SheffieldForum Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 A city flag is part of a city's identity and a good city flag can be found everywhere - from flying around city properties to being sold on items in gift shops to representing the city on produce. It creates symbolism to get behind and promotes civic pride. As Ted Kaye from the North American Vexillological Association says: "Often when city leaders say we have more important things to do than worry about than a city flag, my response is that if you had a great city flag you would have a banner for people to rally under to face those more important things." Or, as Roman Mars says in the below video: "The marriage of good design and civic pride is something that we need in all places. The best part about municipal flags is that we own them. They are an open-source, publicly owned design language of the community. When they are done well, they are remixable, adaptable, and they are powerful." Here's a video feature both of those quotes, which is a very well put together TED Talk on the subject and sets the context for the conversation: So - we should have a Sheffield city flag for people to get behind and use. Historically we have had the coat of arms on a flag ("seal on a bedsheet"), or the Yorkshire Rose (which is great, but isn't specific to Sheffield). There was, for a while, a flag for South Yorkshire which had a wavy pattern and an 'S' and 'Y' under a Yorkshire rose, but again - it isn't specific to Sheffield. The latest guidance in Sheffield for flying flags is to fly the Union Flag for almost all of the time, which is great in itself also but just isn't... Sheffield. Therefore, I think we should look to create a flag for Sheffield. We should look at other awesome city designs and best practice (Amsterdam and Chicago in the above video are great examples) and have something simple and easily replicable that would represent the city. Something we could all openly use and get behind. The rules for good flag design are generally considered to be: 1. Keep it simple - a flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory 2. Use meaningful symbolism 3. Use two to three basic colours - from the standard colour set: red, white, blue, green yellow and black 4. No lettering, seals or coat of arms - never use writing of any kind 5. Be distinctive and easy to make out from a distance There have been some unofficial attempts in the past - here's a couple I found online: (TMcB23/Wikimedia) Good start, but maybe too busy and complex in parts of the design? And here's another one that is a little bit more modern (but again probably too complex): (Mourning Starre / Reddit) So - what do you think? Should we start a campaign to create an open source, usable, distinct, beautiful and simple civic flag for Sheffield? Sheffield Forum | The Sheffield Guide | The Sheffield Shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggletail Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 Maybe a flag that somehow incorporates Hendos without the actual full branding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butlers Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 Hasnt New Zealand altered there national flag a few years back Sports teams,well football,have had a recent trend for new club badges partly to copyright them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 Isn't this Sheffield's flag incorporating it's coat of arms?: Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit' means "With God's help our labour is successful." I like it. Not sure about the modern. I like geometric designs, but that one looks a bit amateurish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RollingJ Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 1 minute ago, Mister M said: Isn't this Sheffield's flag incorporating it's coat of arms?: Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit' means "With God's help our labour is successful." I like it. Not sure about the modern. I like geometric designs, but that one looks a bit amateurish. I agree with you. Personally - possibly because I'm old and grumpy 😄 - I fail to see the need to 'modernise' everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheffieldForum Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 17 minutes ago, Mister M said: Isn't this Sheffield's flag incorporating it's coat of arms?: Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit' means "With God's help our labour is successful." I like it. Not sure about the modern. I like geometric designs, but that one looks a bit amateurish. As per the rules above (and the video) - no seals or coats of arms (although you can use it as a design jumping off point) and no lettering allowed. If you didn’t watch to video it is well worth a watch — really interesting and entertaining. Sheffield Forum | The Sheffield Guide | The Sheffield Shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 I suppose this image from Sheffield High Street is out of the question then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 On a more serious note, something like this meets the criteria outlined by the OP: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HallamGirl Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 I thought the Sheffield flag was a red star, red hammer, red sickle and red crescent on a red background... always seems that way after election time anyhow, 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Petre Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 3 hours ago, Draggletail said: Maybe a flag that somehow incorporates Hendos without the actual full branding? There was, is and always will be more to Sheffield than Hendo's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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