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Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed | Roman Mars

TED · 5.2M views · 2015-05-14 · 18:19

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Overview

Roman Mars gives a funny TED talk on vexillology, laying out five basic principles of good flag design and why many city flags fail them.

On Hacker News

The canonical reference on flag and logo design principles, cited in branding and design threads.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2023

Topics

Graphic design & typographyTransit, cities & urban planning
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vexillologydesign principlesroman marscity flagsbranding

What people said

misterS · 2022-02 · Strong recommendation

> kids in first year of school should know how to draw flag from memory Roman Mars taught me that – well Ted Kaye, but Roman taught me in his seminal TED talk [1]. [1] [VIDEO]

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alpb · 2020-02 · Strong recommendation

This is painful to see. It looks like a shopping mall or apartment building logo, compared to other states with proper flags. And it goes without saying, on this topic, one must watch the short talk on state and country flags: [VIDEO]

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djsumdog · 2020-02 · Recommendation

Their flag is terrible: [LINK] 99% Invisible does a great episode on what makes a good flag, and why cities like Chicago, DC and Amsterdam have iconic, memorable flags: [VIDEO] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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