Will Mower’s latest project takes the form of generative art, examining the fixed nature of flag iconography and the symbolic associations we attach to their designs. Using a basic set of design rules governing colour, shape, and layout, the code generates flags at random. Each flag is then arbitrarily assigned to a “collective identity” and paired with a randomly selected description drawn from a curated list. By decoupling design from meaning, the project invites reflection on how we construct relationships between symbols and ideas.
Typically producing work as an artist, designer, and printmaker, Will’s flag generator marks a step away from the expected. He describes that he’s in a “bit of a transitional period at the moment“. He comments; “I like designing ‘tool-kits’ or defining a system or set of rules for making things with, I also like creating things that reveal something about the process or relate to the nature of that thing. In terms of explaining my approach I feel like those two ideas underpin a lot of what I do but I’m thinking a lot more about the sorts of things I want to make at the moment and how I want to communicate my ideas.”
“There’s something about the bold simplicity of flags that’s very captivating,” says Will. After looking for an interesting way to play with this concept for a while he started to think more about the role of flags and “how these static symbols exist as a sort of shorthand to represent ideas that are very rarely one thing or another”. Originally, Will planned to make the generator as research into building a basic generative system. However, once he began delving deeper, he became mesmerised with the animation process. He tells us; “I also noticed I was being drawn towards thinking about what each design could mean and making associations with existing flags and ideas”. To explore this further, Will wrote a list of descriptions that could be paired with the designs, and discovered that by randomising all these elements, unexpected and interesting associations began to emerge.
The flag generator works in two modes; split and mirror. For ‘mirror’ mode, the artwork is created in the top left corner which is then reflected both horizontally and vertically. Will describes; “I tried different ways of creating the artwork but realised this approaches animates in a way similar to a kaleidoscope which is quite mesmerising as it shifts from one design to another”. The ‘Split’ mode works in a similar manner, but produces separate results in both top quadrants and then mirrors them horizontally to create a design in two halves. The colours, number of bars, and angles are all chosen at random, as well as which mode to chose and whether to include a circle or cross, the design of which follows a similar set of rules. The generator then randomly applies a ‘collective identity’ and a ‘description’ to the flag, and then starts again by overlaying the previous design.
“Coming up with the names for each flag was fairly straightforward,” says the designer. Will created a list of broad identifiers so that they weren’t just focusing on one thing like types of ‘place’. For the descriptions however, he aimed to create as much variety as possible. To keep it exciting, Will also experimented with different approaches; writing some descriptions to be more mindful and others to be more playful. He states; “A lot of time went into this part of the project and I tested a lot of different ideas to see what worked naturally and what felt out of place”.
The generator emerged after a series of sketches were drawn up to get a sense of what elements were most important. He came up with the kaleidoscope approach by folding a piece of A4 paper into four and drawing different designs, mirroring what was happening in the top corner. “I realised that by working at different angles you could create options for stripes, saltires, chevrons etc so that gave the basic system for the flag designs,” says Will. The flag generator was coded in html, css, and jquery. Will comments; “I’m not amazing at it but I’ve enjoyed messing around with code since I was a kid and am very fond of web-based projects. When I was growing up it felt like the internet was full of weird and wonderful art/design projects that you’d either learn about from friends or discover through sites like stumbleupon.com. I’m really not a fan of so much stuff being in app format now.”
Will is continuing to tweak some elements of the system, and is working on expanding the list of descriptions so the generator can run for longer before needing to repeat phrases. And this digital project sure doesn’t mark the end of his practice as a printmaker! Will is hoping to bring the project into the tactile realm with some interesting print work and physical interactive pieces very soon.
Play with the flag generator here.
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