Why City Flags may be the worst designed things you’ve never seen
Full TED Talk:
A TED Talk about flags hosted by a radio show host? That seems too good to be true, yet it is. This TED Talk was hosted by Roman Mars, who hosts the show 99% Invisible. He’s on a mission to make people interested in design, and he’s starting with flags. Why are flags his main topic? It’s because according to Mars himself, “flags are the gateway to understanding design”.
Even though Mars is obsessed with flags, he didn’t know cities had flags until he moved to Chicago, a city where you can’t walk too far without being close to its beloved banner. Just like most people, Mars loves the flag of Chicago- I mean, who doesn’t? Not only does it follow the five basic rules of flag design. (See Vexillology: A Surprisingly Interesting Subject at https://nestheprint.com/uncategorized/2019/11/13/vexillology-a-surprisingly-interesting-subject/), but it excels at them.
In fact, the flag of Chicago is so beloved, that the city council sometimes may honour police officers and firefighters with the city flag instead of the U.S. Federal Flag. If that doesn’t show how loved and treasured this flag is, I don’t know what does. According to Mars, the ‘iconicness’ of the flag (as he called it) could be a reason as to why its citizens love Chicago, as great symbolism creates civic pride.
Of course, this TED Talk wouldn’t be titled along the lines of ‘Why City Flags Are Terribly Designed’ if Mars didn’t talk about terrible flags- and, sadly, the flag of San Francisco (which Mars hadn’t seen in the previous 8 years he lived there) is lacking in quality.
Rule of thumb here: if you put the name of what your flag is representing on your flag, you’ve failed. Not only that but the phoenix, while being good use of symbolism, is somehow too crude yet too detailed at the same time.
Even worse is the fact that San Francisco’s flag isn’t even the worst city flag designed…because for some unknown reason, people keep using ‘seals on bedsheets’ (a vexillological expression describing flags that have a state’s seal and a plain, flat-coloured background).
‘SOBs’ (seals on bedsheets) are the one thing every vexillologist hates; they are bland, unimaginative, and all-around lazy… And yet, we can get worse, such as the official flag of Miluakee.
I adored this TED Talk. It’s entertaining, educational and one of the few TED Talks that focuses on the ‘D’ in TED (in case you’re wondering what TED stands for, it’s an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design). Moreover, Roman Mars’ voice is pretty relaxing and sounds like something I would listen to as background audio. If you want a TED talk with rewatchability, this is the one for you.
