At 21 years old, college student John Lenard has already found a way to marry two of his strongest passions. He’s brought a lifelong interest in vexillology – the scientific study of the history, symbolism, and usage of flags – with a relatively more recent love for MLS.
The result? A collection of creative custom team flag designs catching fire in popularity on North American soccer fan forums. Check out, for example, this one, for Lenard’s home team, FC Dallas:
Born and raised in the area, Lenard’s gateway into his hobby came when he discovered the team during the 2010 MLS Cup Final. That’s when Dallas faced off, unsuccessfully, against the Colorado Rapids--a game he still experiences pain when remembering.
"FC Dallas allegedly lost — I still don’t accept that result," Lenard says.
He attended the team’s season opener the following year, sitting near the supporters’ section, and the chanting, the game and the noise got him hooked. He’s held season tickets ever since, going so far as to drive more than 300 miles round-trip to attend games in Dallas while a student at the University of Arkansas.
He says, meanwhile, his interest in flags started earlier. A self-proclaimed computer guy, Lenard said he feels like he’s perpetually been in front of a computer screen since he was four years old, researching and studying.
As his skill in creating digital graphics improved, he started tinkering with flag design. First, he started trying to improve what he describes as some of the boring, repetitive, or just plain awful city and state flags that exist across the country. Later, in high school, he created a personal flag in high school for a video game with friends.
The challenge of designing team flags for MLS particularly appealed.
"MLS has a nice, wide color palette. The teams have very specific design elements they use. It works really well to adopt that to a flag," he says. "The type of designs you use in a crest or jersey and the way you’d simplify them is the same sort of logic that goes into designing a flag, so the crossover is there, there just hadn’t been anybody to put it all together."
Lenard started posting his creations to a smaller subreddit under the /r/MLS Reddit forum, where they received increasingly positive feedback. And as he’s expanded his MLS collection, he’s also started making flags for NASL and USL teams, and has notes to venture into doing flags for EPL clubs, as well. Lenard also says he’s dabbled with thoughts for NWSL clubs, too.
Each design for a team incorporates elements from their brand identity, their hometown and their culture--that is, Lenard says, the way they decide to interpret their brand and their colors.
According to him, for each design, he aims to follow these five basic rules:
- Keep it simple so a child can draw it
- Keep the symbolism meaningful.
- Keep to as few colors as possible to convey what you need.
- Don’t use text, crests or seals.
- Be distinctive.
Since this hobby has taken off, Lenard’s transferred to the University of North Texas and changed majors from business to journalism. He’s also used the graphics skills he’s accrued making the flags to now also make schedule graphics, phone wallpapers, and playoff brackets. Those all combine well with the love of writing he’s picked by contributing to recklesschallenge.net.
With Decision Day approaching, let’s take a look at some of Lenard’s personal favorite flags, all for teams whose playoffs hopes more or less remain alive (for now).
LA GALAXY
"The one that was the most fun to design I’m very, very fond of the LA flag. I’m not a fan of the Galaxy, but I like their brand and their colors. It’s very bright. The name really fits and gained its own culture over time. The Galaxy is that star image and the superstar mentality they have. It lends itself very well to the white, blue and gold and that makes for a very striking flag.
I knew I wanted to have [the blue sash]. There are flags in the Caribbean and Africa that have similar designs, so I’m able to play off that, historically, and the team’s jersey. It came together very quickly and it was the one that just felt the most satisfying all the way through. It took only one draft to make."
PORTLAND TIMBERS
"The chevron’s been part of their brand forever, since the NASL days. The colors are also part of Portland sports teams’ color scheme for years. I was really able to combine the city, the team and the culture all together using just three colors and two objects."
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
"The Whitecaps plays right into the mountainous part of Vancouver. It’s mountains and it's the ocean, which is a real interesting dichotomy. You’ve got the sea meeting the sky right there through the mountains. Those three mountaintops from the crest are so striking -- you see it in their tifos all the time. It’s also referencing the dark blue in the flag of Vancouver. Blue symbolism is deep in British Columbia and Vancouver."
ORLANDO CITY
"I had a bunch of false-start ideas, because I don’t like the flag of Florida and then the Orlando city flag is a mess. I was thinking, ‘What can I do that’s distinctly Orlando?’
Purple and gold are the team’s colors, but what is the big cultural connection? It’s Brazil. You’ve got Brazilian ownership and investors. You’ve got Kaká. You’ve got a Brazilian diaspora in Florida. Brazilian culture and American culture are really fusing with Orlando City.
I thought that basic structure of the Brazilian flag is very simple; the Brazilian flag is distinct. The lion symbol on the new crest is fantastic. It’s just the right amount of detail."
