You could probably refer to DEBASE, from Malmoe Sweden as the band who defi… Read Full Bio ↴You could probably refer to DEBASE, from Malmoe Sweden as the band who defies all attempts to be labelled. Critics nationally as well as internationally, have in positive reviews put them in genres like doom, thrash, power and neo-metal and compared them to the likes of, to name a few, Machine Head, Rammstein, Metallica and Queensrÿche. Even though DEBASE’s music seems difficult to describe, there's really nothing complicated in their cocky delivered, brutal and above all catchy heavy metal, heavy being the main word. As Micko Twedberg (bass) simply puts it, "The DEBASE-sound is just the natural sound of us five combined." In 1996 Micko, together with guitarists Jonas Karlgren and Sigge Riesbeck, formed DEBASE and when lead singer Michael Hansson and the band’s first drummer Marten Hedener joined they quickly established themselves as a strong and powerful liveband. After cooperating with Roasting House Production "The World is Listening" was released in 1999 for the world to hear. The album was very well received when launched in Europe and after replacing drummer Hedener with Johan Helgesson DEBASE once again confirmed their reputation as being charismatic metalengines with an astonishing ability to conquer the stage. The stage is where they prove themselves as the tight, confident, hardworking band they are and if you haven't experienced DEBASE's live perfomance, you haven't really heard DEBASE.
After supporting Alice Cooper during the "Brutal Planet" tour in summer 2000 DEBASE returned to Roasting House for the second album "Domination" which was released in fall 2001. The opening track and first video, "Stoneage 2K" is a strong statement of the cynical way we treat each other and our planet. This strongly proved that Debase was really true metal and though high expectations were built-up no one was disappointed. The great response followed by "Domination" reached its climax in November that year when DEBASE toured Scandinavia warming up for Judas Priest and as usual the five piece combo delivered. Six months later it was time for another European crusade, tearing up the roads with Canadian thrashers Annihilator. Having roared 30 stages in 10 countries and newly signed to Sanctuary / Noise Records, the time had come to record their third studio album, "Unleashed". This unstrained manifesto truly confirms their strength and skill, giving meaning to what ´s been referred to as DEBASE-metal.

Biography by Eva Grahn @ http://www.debase.se/story.htm

LINE UP
Micko Twedberg bass
Jonas Karlgren guitar
Sigge Riesbeck guitar
Michael Hansson vocals
Johan Helgesson drums

White Flag
Debase Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We lost our souls
We have no control
Like slow-motion shadows
We are a dream
White flag - save our souls
White flag - save our souls
Loud heartbeat
We all breathe

We can't stand no more
Please
Silent mouth
We only dream
No hands up
No loud scream
White flag - save our souls
White flag - save our souls
Thousand horror scenes
On the color screen
Have to be quiet
And only dream
No hands up
No loud scream

White flag - save our souls
White flag - save our souls

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Debase's song "White Flag" describe a feeling of helplessness and loss of control in the face of an overwhelming force. The singer reflects on the loss of their soul and the slow-motion movements of their life, feeling like they are stuck in a dream. The repeated plea to "save our souls" through the white flag suggests a surrender to this force, acknowledging that they are unable to fight against it. The imagery of a quiet mouth and dreaming further emphasizes their lack of agency, as they are unable to raise their hands or scream out for help. The final stanza's references to horror scenes on a color screen add to the sense of a world beyond their control, one that they can only bear witness to.

Overall, the lyrics to "White Flag" evoke a sense of despair, resignation and helplessness, portraying a feeling of being utterly overwhelmed and unable to fight back against the world.

Line by Line Meaning

We lost our souls
We have become lost and disconnected from ourselves

We have no control
We lack the ability to exert any control over our circumstances

Like slow-motion shadows
We move through life in a state of detachment and disconnection

We are a dream
Our existence feels surreal and disconnected from reality

White flag - save our souls
We acknowledge our surrender and seek salvation from our despair

Loud heartbeat
Our anxiety and fear is palpable

We all breathe
We share in the struggle to survive

We can't stand no more
We have reached our breaking point and can no longer endure

