Finished product of a flag designed in Paint)
Next, you're ready to transfer
the design to the pattern you will use to make the
flag. Visit our Tutorial on How to
Construct a Flag for step by
step instruction on how to make this
process easy.
| 