The idea for the project came from my long standing fascination with Swedish union flags from the late 19th century to early 20th century. However, since most of the flags were hand painted by flag painters (fanmålare) it was hard to find a full character set to create a revival from. I turned to David Shield's massive compendium The Rob Kelly American Wood Type Collection - A history and catalog (University of Texas Press, Austin, 2022) to find a woodcut that resembled the slab serifs used on some of the flags. I settled on Egyptian for it's boldness and many quirks (take a look at that upper case G!).  Egyptian was cut by William H. Page & Company in Greenville, CT, and used between 1859-1867. 

I wanted to make my own flags with this typeface, and therefore all the proofs also had to be set in 900 pt (thank you to Nick Sherman's Type Calculator to make these proofs more unwieldy for remote feedback sessions). 

By laser cutting out the letters, and glueing them on to mat board I was able to make my own matrix for letter pressing a few flags. Using lyrics from a few iconic teenage angst songs I was able to create slogans that conveyed a sense of urgency and feeling of unification. The text was then letter pressed on to  silk that had been printed with a few samples of the union flags.