A little bit of an obscure piece of Black Country culture for you here all the way from Dundee, Angus. Read the rest of this entry »

As you know, here at Bostin Group we always shout about whats good about Birmingham, the Black Country and beyond!

A short while ago i was introduced to a website called Fix My Street, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Read the rest of this entry »

You may not know, but yesterday was the 40th Anniversary of the launch of the Austin Maxi.

As i am typing this there is a group of proud owners gathering at the Longbridge factory where they were built to celebrate this anniversary. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I’m taking a break from flags to revisit the plaid and explain the origins of tartan and thus show why it’s a perfectly valid symbol for the Black Country. Read the rest of this entry »

So we know April 23^rd is St. Georges day – the patron saint of England (and Portugal, Germany, Aragon, Genoa and Venice), famed for slaying a dragon (yep, a believable story that one) and was killed for refusing to fight against the invading Christians during the Holy war and consequently was made a saint.

Work that one out: He was Turkish (yep George was not his given name), he had never stepped foot on our great land we call Brittan, was killing dragons but not fellow Christians and was canonised by the pope, head of a religion that was not recognised by Henry VIII when he wanted to move along the conveyor belt of wives and yet George remained!

So England has St. George, Scotland St. Andrew (the golfer), Wales St David (the original herbalist) and Ireland has St. Guinness or was it Patrick the snake charmer (another believable story)?

Maybe we should look for a new Patron saint, St. Michael perhaps? I do like his underwear range, or just make it St. George Cadbury – Imagine hundreds of women marching through your local high street with their flags in one hand and bar of dairy milk in the other.

The 23^rd is also William Shakespeare’s birthday or Billy Waggledagger to the locals. He would have been 445, which would have put him in the Guinness book of records were he still alive……….

I’ve never found his work very easy to get along with, yes, he was a talented man, but so was Vincent Van Gogh and……..hold on…..I see a connection: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears“. Where was I? Oh yes, – talented -but does that mean you have to like it?

I remember many a boring lesson in school discussing meaning, hidden meaning and the literal flow of Mr S’s work:

Teacher: “The love of Desdemona for Othello appears at first such a violation of all probabilities that her father at once imputes it to magic, what impact does this have on the relationship between the three………You boy?”

Me boy: “(mmmm Alison’s hair is so shiny today, I wonder if she’s up for a snog behind the bike sheds?) me sir?….Errr, does he hire those three witches that caused Macbeth to talk to skulls to turn Othello in to a kids game sir?

Teacher: “GET OUT!”

And I never did get that snog!

With me designing so many flags it may be worth explaining what I look at for inspiration and meaning in my designs along with what visual themes or methods I use. Read the rest of this entry »

Our latest intrepid Bostin fan travelling around the world in a Bostin tee, is non other than Philip Tibbets. The man who is regular contributor for the Black Country Flag blog posts here on iBostin and also the man who created our very own Black Country tartan! Here is wearing his Halesowen shirt and the Halesowen tartan kilt. Read the rest of this entry »

Way back in my fifth blog entry I talked about flags for Black Country towns. After the last few weeks of quite detailed stuff in these blogs I thought now would be a good time to relax and look over another three town flags: Read the rest of this entry »

As you may know, St George is the patron saint of England and St George’s day is 23rd April. We’ve had our special edition Bostin St George shirt for a number of years now and is very popular amongst our varied range of Bostin tees.

So when we got a picture of one of the Bostin fans wearing the shirt, we had to share it with you.

Chris Haden looks like he’s having a bostin time at Sharm el Sheik on the Red Sea.

Chris Haden at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Many thanks for sending us the picture Chris and we hope you have many more happy holidays in your Bostin tee!

If you would like to share your pictures wearing one of our Bostin tees, then please contact us via our contact form for details of how to get your pictures to us.

There are a few things that a flag should be but the two most significant are that it is meaningful, and that it is distinctive. It isn’t a fashion show, the flag is highly functional as a branding tool so it really does have to have meaning and be powerful in a world of numerous other flags. Read the rest of this entry »