California State Flag Designed By William L. Todd

The California State flag doesn’t immediately come to mind when thinking of design. The colors and iconography of content and form beautifully capture the spirit of California, not only when it was made but what it has become today. The design and meaning has endured and avoided slippage throughout the years and continues to be a proud symbol of the Golden State.

The flag’s content is apparent form first look. The California Golden Bear faces the left of the frame towards the star in the upper left corner and has its stride advancing on the left. This brings an asymmetrical balance which emphasizes the left, or the west where California is in the United States. The red star is accented in the mouth of the bear and on the bottom border of the flag. The official color red for the flag is pantone 200 but is better known as “Old Glory Red”. This use of a patriotically named color symbolizes the strength for which the California population stands for and rebelled upon and the message it wishes to speak. The bear literally is roaring “Old Glory” from his mouth, an analogy of free speech and so much more. The red and green dominate visually as complementary colors and can be interpreted as to say something about California once being a Mexican territory since the Mexican flag and the California flag share the same colors. The bear symbolizes strength and rebellion and the single star symbolizes California’s independence from not only Mexico but its independent state of mind from the rest of the stars on the American Flag.

When the flag was first created and flown in Sonoma, it was created from a scrap piece of cotton and the red used was said to come from blackberries and the bear drawn with linseed oil. This is the epitome of sustainability. Nothing new was created or wasted for the conception and production of the flag. In fact, from what was wasted something new was created.

The safe bold lettering and sturdy rectilinear star and strip of red give a sense of tradition and security while the bear centered at the flag with the infinite white background suggests an expansive unknown that the bear wanders through en passant. The horizon line the bear stands on dissipates and leaves the viewer and the bear alone in this void, but the guiding star of “Old Glory” will always be present. The bear sits atop an equilateral triangle that begins at the bottom with the red strip and transitions from the text to the ground and around the bear up the vertical axis. The bear’s head even helps slope one side of the geometrical frame of the images.

Flags are wonderful designs to interpret because they represent so much of the past while continuing to encompass the present and the future. Color, shape, order and message all come together to create a unique experience. Content and form are strictly scrutinized and have so many ways of being misinterpreted that the limitations and demands of creating a flag is the same as the strenuous restraints and demands placed upon all modern designers. That is to say there is a message and experience they are selling in their design. They have limited resources and restrictions on materials and other parameters to adhere to when approaching a design. They have to marry content to form in a unification of meaning and understanding all while not forgetting their audience and their investors. Design process does not vary, only its context.