99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-06- 99% Symbolic

Episode Date: October 8, 2010

Before I moved to Chicago in 2005, I didn’t even know cities had their own flags. In Chicago, the city flag is everywhere. It’s incorporated into all different aspects of city life and the design elements are used on businesses, … Continue reading →

We get support from UC Davis, a globally ranked university, working to solve the world's most pressing problems in food, energy, health, education, and the environment. UC Davis researchers collaborate and innovate in California and around the globe to find transformational solutions. It's all part of the university's mission to promote quality of life for all living things. Find out more at 21stCentury.ucdavis.edu. This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. The five basic principles of flag design. According to the North American Vexelological Association, Vexelological.

And Vexelology is the study of flags, sexual law, that makes us so weird. Number one, keep it simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory. Before I moved to Chicago in 2005, I didn't even know cities had their own flags. Most larger cities have flags. Well, I didn't know that. That's Ted K, by the way. Hello. Flag expert.

Totally awesome guy. I'm the editor of a scholarly journal on flags called Raven, a journal of exolology. And that first city flag I discovered in Chicago is a beaut, a white field, two light blue horizontal stripes and four six pointed red stars across the middle. Number two. The blue stripes represent the water, the lake, and the rivers. Use meaningful symbolism. The red stars represent significant events

in Chicago's history. The design of the Chicago flag has complete buy-in with an entire cross-section of the city. It's everywhere. Every municipal building flies the flag. Every 20-year-olds messenger bag and hoodie has one. It's a distinct symbol of Chicago's pride. When a police officer fire- firefighter dies in Chicago,

it's not a United States flag on the casket. It's the city of Chicago flag. That's how deeply it's gotten into the city's civic imagery. And it isn't just that people love Chicago and therefore love the flag. I also think that people love Chicago more because the flag is so cool. A positive feedback loop there between great symbolism and civic pride. So when I moved back to San Francisco in 2008, I researched its flag because I'd never seen it before in the previous eight years I lived here.

And I found it, I'm sorry to say, sadly, lacking. Well, let me start at the top. Number one. Keeping it simple. So simple that a child can draw it from memory. It's a relatively complex flag. The main component of the San Francisco flag is a phoenix representing our rising

from the ashes after the great fires of the 1850s. A powerful symbol for San Francisco. I still don't really dig the phoenix. Design wise, it has too many details and too many colors, and it doesn't really work at a distance. But having deep meaning puts that element in the plus column. Behind the large Phoenix, the background is mainly white, but the flag also has a substantial gold border around it, which is a very attractive design element. It does look pretty good, but here come the big no-nose in flag design. No lettering or seals. Never use writing of any kind. Underneath the Phoenix, there's

a motto on a ribbon that translates to gold and peace, iron and war. Plus, and this is the big problem, it's a San Francisco across the bottom. If you need to write the name of what you're representing on your flag, your symbolism has failed. United States flag doesn't say USA across the front, but the good news is this name thing might not be completely our fault. A city flag in a state that has its own name on the state flag would end to echo that. Yep, the California Bear Flag says California Republic on it. So maybe we can blame this all on our capital city Sacramento,

which is awesome because I love blaming Sacramento for things. I like to say that in every bad flag there's a good flag trying to get out. Well, the way to make San Francisco's flag a good flag would be to take the model off because you can't read that at a distance. I would take the name off and the border might even be made thicker, so it's more of a part of the flag. And I would just simply take the Phoenix and make it a great big element in the middle of the flag. The current Phoenix has got to go. I would simplify or stylize the Phoenix, depict a big wide-winged bird coming out of flame, emphasize the flame.

So next time you find yourself with a vexalologist, I am never going to say that word right. A flag expert? Park yourself there. You're in for a good time. By the North American vexalological association. See, it's not just me. It's not just me. 99% Invisible is produced by me Roman Mars with support from Lunar. It's a just me.