Elisa Rios with one of her flags
Name: Elisa Rios
Business: Guard N Flags
Fun fact: Rios uses extremely large screens to print her flags. Most screen printers work with screens that are at most 2 by 3 feet, while a flag’s design requires screens as big as 3 by 5 feet. Often, she needs a helper to pull the ink across the width of the screen because it’s too far for one person to reach.
What she makes: Hand-printed custom flags, cards and banners
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Rios’ most popular flag, “You are My Sunshine”
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Hand-screened 4.5-by-6-inch calendar cards
How she began: While a Virginia Commonwealth University painting and printmaking student, Rios did an internship at Studio Two Three, a community art studio. There, she met fellow intern Emma Barnes, and they began to collaborate on projects at the studio and at school. Their first job was a screen-printed banner for an event organized by VCU’s gender, sexuality and women’s studies department. People liked their creation and asked them to make more. After graduating in 2013, they formed a partnership and opened Guard N Flags, a play on “garden flags.” Last year, Barnes moved away, and Rios has continued the work.
The joy of working with others: “I value collaboration a lot and seek it out in as many ways as I can,” she says. “Friends also help me in the studio and at markets that I am unable to attend on the weekends.”
Process: “I design a lot of flags, but some people have ideas that help push those designs forward,” she says. “Some also have logos or designs of their own that they need printed. It’s a good mix of both custom and provided designs.”
First commission: A flag for Verdalina, an Arts District women’s clothing and accessories shop
Most popular flag: The “You are My Sunshine” flag based on the sun tarot card. “Another popular flag is one we printed in response to the [2016] presidential election. It has a quote by Desmond Tutu: ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’ It has been used mostly as a protest banner.”
Biggest (and favorite) flag: A collaboration with VCU photographer Steven Casanova. Both Rios’ and Casanova’s families are Puerto Rican, and they wanted to call attention to the devastation of Hurricane Maria and desperate need for help by making a 30-by-25-foot flag that said, “Puerto Rico is Dying.” “It was definitely the largest banner and the hardest one to make,” she says. “The day after printing it my entire body was completely sore! Another favorite is our zodiac flag series with one design for each zodiac sign.”
