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Wha!? … Vex-ill-ology; The study of flags.

I’ve always been drawn to flags and to me the reasons are clear. Much like a brand or brandmark, flags are a way of uniting a set of people, identifying them as one and different to the rest. Much like a brandmark the design of a flag must be 1) simple 2) use a limited colour palette 3) unique 4) recognisable from miles away. Lastly, flags represent something – they communicate. The Nautical world have used flags to communicate for centuries.

Here’s three short pieces about flags I thought I’d share:

The first is one of the most unique looking country flags – the Nepali Flag. The reason I like this is not because of its unique shape or its symbolism, but because they have written step by step instructions on how to recreate their flag perfectly into their constitution! Article 8, Schedule 1. The instructions read like a leaving cert math paper that would perplex even Pythagoras himself. But as a graphic designer I can only equate it to a client taking pride in their brand guidelines. If you fancy trying to draw it yourself, instructions on how to create the Nepali flag can be found here.

In 2015/16 The Government of New Zealand held a referendum to see if the country wanted to change the national flag to represent their country better. Unfortunately the vote was to retain the current commonwealth flag. There were some beautiful flags that made it through the competition. Here’s some of the favourites below:

Finally, less of a story but a fascinating site I came across with every infographic you’d ever need about world flags. There are tonnes of fascinating facts to find here for example, Afghanistan have changed their flag 24 times! Which is just short of America, having changed their flag 32 times (having to add a new star each time the country acquired a new state). And the country is only 242 years old! Have a look here.

I’m also a podcastaholic – here’s a one on Vexillology. Damn worth a listen!
99% Invisable

In short. I like flags, you should too.

Glenn Bolton – Senior Graphic Designer
Glenn has been waving the flag for Neworld for 5 years now. Not so new to our design team anymore. He’s our resident craft beer aficionado, wannabe Michelin star chef,  photographer of yummy foods, maker of tiny things, Dublin tour guide and a proprietor of one of the swankiest single speed bikes around town.