#in the alt text of the six flags all grouped together

[secondbeatsongs]

as a bi person, the bisexual flag brings me infinite joy and always puts a smile on my face, however as a person who has a Passion for Graphic Design, that undersaturated shade of purple infuriates me when it's used digitally

like, on an actual flag - which was its original purpose - it looks great!

those look fine! lovely, even! with the semi-transparent fabric, the way it catches the sunlight, it looks beautiful!

but now look at how it looks digitally

the pink and blue are so vibrant compared to the sad, lonely lavender!

and let's look at this statement from Michael Page, the creator of the bi flag:

(sidenote: he created this flag in 1998, so if his takes on bisexuality is different from yours, it's okay to notice that! a lot has changed since the 90s when it comes to lived experiences and the way we describe them. but, it's also important to respect his thoughts about this and the way he presented them, even if today, we'd probably not say that bi people "blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.")

so in pantone colors, the pink is 226 C, the blue is 286 C, and the purple of the flag is 258 C.

but...here's the deal

Michael talks here about how the key to understanding the symbolism is to know that the purple blends into both the pink and blue. and on a physical flag, I think you can see that!

but digitally, it absolutely does not blend. it clashes badly, and looks oddly separate from the other two colors.

which got me wondering...what purple do you get if you actually blend 226 C and 286 C?

oh! oh, my god.

look at that! look at how nicely it fits between those colors!

look at it next to the original color scheme! look at how much more vibrant the purple is!

and friends. this is just blending through rgb! you get even more purple variations when you use other color spaces!

let's compare all of them:

(top: original, lab. middle: lrgb, lch. bottom: rgb, hsl)

look at all of the different purple options you can get just by combining these two colors!

if you want almost too-vibrant saturation, you can go hsl, if you want something more relaxed that's closer to the original, you can go lab or lrgb. and if you want to split the difference, lch is bright and violet, while rgb is there with its saturated but darker purple.

anyway, I guess I don't really have a point here? this isn't so much an informational post as it is Me Getting Weird About Colors, but I think it is a useful lesson about how colors look very different on screens compared to how they look on objects in real life.

and sometimes, I think it's okay to compensate for that.

out of all of these, this is my favorite bi flag:

it's the one where the colors were blended in lab color space. for me, the lighter, softer purple is close enough to the original bi flag purple, while also feeling like a smoother blend of the blue and pink

but that's just me! and it might not even look the same to you, since every screen is different, because technology is a nightmare!

anyway, thank you for coming with me on this colorful journey! I will now retreat back to inkscape and make pained sounds about inkstitch gradients until something tangible pulls me back into reality

#bi #bisexual #bisexuality #bi flag #bisexual flag #sbs rambles #graphic design is my passion #id in alt text #but #the ids are probably deeply unhelpful for the different variations of flags #in the alt text of the six flags all grouped together #I just put what method the purples were blended with #and then tried to describe them more in the paragraph below #but this is an inherently visual post #so if you're reading it with a screen reader I am sorry :(

[gadgetsrevv]

Kosovo Travel To Face England Knowing That This Is The Culmination Of Their Journey

Kosovo players celebrate at the end of the Euro 2020 group A qualifying soccer match between Kosovo and Czech Republic, at Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina, Kosovo, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

When England’s qualification group for Euro 2020 was drawn in December 2018, they wouldn’t have paid much mind to the team that came out of Pot 5, the lowest seed in the group. Not without reason, too, as the games against such sides—the likes of San Marino, Gibraltar and Andorra—are usually turgid affairs, in which vastly overmatched teams of amateurs attempt to kick lumps out of England’s millionaires before succumbing to comfortable defeats.

Commentators are obliged to mention the lowly stature of the opposition (preferably including whatever their other job is outside of football) and the inevitable hearts-in-mouths of club managers when a star asset cops some agricultural defensive treatment, while ruefully reminiscing about that one time San Marino scored after eight seconds against England in 1993 (England still won 7-1). 