Please
We beg for relief from our suffering

Silent mouth
We suffer in silence, unable to express ourselves

We only dream
We escape reality through our dreams

No hands up
We are too weak to fight back

No loud scream
Our pain and suffering goes unnoticed and unheard

Thousand horror scenes
The world is filled with tragedy and darkness

On the color screen
We see this despair and horror played out on our screens

Have to be quiet
We are told to keep our pain to ourselves

And only dream
Our only escape is through our imagination

White flag - save our souls
We look to the white flag for mercy and salvation

Contributed by Cole C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

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01Black messias4:53

02candyman messias3:31

03Bedtime Stories5:03

04Star Wars5:44

05Mad Preacher4:01

06world Is Listening, The1:23

07Sioux Replica5:10

08No One Remembers4:24

09White Flag3:35

PT3M35S

Debase

10Blood On The Roots3:06

11Tale from the Sewer4:00

12bitter Taste, The5:55

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Comments from YouTube:

Skorpeon RyDer

5y↑2.5K

Four years later and I use this to design a flag in Animal Crossing...
The power of Ted Talks, everyone...

Lavii

4y↑13

That’s a cool idea actually! Might change mine.

oLi.P

4y↑6

I love flags and designed what I thought was a good flag in New Horizons. I then watched this the day after. And I immediately spent all afternoon designing a new one following the rules Roman laid out.

Lemon Meringue

2y↑1

I love animal crossing c:

Connor Fujishige

4y↑32

For those interested in modern flag design: check out the Japanese municipal flags. Most of them are actually designed with the Kanji that makes up the name of the district in mind.

Burgmannn

2y↑1

They are cool. Leave it to the Japanese to perfect something.

pyrotheevilplatypus

These look like epic sports logos!!!

Georg Lang

4y↑2.7K

"There shouldn't be no flag inside another flag"
coughs in British

elonwhatever

4y↑164

Except the union jack marries those elements together into a cohesive design.
Then again, the Union is probably going to split up soon, so that may quickly become a non issue.

Col-o-nel Mustard

4y↑27

Well, 2020 is the year of disaster, so anything goes.

poke

4y↑2

+Col-o-nel Mustard yay brexit..

Kieran MZ

4y↑46

I think you mean Australian or new zealand

32 More Replies...

Alessandro Marchetti

5y↑882

Fun fact:
In 2017, Pocatello Idaho changed their flag. And, let's be honest, they chose an incredibly good flag:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocatello,_Idaho#/media/File%3AFlag_of_Pocatello%2C_Idaho.svg

MK

4y↑218

Also a fun fact: The (partial, but significant) reason they did that was this video bringing infamy to their flag

User

4y↑28

wow, it's really cute.

Shayne1880

4y↑135

In fact, Roman Mars (the guy in this video) was given a seat on the council to replace it

G M K

4y↑17

LOVE IT

Clem West

4y↑24

It looks SO GOOD now!

16 More Replies...

Severity One

4y↑280

As a former resident of Amsterdam: yes, the flag is cool. Immediately recognisable, too. And if you look at the country that Amsterdam is the capital of, the Netherlands, that has a pretty great flag, too. It's the oldest revolutionary flag in the world, and although it started as orange-white-blue, it quickly became red-white-blue. I like to think that those colours inspired many other (revolutionary) flags. It's simple as well: three horizontal stripes, equal in size, featuring primary colours (and white). You just don't see it a lot in the Netherlands, only one single flag on government buildings, because the Dutch aren't that keen on waving flags about.

Stephen Wells

2y↑8

Personally, I prefer the orange, white, and blue of the Prince's flag. The red, white, and blue might have been original when the Dutch adopted it, but so many countries have adopted flags with those colours and in similar patterns that it is easy to mix them up if you aren't familiar with them. Not a lot of flags use orange, so the Prince's flag is immediately recognizable.

Unfortunately, the Prince's flag was hijacked by Dutch Nazis in the 1930s, so flying it in the modern age brings with it certain baggage.

Hello Im Erik

2y↑5

The reason it got changed from orange to red is because the orange was not visible when at sea. Considering the flag was designed during the time of naval exploration and combat it made sense to change it to red.

Grofvolkoren

2y↑1

@Hello Im Erik That is not the reason. The red variant was flown on the trade ships and is older than the orange version. Stop telling lies.

pyrotheevilplatypus

2y↑3

And when you're in distress, your flag becomes the flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

1 More Replies...

Keifu Chan

5y↑5K

"A flag should be so simple a child can draw it from memory" Yeaaah Japan!

Julio Henrique

5y↑146

Bangladesh too hahaha 🇧🇩

Jan Fišer

4y↑189

as I remember my childhood memories with flags I am gonna tell you that circles are not simple.

Brian Smith

4y↑22

simplicity at its best

리주민

4y↑75

South Korea and Canada- best flags...though I still can't draw that maple leaf to save my life. 🇨🇦🇰🇷

64 More Replies...

George Rosebush

9y↑558

He turned such a seemingly mundane topic into something so engaging, the guy's talented.

