In the United States, medals and ribbons were first awarded to Army soldiers by their commanders during the Civil War. After WWI President Woodrow Wilson felt that the design of military medals and insignias ought to be “artistically reconsidered by an official art commission” and asked the War Department to create The Institute of Heraldry (TIOH) to oversee such matters. Medals, decorations, service ribbons, bar ribbons and special badges, which recognize military service and personal accomplishments of members of the U.S. Armed Forces, fall under its purview.
The ribbon patterns and colours selected for individual awards, generally speaking, convey a degree of symbolism. Patterns are designed and cross referenced with existing ribbons to ensure uniqueness. “As a fundamental guideline,” says Jacqueline Hack of the TIOH, “the ribbon design should convey a bold simplicity; this enables the ribbon to be easily identifiable and prevents the design from being visually cluttered.” When creating a new ribbon, TIOH often takes advantage of some well-established symbolic associations that colours have: red for valour, blue for honour, white for sacrifice and gold for excellence. In some cases, the colours used reference the flag of the country where the service occurred. The next time you see a person in military dress uniform take a close look at the array of colours and designs displayed in their ribbon bars and see if you can decipher their significance.