Federico Babina's architectural flag illustrations deconstruct the notion of borders to imagine an alternative world

Today is Flag Day in the United States and in celebration of the country’s first adoption of the national flag as a symbol of unity in 1777, we’ve decided to present some of the select architecturally inspired works of the Italian-born graphic designer Federico Babina.  Babina describes his approach: “I like trying to explain the world I see through different techniques of expression.” Indeed, as Jasper Johns' own six-decade experimentations in vexillography showed us, flags are as much cultural symbols as they are communication devices to be manipulated by various (and sometimes opposing) parties in order to accomplish different political and social aims.  Federico Babina's architectural flag artworkBabina crafts his own versions of national standards using elevations, section drawings, plans, and silhouettes that are sometimes representative of each country's endemic architecture to give forms which, in turn, fit into the visual field to create imaginative counternar...