Fly Your Freak Flag High

Make Your Freak Flag

You don’t have to be an artist to speak your truth in visuals (though I know there are some of you artist freaks out there, and I’m callin’ you out). See below for our flag making “guidelines.” They’re guidelines because I think having something in common makes us feel connected, but if you don’t want to feel connected, that’s ok too. (Besides, if I called them rules, you’d just want to break them anyway, wouldn’t you? Yeah, I thought so.)

Have questions? Click here for the Freak Flag FAQ.

DOWNLOAD THE FREAK FLAG STENCIL:
>> CLICK HERE <<

Freak Flag Making “Guidelines”

Here’s the guidelines for making a freak flag (they’re guidelines because I think having something in common makes us feel connected, but if you don’t want to feel connected to the rest of us freaks, that’s ok. Do what you want.)
 
Think about what makes you freaky, and how you might represent that visually (words, colors, symbols…)

Download the “FREAK” stencil, print it, and cut it out on the dotted line. (You might want to trace the stencil onto something stronger than printer paper first, and then cut it out. Cardboard and a box knife or an exacto knife works well.) Use this stencil somewhere on your flag.

Figure out what you want to use as a base material for your flag. You don’t have to make your flag out of slippery nylon flag material. You can make it out of any kind of fabric, or you can make it out of something else–canvas, wood, rubber, paper, metal, glass, netting, stone, plastic, ceramic…be as creative as you want! The only guideline here is that it should be of a size and a weight that you can pick up and carry–because after all, how else are you going to bring it to a parade? It should also be big enough for people to see from a distance.

Decorate and embellish that base material with whatever symbols or words or pictures that have meaning to you and represent your freaky bits. You can use whatever materials you want to do this: paint, pencil, markers, feathers, sparkles, glass, metal, stone, wood, rubber, plastic, fur, fabric, beads, clay….again, whatever you like and has meaning to you. Just make sure that you can lift it up and carry it around when you’re done.

Take a picture of yourself with your freak flag (or just take a picture of the flag itself if you’re feeling shy), and send it in to submissions@flyyourfreakflaghigh.com to go in the gallery of freak flags and/or post it on our FYFFH Facebook page. If you have a story you’d like to tell about what your flag means or how it came to be, you can submit that as well, along with the picture of your flag.
 
If you like the idea of getting a bunch of freaks together for a flag making party, see below for our “maker party” guidelines.

Flag Making Party “Guidelines”

Think of a flag making party as a freaky art potluck. The guidelines above for making a freak flag still apply, but there are a few extra guidelines you might want to follow (again, they’re guidelines because I think having something in common makes us feel connected, but if you don’t want to feel connected to the rest of us freaks, that’s ok. Do what you want.):

  1. Pick a day where you can spend at least 3-6 hours of uninterrupted creative time. It doesn’t *have* to be Flag Day (June 14th) or Independence Day (July 4th), but those are on theme.
  2. Pick a space where everyone be together but can still spread out their stuff and get messy.
  3. Provide some music and some food (you can ask people to bring music and/or food too).
  4. Download the “FREAK” stencil above, print it, and cut it out on the dotted line. (You might want to trace the stencil onto something stronger than printer paper first, and then cut it out. Cardboard and a box knife or an exacto knife works well. If you have a lot of people coming, you might want to make several stencils.) Have everyone use this stencil somewhere on their flag.
  5. Have each person you invite bring something to use as a base material for their flag. People don’t have to make flags out of slippery nylon flag material. They can make it out of any kind of fabric, or they can make it out of something else–canvas, wood, rubber, paper, metal, glass, netting, stone, plastic, ceramic…be creative! The only guideline here is that it should be of a size and a weight that they can pick up and carry–because after all, how else are they going to carry it in a parade?
  6. Have each person you invite bring along whatever individually meaningful things they want to bring to decorate their own flag with.
  7. In addition, have each person you invite bring a bunch of a particular decorative material to share with everyone else. (E.g. don’t just bring enough pebbles or glitter paint for you, bring enough for everyone!) You can get materials from craft stores, recycling bins, the dump, a local park, wherever sounds good…just bring enough material so that at least a couple other people could use it too.
  8. Designate a place to put shared materials, and make sure everyone can access it.
  9. Make flags!
  10. Have a parade!
  11. Take pictures of everyone with their freak flags (or just the freak flags themselves). Submit them to submissions@flyyourfreakflaghigh.com and/or the FYFFH Facebook page so they can go in the Freak Flag Gallery. If you have a story you’d like to tell about what your flag means or how it came to be, you can submit that too.