Anna-Maria Markova

9y↑37

+George Rosebush It's his voice and passion combined with this exceptional presentation that engages a lot!

Chadfleanthony

8y↑8

I found his voice distracting to be honest. Most of the time he sounds like he's going to start crying.

TheObserver

+George Rosebush I was thinking the same! Talented guy.

TheObserver

+George Rosebush I was thinking the same! Talented guy.

TheObserver

8y↑1

+George Rosebush I was thinking the same! Talented guy.

Chief Smackaho LLC

4y↑93

The Anaheim city council actually mentioned that this video was one of the things that brought about the idea to change it. They also cited the creation of the new Angel Stadium and the need for something not-awful to fly on the flagpoles in front. Since then, the city has installed the flag in at least 20 public places (as opposed to zero places before) and the old one's been pretty much forgotten.
It's 3 horizontal bars of dark blue, light blue, dark blue, and ring of 6 white stars centered to represent the 6 city districts. Nothing inspired or innovative but it's so much better than the old one.

Pendragon

1y↑2

A late late reply but my god that is a well-designed flag.

I know nothing about Anaheim but I assume it's a city that sits on either side of a river based on that design language.

kwombok

1y↑4

@Pendragon they only adopted it from 2018 to 2019 and then went BACK to the old flag T_T there's no hope for us

Alex M

1y↑2

@kwombok yeah, i sah that too just now when looking it up. The old/current one is horrible. Why on eartht did they not keep that "new" design. I like it

Carl Siemens

3y↑49

The Pocatello flag is now (as of 2017) incredible. It follows all the rules and is just striking.

wyntmoon

4y↑191

"Keep it simple. The flag should be so simple that a child could draw it from memory"
Did you hear that? Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming?

andsens

Looking at San Franciscos flag that seems to be exactly what happend.

Bla Bleu

Seems like someone studied their geography lesson

D H

@Based Gaming ah, I'll go take a look then

Fred Riddles

2y↑2

(Sees my home state flag listed in the comment) What's wrong with my flag?
(Looks it up)
Now I know why I haven't seen it until now.

DC4LcorkscrewPAT

Illinois flag is cool

5 More Replies...

Philippe Jean

5y↑324

I don't know why, but everytime it shows up in my recommended, I have to watch it again. It's been like 10-12 times now. I'm just happy that Pocatello has a great looking flag now! Top country grade flag to say the least.

F T

3y↑3

I can relate to this. Great combination of voice, fun, content, melancholic music

Angelena Pulis

2y↑2

Just looked up their new flag. It's much better! Good for them.

John C Ray

655⁶⁷

pyrotheevilplatypus

2y↑4

I googled "Pocatello" and Google immediately asked me if I was looking for "Pocatello *flag*". I'm guessing this TED talk is the only reason anyone googles Pocatello

tommy karrick

5y↑49

I’ve seen this ted talk so many times and it’s still one of my favorites, if not my favorite over all

locohombre79

9y↑7

A rare gift for a radio presenter to be more captivating to listen to while looking at them. Congratulations, Roman Mars, you are 100% inspirational

Vivian Galleher

5y↑7

Living and growing up in Chicago I was in the opposite position to Roman. I thought all cities had their flag everywhere but I guess I was wrong. I’m now actually even more proud of our flag after watching this.

Matt Snyder

4y↑76

I saw an article a few years back where someone redesigned all 50 state flags to match around a common design theme.

They were all red, white, and blue, and featured unique ties to their states.

Angelena Pulis

2y↑1

Oooh that's a cool idea. Let's show our connectedness!

jennifer singh

2y↑6

Touch the Maryland flag and there will be a riot

2 More Replies...

Zach Durocher

4y↑648

Imagine if the US flag had "UNITED STATES" printed on it

Lee Waters

4y↑95

Frankly, I'm amazed it doesn't. lol

Chief Smackaho LLC

4y↑59

@Lee Waters If it had been created after 1960 it probably would have had, at least, "U.S.A." in a field at the bottom.

Mr. Stifter

4y↑23

Or In God We Trust

Fucisko

4y↑23

It does sound like something USA would do.

