Do you need to design a flag for your organization? Here are a few tips from known vexillologist Ted Kaye (a person who studies flags) on becoming your own vexillographer (flag designer) in making your own custom flag. These principles of flag design are outlined in Kaye’s book Good Flag, Bad Flag.

First up in making a custom flag is to keep it simple. Simple defined in this sense would mean that a child can draw it from memory. This way simplicity would ensure recall of the symbol that you have chosen to represent your organization or company.

Next, use meaningful symbolism. Your custom flag should use images and colors that reflect your organizations key values or attributes. Even patterns involved should relate to this symbolism. This ensures that your flag is relevant to what it is trying to represent. Another tip is to use the standard color set and limit the colors to three. Standard set refers to the common colors found in today’s flags, such as the Pan African colors ( red-green-gold) or Pan Slavic colors (red-white-blue). The colors of the Olympic flag contain the standard set of colors found in all flags.

When designing the flag, avoid using lettering or writing or any organization’s seal. A seal is meant to be at close range, a flag is meant to be draped or flown. You may use elements in the seal and tie it back to your flag design, be it a color or a shape. Writing is discouraged as it detracts from simplicity and cannot show up from a distance. These two are also hard to sew on a flag and do not easily reverse.

And finally, depending on the flag’s purpose, be distinctive or be related. You can show uniqueness in the design, but use enough elements of similarity to show connections to other flags if needed. With these tips in mind, you can come up with a great custom flag design for your company or organization.