About

The Many States is a web application where people can create a personalized United States flag based on the states they've visited.

Each visible star in the flag's blue canton represents a visited state, and the stars are ordered based on each state's admission to the Union.

Inspiration

During my senior year at design school, one of my class projects was to design a personal narrative poster. Inspired by cross-country road trips with my long-haul trucker Dad and twin brother Mike, I wanted to represent the states I had visited in each year of my life.

With help from my parents, I was able to recollect the states I had visited during the earliest years of my life.

Rather than highlight visited states on a geographic map like existing apps, as a creative twist, I chose to represent visited states as illuminated stars in the flag's blue canton.

I wanted others to be able to create their own flag, so I built The Many States. I have such fond memories of my childhood road trips and continue to enjoy exploring everything the United States has to offer.

Colophon

The Many States is set in Libre Caslon Text, a Google Fonts version of Caslon, originally designed by William Caslon I.

According to Adobe Fonts, “the first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were set in Caslon.”

For the logo, red stripes, and blue canton, I referenced the colors Old Glory Red and Old Glory Blue from the United States Bureau of Educational and Culture Affairs Design Guide (PDF).