Design: Vexillography
Using design to create a symbol
Had an interesting recommendation in my youtube feed today: (Kinda reminded me of Sheldon’s Fun with flags, but less geeky and more pretty)
(quick side note: I like viewing my videos at X2.5 the speed to save a lot of time. Try out video speed controller (Chrome only). Helps to increase efficiency and stops you from falling asleep for slower speakers)
High level summary of take home lessons:
- Keep it simple
- Use meaningful symbolism
- 2 to 3 basic colors
- No lettering or seals
- Be distinctive
Keep it simple
A child should be able to reproduce the design without much effort. Personally, the Hong Kong flag, past and present is a great example.
Drastic change in design. (Granted the new flag feels overly communist with the blood red backdrop but from a re-design perspective this is done rather successfully)
Meaningful Symbolism
The new New Zealand state flag (proposed) is definitely a great case study for this. (At the time of writing, the final flag is to be decided in a referendum)
The existing flag and the embedded Union Jack is a clear reminder of the roots of New Zealand’s past as a colony of the United Kingdom (Symbolisms)
The possible new flag breaks away from the colonial past and helps to associate the country with something distinctly New Zealand (The silver fern, logo for the National Rugby team, New Zealand All Blacks).
The beauty of the flag is the ability to retain the elements from the old flag: the four stars that signify the constellation of the Southern Cross (essentially before GPS a way to describe the latitude and longitude).
2 to 3 Basic colours
Just for fun there is a Wikipedia article that breaks down flags by number of colours (thank you amazing contributors!)
You can help our automatic cover photo selection by reporting an unsuitable photo. The cover is visually disturbing The…www.wikiwand.com
In general there seems to be a positive correlation between colours used and GDP and things go downhill after 4 colours.
No lettering or seals
The video explains this pretty well. Our human eyes have limited ability to discern minute details. Of course this goes back to keep it simple.
The only flag I find done well to include lettering is probably the Brazilian flag.
Be distinctive
This is a no brainer. Today’s word is all about branding. Creating a distinctive brand helps to break away from the mundane crowd.
Flags with 3 stripes (horizontal or vertical) are extremely difficult to differentiate, unless you’ve crafted an amazing back story like the French flag.
The following is amazing (I’m not sure if the Pantone shades are the same, but I really have a had time telling the flags apart)
The flags belonged to Chad (Africa), Romania (Europe) and Parthenopean Republic (Europe) respectively. Unless the person had a software that pulled out RGB codes or hex codes of the colour, I don’t think it’s humanly possible to figure out which flags belong to which country on first glance.
“…the city flag will become not just a symbol of that city as a place, but also it could become a symbol of how that city considers design itself, especially today, as the populace is becoming more design-aware. And I think design awareness is at an all-time high. A well-designed flag could be seen as an indicator of how a city considers all of its design systems: its public transit, its parks, its signage. It might seem frivolous, but it’s not.” ~ Roman Mars
