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

What it is

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.

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

“one must watch the short talk on state and country flags”
Short talk on good state and country flag design.
alpb, 2020-02 · Strong recommendation · in “State of Oklahoma's New Brand Identity / Logo”
“Roman taught me in his seminal TED talk”
Seminal TED talk on flag design principles.
misterS, 2022-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Country Flags in SVG”
“99% Invisible does a great episode on what makes a good flag”
Explains what makes a good flag, citing Chicago, DC and Amsterdam.
djsumdog, 2020-02 · Recommendation · in “State of Oklahoma's New Brand Identity / Logo”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: vexillology, design principles, roman mars, city flags, branding