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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

This translates as:

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

Inside page

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