Banners

For other meanings of the term banner, see banner (disambiguation).

A banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making is an ancient craft.

The word derives from L. Lat. bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made (L. banderia, It. bandiera). L. Germ. developed the word to mean an official edict or proclamation and since such written orders often prohibited some form of human activity, bandum assumed the meaning of a ban, control, interdict or excommunication. Banns has the same origin meaning an official proclamation, and abandon means to change loyalty or disobey orders, semantically "to leave the cloth or flag".

History

Banners are mentioned in the Old Testament where they were a rallying point in battle. (Exodus 17:15)

Japanese soldiers used banners for identification during battles. Called sashimono, they were most used during the 15th and 16th century in fuedal Japan.

Banners continued to be used in the Crusades and in many other wars and battles including the American Civil War.

In many Italian towns, the annual Palio race involves the use of banners to distinguish between the individual contrade; in Siena a silk banner is awarded to the overall winner.

Heraldic banners

Heraldic banner of Cardinal Wolsey

A heraldic banner, also called banner of arms, displays the basic coat of arms only: i.e. it contains the design usually displayed on the shield and omits the crest, helmet or coronet, mantling, supporters, motto or any other elements associated with the coat of arms (for further details of these elements, see heraldry).

A heraldic banner is usually square or rectangular.

A distinction is usually drawn between the heraldic banner and the heraldic standard.

Church banners

Banners in churches have, in the past, been used mainly for processions, inside or outside of the church building. However, the emphasis has, in recent years, shifted markedly towards the permanent or transient display of banners on walls or pillars of churches and other places of worship. A famous example of large banners on display is Liverpool R.C. Cathedral, where the banners are designed by a resident artist.

For more on the design and making of church banners, see the article on Banner-making.

Trade union banners

In Britain, trade union banners have been made since the 1840s, and at May Day parades, they could be counted in the hundreds. The iconography of these banners included mines, mills, factories, but also visions of the future, showing a land where children and adults were well-fed and living in tidy brick-built houses, where the old and sick were cared for, where the burden of work was lessened by new technology, and where leisure time was increasing. The same kind of banners are also used in many other countries. Many, but not all of them, have red as a dominant colour.

For more on the design and making of these banners, see Banner-making.

Advertising banners

These are often made commercially on a plastic background, but a number of British towns and cities have whole series of banners decorating their city centres, effectively advertising the town or its special features and attractions.

Advertisements on the Internet which carry the shape of a banner are also commonly called "banners". See web banner for more information.

Protest banners

An anti-American protest banner, Vienna, Austria, 2005. The text translates as "Tie Goliath's hands—he's gone crazy". (Details)

Protest banners are either carried by demonstrators during a protest march, typically at the head of the procession, or fixed to walls, trees or other stationary objects to be read by anyone who happens to pass by. Generally, they tend to be used more frequently by left-wing political activists.

As an art form, the protest banner can have an elaborate design or just consist of a slogan hastily scribbled or sprayed on a piece of canvas, cloth or cardboard. In the August 2003 issue of The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, Yates Mckee notes that "the protest banner explicitly announces its instrumentality; it is designed for application in the service of an end outside of itself, which is why it is barely afforded the status of a 'medium' in the discourse of art-criticism. Indeed, this relation of means and ends traditionally governs the distinction between 'art' and 'propaganda'."

See also

• The Star-Spangled Banner
• Stainless Banner
• County Clare in Ireland is known as the Banner County.

Other uses

• Banner is the name of a student information system written by Sungard SCT.