Banner
Encyclopedia
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making
Banner-making
Banner-making is the ancient art or craft of sewing banners. Techniques used include applique, embroidery, fabric painting, patchwork and others.-Trade union banners:...
is an ancient craft.
The word derives from late Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made . The German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
developed the word to mean an official edict
Edict
An edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. The Pope and various micronational leaders are currently the only persons who still issue edicts.-Notable edicts:...
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".
Heraldic banners
A heraldic banner, also called banner of arms, displays the basic coat of armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
only: i.e. it contains the design usually displayed on the shield
Shield
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....
and omits the crest, helmet or coronet, mantling, supporters, motto or any other elements associated with the coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
(for further details of these elements, see heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
).
A heraldic banner is usually square or rectangular.
A distinction exists between the heraldic banner and the heraldic standard. The distinction, however, is often misunderstood or ignored. For example the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom is in fact a banner of the royal arms.
Banners in a religious context
The prophetProphet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
was commanded to raise a banner and exalt his voice . Habakkuk
Habakkuk
Habakkuk , also spelled Habacuc, was a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. The etymology of the name of Habakkuk is not clear. The name is possibly related to the Akkadian khabbaququ, the name of a fragrant plant, or the Hebrew root חבק, meaning "embrace"...
received a similar order to write a vision upon tables that could be read by one who runs past it .
In Christianity
Banners in churches have, in the past, been used mainly for processionProcession
A procession is an organized body of people advancing in a formal or ceremonial manner.-Procession elements:...
s, both inside and 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
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool. The Metropolitan Cathedral is one of two cathedrals in the city...
, where the banners are designed by a resident artist.
Banners are also used to communicate the testimony of Jesus Christ by evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
s and public ministers engaged in Open Air Preaching.
Trade union banners
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
banners have been made since the 1840s, and at May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
parades, they could be counted in the hundreds. The iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
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
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
as a dominant colour.
For more on the design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
and making of these banners, see Banner-making
Banner-making
Banner-making is the ancient art or craft of sewing banners. Techniques used include applique, embroidery, fabric painting, patchwork and others.-Trade union banners:...
.
Advertising banners: pre-printed banners and custom banners
Often fabricated commercially on a plastic background, the banner industry has developed from the traditional cut-vinyl banners to banners printed within large, ultra-wide format inkjet printerInkjet printer
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of...
s on various vinyl and fabric materials using solvent inks and ultraviolet-curable inks.
Banners are used in many business ventures, marketing to their potential audience. 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. Pre-printed banners, albeit commonly used, are simple and accessible. Banners can be printed in enormous formats, with a full range of rich colors.
Banners can be found plastered behind a window screen, as billboards, atop skyscrapers, or towed by airplanes or blimps. As with variable of size and quantity, the number of sides and quality of ink are as much of a crucial factor. In an instance of retail stores which purchase pre-printed clearance banners, or a variety of sale banner. A banner facing underneath or against glass is absorbing exposure from the sun. A banner printed on UV outdoor ink will last several years to a decade where cheaper ink fades, requiring frequent replacement. Being behind glass, a two-sided banner can be displayed from the inside and out, often building recognition between shoppers and caretakers. Three-sided banners are oftentimes appealing as there is dimension and can be embellished differently. The more sides that exist, the more angles the banner covers, which is a possibility where a two-sided banner doesn't face the viewer from center of the room or streets.
Advertisements on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
which carry the shape of a banner are also commonly called "banners". See web banner
Web banner
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser...
for more information.
See also
- Heraldic standard
- SashimonoSashimonoSashimono were small banners historically worn by soldiers in feudal Japan, for identification during battles.-Description:The sashimono poles were attached to the backs of the chest armor by special fittings. Sashimono were worn by common soldiers, known as ashigaru, to elite samurai, and in...
- Knight BanneretKnight banneretA knight banneret, sometimes known simply as banneret, was a Medieval knight who led a company of troops during time of war under his own banner and were eligible to bear supporters in English heraldry.The military rank of a knight banneret was...
- NoboriNobori', literally meaning 'banner', had a more specific meaning on the battlefields of feudal Japan. It referred to a particular type of banner denoting units within an army; nobori became much more common in the Sengoku period, coming into use alongside the earlier hata-jirushi...
- The Star-Spangled BannerThe Star-Spangled Banner"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
- Stainless Banner
- Vinyl bannersVinyl bannersVinyl banners as listed in the International Sign Association guide are a low cost form of outdoor advertising. Most banners are now digitally printed on large format inkjet printers which are capable of printing a full color outdoor billboard on a single piece of material.-Materials:The most...
- Web bannerWeb bannerA web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser...
- Banners in Northern IrelandBanners in Northern IrelandBanners are a significant part of the Culture of Northern Ireland, particularly for the Protestant/unionist community, and one of the region's most prominent types of folk art. They are typically carried in parades such as those held on the Twelfth of July, Saint Patrick's Day and other times...
- County ClareCounty Clare-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
in IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
is known as the Banner County. - VexillumVexillumThe vexillum was a flag-like object used in the Classical Era of the Roman Empire. The word is itself a diminutive for the Latin word, velum, sail, which confirms the historical evidence that vexilla were literally "little sails" i.e. flag-like standards...