Flag Sweet Flag

Ever wonder how to show town pride? Roman Mars’ TED Talk will encourage you to revamp your town’s flag and have you laughing along the way.

After watching the presentation myself, I began to do some research on flags and their design process. I also tried to find a flag for my own hometown, but unfortunately could not. I live in Fairview Heights,Illinois, a small city just thirty minutes shy of St. Louis. As stated in the video, larger cities are usually the ones that have created their own flag. So I have decided to take Mars' advice and create a flag for my town.












Upon creation, I kept in mind the five rules for good flag design. The design is simple, It contains images that can be drawn by small children if retained in their memory. The flag is of course rectangular in shape and the images with are also from simple shape structures. My flag also includes meaningful symbols. The symbols placed within represent Fairview Heights and would be easily recognized by its citizens without the name. My symbols include, a heart in the center of the flag. The heart is to represent that Fairview Heights is a city surrounded by other cities. It also is to show the immense compassion within the city and its residents. There are also four smaller icons. The house in the top left corner represents the huge amount of neighborhood in Fairview Heights and the importance of community. The hamburger in the bottom left corner represents the delicious foods and cuisine that Fairivew Heights has to offer its natives and our tourists. The building in the top right corner represents all of the businesses within Fairview Heights,whether they be law, commercial, or entertainment. Fairview Heights has many state ran buildings, banks, firms, movie theaters, and hotels. The icon in the bottom right corner is a shopping bag. This icon represents the immense amount of grocery stores and shopping centers contained within our little town. My final symbol is the flag itself, upon distant examination, one can see that the flag resembles a dollar bill. This to show that we genrate a majority of our own funds and are a hard-working town. We do not receive much federal assistance, only state assistance, which is why we wave the Illinois flag. Unfortunately, none of the symbols have historical background because Fairview is not an older city and has had no impacting historical events.
The design also includes three basic colors, red, black, and green. The red is the color of the heart, naturally. The green is the color of the dollar and the black depicts the icons. In addition, my flag does not contain any small lettering or seals. I refrained from doing so not only because Mars' reminded us how tacky and illegible it is, but also because I have faced this struggle upon reading flags such as the Illinois state flag and others as well. Lastly, I was quite distinct in executing my flags layout, I have never seen a flag that looks this way and undoubtedly will not. I do not by any means think my layout is perfect. Actually, upon creating this design, I had gained better ideas that could mold and shape my flag into a future possibility.
In closing, I do believe my flag is clear and attractive, not to mention accurate. I would hope to some day create a potential flag and have it waving in our park, at our mall, and at town hall. My flag is one we can appreciate and admire. It speaks t the true culture of Fairview Heights...


Five Rules:
1. Keep it simple. The flag should be simple that even a child can draw it from memory.
2. Use meaningful symbolism, patterns and images should relate to what they symbolize. Should have deep meaning or relation to historical or important events/features.
3. Use 2-3 basic colors from the standard color set such as red, white, blue, green, yellow, and black.
4. No lettering or seals; never use writing of any kind. It can’t be read at a distance!
-If you have to write the name of what you are symbolizing (i.e. the city) then you are failing.
5. Be distinctive!