Red Dragon

4y↑14

DON'T TREAD ON ME

9 More Replies...

tommy karrick

4y↑10

This is a beautiful thing that man has done here
Everyone there walked in knowing nothing about flags and caring even less, and by the end they were so invested and aware of design principles that they (and I) were able to hear flag jokes or see bad flags and genuinely laugh
Usually it takes a lot to make a person invested in something enough that they can relate to the comedy based off of it but he pulls it off beautifully
Genuinely one of if not my favorite TED talks of all time

Vincent Vega

4y↑16

This is probably one of the best if not the best delivered TED talk I've seen

Nathan Tucker

8y↑487

I am actually designing a series of nearly 150 flags as part of a project for my senior year at high school. as the loval vexillologist i have taken it upon myself to make a flag to represent every graduating student for us to fly on graduation day

komyn27

8y↑12

Is there someplace I could follow your work? I'm a graphic designer too.

Nathan Tucker

8y↑4

I have a facebook page. Nate K Tucker

thepurpleflute

8y↑2

+Nathan Tucker I found your personal profile, but not an actual page to find your work. I'm interested in liking it and following along your project.

Nathan Tucker

8y↑2

thepurpleflute i have a photo album called Flags of Gordon Lee.

Naomi

8y↑4

That's so cool!

4 More Replies...

ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ

4y↑53

Our state flag here in California breaks a lot of (almost all of) these design rules and yet, in my opinion, it somehow still works. You see our bear and star everywhere across the state!

Taking it a step further. Here in Riverside our flag is more of a mess but the mission bell is still plastered everywhere.

Daniel Huffman

2y↑8

You probably know this, but I find it really interesting that the species of bear on the Californian flag is actually extinct.

rynabuns

1y↑7

the bear and star are very distinctive — if you got rid of the words, people would probably still recognise it… so get rid of the words!!!
get rid of the grass too
enlarge the bear (why is it specified it has to be only 1/3 the length of the flag? that's too small!)
simplify the bear if you want, but first and foremost, get rid of the words!

Sriram Sridhara

3y↑105

I really admire his presence. He is not trying at all to be heard, to be funny, to sound smart. He elegantly talked about a interesting topic.

Am I the only one who really wants to have the mental clarity he has.

yared94

2y↑6

Id go one step further and say he made an obscure topic incredibly interesting.

bobograndman

4y↑675

Hong Kong's flag is the gold standard to me, you could recognize that flower anywhere and from nearly any distance due to it's simplicity

Edmond Cristian Razmerita

4y↑37

But it is hard to draw :') (for me at least)

Rizki Kurniadin

4y↑3

yeah i think its pretty recognizablr

ingvik

4y↑14

laughs in nordic flags

Jaeden

4y↑2

KristianVal 笑笑

Drew Kermendy

4y↑7

Macau also has a wonderful flag (the stars are kinda intricate but i love it)

9 More Replies...

Edward Sholty

5y↑10

Thanks for such a concise critique of our cities' profoundly awful flag designs. I have two theories about flag designs.
1. Flags were originally used in battle so the troops could tell the difference between friend and foe (and where headquarters was). Simplicity was, in this case, a sine qua non. Bad design caused terminal results.
2. Most municipal flags are the work of a committee. Not even a committee of artists, but of politicians and political appointees (and/or their spouses.) This is where the insistence on seals and text come from. They are mostly the product of compromise. While compromise is admirable in resolving partisan issues, it is of no use in corporate design. This is one reason why most big corporations pay millions to a third-party design team to do the work for them. It is harder to reject a design that you have already paid millions for. Where your treasure is, there will be your aesthetics be, also, so to speak.
This is why I would counsel any artist to avoid "design contests" or "fun/free" design projects. As one Dallas art director once observed, "If it's going to be free, it had better damn well be fun." If a city approaches you for a municipal flag, the first thing they had better hear from you is, "This is really going to cost you." That will send the bargain hunters fleeing.

LordHonkInc

4y↑15

I'm an illustrator (not for flags), and I keep coming back for 9:04 when helping people with their designs, whatever it may be - websites, characters, logos, etc. The points are so simple and salient, even (or rather, especially) non-artists get a profound understanding of "actually, yeah, it does look better that way" when we use a more simplified palette or take out confusingly misplaced detail in a project. Same with the stamp size test (13:25); there's no simpler way to "tactfully nudge" somebody into reconsidering their iconography than showing them how their image dissolves into obscurity when it's scaled down. (within reason, of course. I understand that you can make anything unrecognizable by reducing it to a handful of pixels, the point is more along the lines of "it'll look nice on the marquee, but what about your business cards?")
Maybe it's superfluous to comment on a five year old video, but I just want to put into writing how thankful I am to Mr. Mars and his colleagues for putting such a profound thought into such easy to understand words.

