Each of the twenty-five flags in Some Material Flags  is designed to represent commonplace information about the citizens of the country it represents. Stars, circles, stripes, crescents, diamonds and other shapes each illustrate – in proportion to the entire population as to the entire flag – such ordinary information as coffee consumption, cell phone usage, alcohol consumption, sugar consumption, literacy levels, and so on. The flags are made of cotton seersucker fabric – a fabric whose texture is striped with puckers and designed for the practical effect of wicking sweat off a person’s body with much greater ease than a typical flat fabric and whose pattern is generally striped or checked.