Flag Design vs. Logo Design

By Jordan Davies

After watching the Ted Talk on flag design, it reminded me a lot of the principles of logo design. The first similarity is that they both represent something larger than itself. When designing a flag, you’re designing something that represents an entire city and the people in it. When designing a logo, you’re designing something that represents the product or brand. You want to make sure the design is simple, clean, memorable, easily recognizable, and represents your brand accurately. Both glad design and logo design are simplified representations of the brand that can be used in variety of places, sometimes in different formats to capture a brands identity.

Some differences between logo and flag design are that flag designs are always within the rectangle shape that is flag. This makes the design a bit more restrictive because you’re designing within certain parameters. With logo design, there’s no parameters. There’s a lot more creative freedom when it comes to designing a logo versus a flag. Also, there are no words on flags, but you can incorporate text in the design.

After watching this video, I have a clearer path of how I want to take my logo design. I was reminded that simplicity is the key to success when designing a logo, and it gave me some ideas about how to effectively design something that captures my brand. It instilled a list of do’s and don’ts and created a guide for creating the best logo possible.

This video sparked some thoughts on how I can use my logo on other conference materials. These materials include brochures, cups, shirts, tote bags, paper bags, projected on walls or panels, signs inside and outside, etc. Having a clear and recognizable design that is versatile enough to use consistently for different components of the conference will help make it cohesive and connect everything together.

Some new lessons I learned/ reinforced lessons from this video were that you are designing to represent a greater concept. I think this idea is very important to have in the back of your mind when designing because ultimately it is the most important part of the logo.