Civic Flag Design Special Bonus Blog Post.

There is a great podcast out there about design called 99% Invisible. If you like Radiolab or Freakanomics, give this one a try. Just recently they did a quick story on flag design. In it they talk about how bad most city flags are because they break the rules for good flag design:

· The 5 Basic Principles of Flag Design

1. Keep It Simple

2. Use Meaningful Symbolism

3. Use 2-3 Basic Colors

4. No Lettering or Seals

5. Be Distinctive or Be Related





They big one cities break is rule number 4. Cities love putting seals on flags. Just look at the Cincinnati flag.




It's a pretty good flag overall, ranked 22 out of 150. But, there is that seal making things all complicated. Let's look at it with the seal removed.



Big improvement in my opinion.

Here are some examples of even worse city flags with lettering and seals.



MILWAUKEE #147 out of 150










PROVO #143 out of 150






AKRON #126 out of 150






Here are some good city flags.




WASHINGTON DC #1



CHICAGO #2



ST. LOUIS #5






Louisville had a great flag





But very recently (2003) they had a classic example of how a city government (who should not be in the flag designing business) really screwed things up. Louisville merged with most (or all, I don't really know for sure) of Jefferson County. This "new" city felt it needed a new flag, distinctive from the old because it's not the Louisville swallowed up the rest of the county, it merged to become Louisville Metro. Here is the new flag for the region.



From great to terrible. They added a seal, with lettering. It's hard to see, but the gold is not even one shade of gold, it is a gradient. Terrible for a flag.



Anyway the podcast from November 11th centers on the flag of Portland. To sum up, Portland didn't have a flag in 1969, when the put together an arts commission to design one. The arts commission, following the rules for good flags, came up with this. It represents the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.










The city council took it and said, "That's good, but you know what it needs? A seal? They made this the official city flag




Luckily, in the 21st century they decided to fix past mistakes. This is the current Portland flag ranked #7 out of 150 city flags






One great suggestion the had in the podcast for flag design was draw it on a napkin of 1 in by 1.5 in. If you can't fit your design in there, it's too busy.






Anyway, it's a great podcast from a great show, check it out.





Finally, I am not a Big Bang Theory fan, but I may have to watch this week's episode because it keeps showing Sheldon playing a game called Fun with Flags!