This time, however, the Three Lions will face an entirely new proposition. New in two senses of the word. Firstly, they will actually go up against a team willing to give them a game. Secondly, because that team is Kosovo, Europe’s newest national team, representing its youngest country. And they will go into the game under no illusions that Kosovo are mugs. They are far from it. 

The Kosovans are the form side of Europe, riding a wave of 14 games without defeat, and they stand a legitimate chance of qualifying for the European Championships at their first attempt. They waltzed through their UEFA Nations League Group, guaranteeing them at least a Playoff spot, but uncontented with that, have upturned the seedings in Group A, beating Bulgaria and the Czech Republic en route to second spot in the table. While they might not hold much hope for victory in Southampton tonight, they will enter filled with confidence and without any fear.

It is a huge surprise that any Pot 5 team are competing as well as Kosovo are, but doubly surprising that it is the Kosovans that are doing it. The odds have been against them throughout: from the journey that the country has taken to be recognized internationally, then the struggles that the Kosovan football authorities underwent to be allowed to compete as an independent nation, then the issues that the coaching staff had just getting 11 blokes onto a field, let alone getting them playing as well as they have been. 

Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri wears soccer shoes with the national flags of Switzerland and Kosovo at the official training session of the Swiss team one the eve of the group E match between Switzerland and Serbia at the 2018 soccer World Cup at Kaliningrad stadium in Kaliningrad, Russia, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

After declaring independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo spent eight years in the international wilderness—in which time several Kosovo-eligible players, such as Liverpool’s Xherdan Shaqiri and Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka, opted to play for other nations—before being able to join UEFA in 2016. On the morning of their first game, away in Finland, they were still waiting to register a significant portion of their team, as other UEFA members objected to players who had turned out for them transferring nationality to the new nation. They then lost 9 consecutive games and were forced to play their games outside of Kosovo (their national stadium was not up to code) and against teams that often refused to host them (Ukraine, for example, do not recognize Kosovo’s independence and denied entry to players traveling with Kosovan passports). 

Despite this, the team has flourished. They might be the best possible advert for the UEFA Nations League: across six games in that tournament, when matched against teams of the same standard, they came together and formed a coherent unit, which has now gone on to beat much better opposition in the Euro qualifiers. 

This is a team quite unlike any other, but curiously representative of Kosovo in 2019. 53% of the population is under 25, and just five of the squad are over that age, making them probably the youngest team in Europe. Much of the squad are not just based abroad, but born and raised there too, in line with the huge migration that saw thousands of Kosovans move due to war and lack of economic activity. This team was largely formed in the academies of richer European countries, and the hope is that, if Kosovo’s success can continue, then the next Shaqiri will represent the nation of their heritage rather than the one in which they were raised.

“Playing England is absolutely marvelous for Kosovo,” says Arber Loxha, Director of Sports Channels at Kujtesa, one of Kosovo’s leading sports broadcasters. “It is so important that we get to play against nations such as England, who are playing fantastic football at the minute, as it will help Kosovo grow in terms of quality and experience.”

“England has the biggest league in the world, the Premier League: everyone watches it and tries to build according to its standards. Our players grew up following English football stars and that assisted them in becoming better footballers. Today, they play against their heroes and know full well that beating them would be an absolute sensation.”

While Kosovo go into the game as outsiders—18/1 with some bookmakers—that they are playing this game at all is something of a win in itself. “It is the culmination of years of work,” says Loxha, “and that this transpired so quickly is, for me as an Albanian Kosovar, like living a dream. The doors of world football are now open for us, we are showing our potential and with real character, which is making me and everyone in Kosovo very proud.”

“Just playing against England is a success itself. We are facing one of the best national teams of recent years, so I guess playing well, trying to impose our style of play and not showing fear would be called a real success no matter what the final result. Qualification would mean so much to us. We are a very small country with a lot of footballers and qualifying for Euro 2020 would make everyone believe that nothing is impossible. Our history shows that we never give up and so many sacrifices from our sportsmen would definitely be paid off.”

  Source link . More news

via wordpress https://ift.tt/2UK8qxk

#Uncategorized Kosovo Travel To Face England Knowing That This Is The Culmination Of Their Journey