We Won’t Stand for the Flag Until the Flag Stands for the People poster

Contributed by Stephen Coles on Jul 5th, 2022. Artwork published in

circa 1970

We Won’t Stand for the Flag Until the Flag Stands for the People poster — Image: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

This graphic was widespread among anti-war and countercultural movements of the 1970s. While it’s not clear who executed the original design, the concept may have come from advertising photographer Bill Stettner, whose friend Peter Adams wrote to us as at Letterform Archive:

I have always understood the poster to be his idea […] Bill was full of political ideas and was definitely involved with badges and buttons at the time. I think the design was also intended for a button.

The hand-cut letters of “We won’t stand…” are based on Cooper Black, a typeface frequently seen in both commerce and counterculture. Lowercase text disrupts the traditionally even height of the flag’s stripes, while the ragged right edge adds a tattered effect. The repeating lettershapes on an uneven baseline, and flipped w in “won’t”, indicate that the source of the letters was transfer type or photographic reproduction, rather that hand lettering.

The U.S. flag has long provided artists a canvas for protest. Its simple, graphic iconography serves as a foil for the nation’s more complicated past and present. This piece is among several stars-and-stripes reinterpretations that appear in Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest, a Letterform Archive exhibition opening July 23, 2022.

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Artwork location

United States (8914)
New York City (2548)

In Sets

Letterform Archive (Florence Fu) (40)
round (Dan Luo) (10)

3 Comments on “We Won’t Stand for the Flag Until the Flag Stands for the People poster”

Paul Dobbs says:
Apr 23rd, 2024 7:21 pm

This poster was designed and first printed by a student at Massachusetts College of Art who was a member of the student/faculty collective called “The Graphic Workshop” in 1970. The archivist at the college can probably identify the student
Stephen Coles says:
Apr 23rd, 2024 8:53 pm

Thanks for the info, Paul! What is your source?
Florian Hardwig says:
Apr 24th, 2024 9:50 am

Paul was Library Director at MassArt for 37 years, until 2015. In addition to The Graphic Workshop and the 2015 show Gaining Perspectives: A Visual History of MassArt, his main projects at the time included the TJ Lyons collection.