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1992: The Signalling Flags


The message here was represented using naval signalling flags, strung vertically. I had had this idea up my sleeve for some years: indeed, I had attempted to produce a similar card earlier by photocopying the shapes in monochrome and colouring the flags in by hand with felt-tip pens. But I discovered that it took me about an hour to colour one copy. With the additional possibility that simple slips would mean I should have had to reject a number of part-completed cards, there was simply not time to create the number I needed to produce. So the idea had to wait until I could produce the colour printing under computer program control, as I did here.

Although these flags can be used to represent more complex ideas, each flag here represents a single letter, with the triangular flags, or pennants, representing digits.

Front page

Front of 1992 card

This translates as:

H C A H P R P I Y S T M A S

Inside page

Inside of 1992 card

This translates as:

A W 1 B N I 9 R D S 9 I H 3 A B E N E S F S R B T F O A O M R R K E R


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Version 23: Revised 23 December 2008
Brian Barker