Jorge Daniel

7y↑226

Yesterday I watched an 11 minute video about aluminum cans. Today, an 18 minute video about flags. And I gotta say, the world of design is amazing, and there are genius behind everything we take for granted in our lives.

Jack Chase

6y↑3

I love the internet because somehow I know the exact can video your talking about

mazzalnx

5y↑12

I have zero idea why this came up on my 'recommended videos' list but I genuinely care about flags. And I'm glad to all heavens that my modest South American municipal flag does adhere to a simple, 3-color and very unique design, I thought of it and knew it by heart the moment he started talking about city flags. I'm proud of it.

WannabeHistorian692

5y↑1

Where is it?

ChromaFox

4y↑5

This worked, people took notice and let their officials know, now Anaheim and Pocatello both have new flags that look great, Reno adopted a really nice looking one, and Milwaukee has a potential design that might eventually get adopted, but they're stuck in limbo cause some people said the competition didn't have enough judges and wasn't inclusive enough.

Lukas Gauvreau

5y↑37

A flag is as important now as a coat of arms would’ve been for royalty in olden times. Recognizable design that can be easily replicated has always been a key to a good design.

Maybe if people designing the flags thought of it more as a representation of their family and themselves they might make a better design that would be liked or at least approved by the populace. Lol idk anything about flags other than this video but that’s my two cents on the topic

Draconic74 ガチコイ

5y↑4

I wonder how the Brazilian flag holds up to the rules. While it has small text on a banner of sorts, as well as a series of star patterns (based on the night sky) that may be hard to draw, the main shapes and designs are extremely simple, pleasantly colored and easy to recognize even at a distance. They also play well into more abstracted forms of the flag, so that you know what is being represented. So while it feels like it breaks a few rules, if you just leave those bits out the flag still stands on its own.

Nautical Creations

4y↑1.9K

Roman Mars - His parents named him so that He wouldn't be confused with the Greek Mars, called ares

Käntwo

4y↑5

Nautical Creations lmao

Marco Lu

4y↑36

Don't mix him up with Greek Ares.

Mr. Fahrenheit

4y↑16

God of War?
No, God of Flags

Ansia

You just cracked this greek echelon here, 30 seconds to naming

DanThePropMan

8y↑13

When he started talking about city flags, I thought for sure he was going to call out Provo, Utah, with its WordArt-looking design. Then he showed some of his examples and I realized that Provo doesn't even crack the top 10 bad designs. Wow.

Evoleo

4y↑42

In fact, Japan flag can be drawn by a kid ACCIDENTALLY. What a great design

Janette Wong

45w↑2

Fun fact: you can wake up on a flag of Japan if your body has a certain monthly cycle

“Woke up on a flag of Japan” is a regular response I have to the question, “how are you” when asked as a salutation

roflmows

5y↑158

my dad was a chicago cop from 1966-1998. when he passed away in 1998, his casket was draped with the Chicago flag at his funeral--a gift from the city.

Billy Singe

4y↑5

That’s great. I bet Chicago was very proud that it was the city in which he was a cop.

Edward J. Cunningham

4y↑2

Although it's a very complicated flag that most kids CAN'T draw simply from memory, I'm proud of Maryland's state flag. Virginia on the other hand isn't ugly, but you wouldn't know that it was Virginia's flag as opposed to another state with a shield superimposed on a blue background (New Jersey?) until you get close up. You can recognize Maryland's flag at a distance EASILY!

Please be nice

5y↑3

I was having a really bad night, but watching this just put the biggest, dumbest smile on my face all the way through. This man could cure cancer and eliminate famine with the sheer amount of infectious, adorable enthusiasm he radiates for what he does. Best Ted Talk I’ve ever seen, thank you Roman! This really inspired me and I’m sure many others

GippyHappy

3y↑3

Bad flags are what you get when non artists design things.

Funnily enough, as soon as he showed the SF flag, I was thinking exactly what he said later "there's a good design in there, it just needs a little revision" and the first redesign was almost exactly how I was imagining I would change it.
(Except, I think the brown bird over fire looks like you're cooking a chicken. I would make it look like the bird is made of fire, because that's instantly recognizable as a phoenix, but that's just me)

Maxwell Jacobs

8y↑57

The Brazilian flag has writing on it and it's amazing

The South African flag has 7 colors and is amazing.

There is often exceptions to the rules.

