We were invited to design a flag for the earth, “reflecting the society of the future and focusing on what connects us,” when “nations are building walls rather than collectively facing up to urgent future challenges.”

Our flag depicts a cacophonous landscape of the earth’s languages. The white-noise-like image collapses the words in 145 different languages that mean “here”: from the Spanish “aquí” to the Chinese “这里,” or from the Ainu “テタ” to the Zulu “la.” “Here” – the word and the idea – is interesting as it suggests the speaker’s intimate relation to her or his place, while the meaning is often vague outside a specific context. We think it captures something about how we occupy this place, concretely and indeterminably.

Photo courtesy of Postfossil

Photo courtesy of Postfossil

Photo courtesy of Postfossil

Photo courtesy of Postfossil