I was once driving around the city when I came upon a question, did Atlanta have a flag? I later found out that it did, and at the time, I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t say I liked it either. It wasn’t until a few months later that someone recommended a TED Talk by my favorite podcaster, Roman Mars. Roman Mars runs a podcast series called 99% Invisible, which discusses the hidden design in Cities. In the TED Talk, he talked about how cities should change their flags to represent their city and that they should take pride in their flag no matter what.
This TED Talk revolutionized my thinking about flags and made me obsessed with them. I got books about flags from the library, asked people about flags, visited museum exhibits about flags, and even went to a flag walkway with every state flag there.
In the TED talk, Roman Mars outlined the principles of good flag design:
- Keep it Simple
- Use Meaningful Symbolism
- Use 2-3 basic colors.
- No Lettering or Seals
- Be Distinctive
In Atlanta’s Flag, these rules are not well applied. It is not simple, has lettering and a seal, and is not distinctive. However, it uses 2-3 primary colors and has meaningful symbolism. The phoenix rising out of the flames represents when Atlanta was rebuilt after General Sherman burned it down in the Civil War in 1864. However, this flag resembles hundreds of other American city and state flags. However, there are some excellent flags in America, such as Chicago’s flag, which is below.
The Chicago city flag has two blue stripes representing Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Between those two stripes are four red stars representing when Fort Dearborn was founded, the Chicago Fire, the Columbian Exposition, and the Century of Progress Exposition. This flag is only one of a few great city flags. Over in Europe, however, the city flags there are perfect. One such example is the city flag of Amsterdam below.
One thing I find absorbing about Amsterdam and Chicago is that their city flags are everywhere. They are in shop windows, on mugs, in restaurants, in house windows, in museums, and in many other places. Although I didn’t know that cities even had flags in Atlanta until I visited Chicago. This shows that when you have a great city flag, people are proud of it. They unify themselves under it, creating a sense of local pride. Flags are meant to be flown everywhere, not in some dusty, old cabinet in the archives room.
I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it’s marked by the blood of those who died defending it.
John Thune
