ADDY Award Flags
The Rochester, New York, ADDY Awards are tomorrow night, March 15. Insomniac Studios won't be competing, but will be in attendance to meet the competitors and congratulate the winners.
The theme of the 2018 Rochester ADDY Awards is the Olympics. The flag ceremony is one of the great Olympic traditions wherein competing countries parade the host city's stadium under their country's flag. In the spirit of the Olympics, the Rochester Advertising Federation (RAF) asked ADDY Awards attendees to design a flag for themself or their firm, agency or company.
Being big fans of flag design, Roman Mars' flag design TED Talk and Ted Kaye's Good Flag Bad Flag, this sounded like great fun. Insomniac Studios submitted two designs to the Rochester Advertising Federation: one for Insomniac Studios and one for Rochester's design community. The flag designs appear below.
The Insomniac Studios flag uses the company's colors. A yellow crescent moon, representing late nights, shines in against a grey night sky. The forward-facing pennant arrow reinforces the company motto: never rest. A schematic of the flag's design geometry appears below.
The second flag is a twist on Rochester, New York's, current flag. On the official Rochester flag, a white, five-petal lilac flower doubles as a water wheel--a tribute to the town's maritime and milling tradition on the Genesee River and Erie Canal. In this version, the flower petals are replaced with the Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator pen tool icon in a nod to the city's creative industry. The origianl text "Flour City - Flower City - City of Rochester, N.Y." is changed to "Our City - Design City."
See more flags from local firms and designers on the Rochester Adverting Federation's (RAF) Facebook page. We're partial to Makeway's anchor points and stars flag, Rich Brainerd Studios’ cocktail and limes photo flag and Truth Collective's In Lorem Ipsum We Trust flag--their take on the Sri Lanka flag.
Roman Mars Flag Design TED Talk
Good Flag, Bad Flag
North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) member and author Ted Kaye presents five basic principles for good flag design in his 14-page booklet Good Flag, Bad Flag. In it, he cites good and bad examples of flag design side by side for easy comparison. Kaye's five rules for good flag design are:
Rule 1: Keep It Simple
The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
Rule 2: Use Meaningful Symbolism
The flag’s images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
Rule 3: Use Two or Three Basic Colors
Limit the number of colors on the flag to three, which contrast well and come from the standard color set.
Rule 4: No Lettering or Seals
Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal.
Rule 5: Be Distinctive or Be Related
Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.
References
Ted Kaye's Good Flag, Bad Flag (PDF download)
North American Vexillological Association (NAVA)
Rochester ADDY Awards
American Advertising Federation Rochester
About the ADDY Awards
The ADDY Awards are the advertising industry's largest award competition. The ADDY Awards recognize the industry's creative spirit of excellence. Each year, local American Advertising Federation chapters receive about 40,000 submissions from advertising firms, companies, organizations and individual designers. Winners are selected from local American Advertising Federation chapters, which then compete in one of 15 regional competitions before ascending to the national competition. Insomniac Studios is fortunate to have been previously recognized by the American Advertising Federation.
Contact Insomniac Studios
The flag designs presented here are the property of Insomniac Studios. If you like the thinking behind this flag design project and would like to put it to work for your company, contact Insomniac Studios.