TED Talk Tuesday #218: Vexillology – how to design a good flag

TED continues to spread ideas and help us all be better critical thinkers. Watching, listening and talking about TED Talks is a popular pastime for many in the CN&CO community. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh, learn or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations and business opportunities.

There’s been a huge kerfuffle over the National Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s plan to erect a 100-metre-high national flag at a cost of R22 million – and rightly so! R22 million can help a lot of struggling artists and sportspeople. The department argues that the giant flag will help with social cohesion and nation building. I think that’s a bit of a stretch and would totally vote against it if I were asked.

The brouhaha reminded me of a TED Talk I watched a year or two ago about flags. It was delivered by one of my favourite podcasters, Roman Mars of 99 Percent Invisible. (That, in turn, reminded me of Sheldon Cooper’s “Fun with Flags” from “The Big Bang Theory”. But that’s another topic for another blog.)

Roman’s talk was titled “Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed” and he recorded a podcast episode live on the TED stage (which is a really cool thing to do, imho).

Check out the TED Talk below, in which he gives a big shoutout to the SA flag for its great design. Is our flag worth a R22m monolith? Absolutely not. But it’s a fabulous flag, nonetheless. 🇿🇦