Leonardo Artist

8y↑8

I hate the SA flag. It's too busy and too many colors. One of, if not the world's worst.

Sean Gannon

8y↑1

There's always a couple of exemptions

Fort Yort

8y↑15

Definitely a matter of taste, but in my opinion the Brazilian flag would be better without the lettering and stars. Green flag, yellow diamond, blue circle. Or perhaps more uniform stars in neat formation.

R

The Australian flag represents England and not Australia... And that's amazing... Not...

Rafa Borges

8y↑2

Just to add, the Brazilian flag it's not only written, but also contains a lot of small stars representing the south sky during at the independence day. Each star represents a state capital and the banner with the motto represents the equator.

9 More Replies...

Joachim Von Grimorium

5y↑13

i live in spain, in a region called Catalonia, city of Reus. my flag is white, with a red rose (seen from above) on the middle. it has changed quite a bit until 1998. the original was a crest it had 6 roses and a cerulean band, it's from 1349. it's one of the first cities of the region to have a crest for its own (instead of having the lord's crest)

the story and the mithology behind it is lovely.

Dana Thurnell

5y↑22

I live in the suburbs of Chicago and we spent a solid 2 weeks learning about the Chicago flag and what it stands for and had a test on it. We literally have never talked about the Illinois flag.

Neel: The Other

3y↑4

Congrats to Pocatello. Thanks to this TED Talk, they adopted a new flag, and it's badass!

Iris Sagar

4y↑24

Oh my god. When I was younger this was my mother's favorite TED Talk. I've been listening to 99% Invisible for a few years. Just connected the dots now. Damn.

Jyl Johnson

4y↑1

Cool, huh? I agree!

João Solimeo

2y↑1

This video represents many of the things I love. A great presentation; the care behind the text and the audio cues, flawless. A great presenter, with a great voice and who really cares about what he is saying. Great sense of humor, he is funny even when he is calling some city´s flag "that thing".

Mulan 121

8y↑4K

Very unusual presentation style, but I like it. Surprisingly interesting talk, I never thought of flags as interesting before watching this

SuperAwesomeCaptain McFluffyPants

8y↑145

+Aerroon Wow, an idea about design and developing things which are engaging and designing things with "intent". You have failed to see the point of this video.

Ruminations

8y↑145

+Aerroon
This video does present an idea. That idea being how to create a good design. This isn't a performance, it just has a unique presentation.

Aaron Mackay

8y↑71

This was actually riveting.

Design by Amy

8y↑28

Totally agree I didn't even know my city had a flag til this presentation

Mario Reyes

8y↑69

listen to 99% invisible podcast. he talks about so many cool things and it all in this style

19 More Replies...

Clar1nettist

3y↑12

The Milwaukee flag is the flag equivalent of every "graphic design is my passion" picture

TK Lyte

3y↑4

I've watched this multiple times now and it never disappoints.

Naj Renchelf

1y↑1

I think the funniest element of this TED Talk is simply how passionate Roman is about flags...

Jergen

5y↑3

This video made me research my citys flag, and just as I pulled up the wiki page and stared at the flag you called it out as an example. Trondheim truly has a beautiful flag.

Benjamin Patrick

5y↑2

I'm from Tulsa Oklahoma and there was a flag competition was put on and then the Tulsa city officials rejected the flag that won and instead made it a bed sheet with a seal on it. But if you look up the tulsa city flag on the internet you'll find the awesome city flag that won the contest and what the people of Tulsa fly instead of the official flag.

Laura Brennan

8y↑12

I actually think the Milwaukee flag is really pretty! It would make a nice city poster, just is a bit too complicated for a flag

caiocc12

5y↑1

I searched for Pocatello because I couldn't believe it was real. Was surprised to find that due to this TED talk, they actually collected submissions and changed their flag! It's a really nice one they've got now.

Lewis Filby

4y↑3

I've been hearing Roman's wonderful voice for so long without seeing him. Strange how your imagination builds these faces for people you only hear on podcasts or radio. I'm off on a mission to put faces to all these lovely voices now

sriracha sauce

4y↑2

I'm not even into flag design but the way this guy constructs his radio show is so calming and comforting

FoxPhire 00

5y↑1

I have a feeling some of us from Tulsa saw this TED (specifically 8:10 , bottom right) and started the flag campaign (also, the seal was copyrighted, so no one but the city could make the flag (p.s. we have a new, official and adopted, public domain flag http://www.tulsaflag.com )
Update: I just found a link to an article that talks about this exactly
https://mvskokemedia.com/tulsans-work-on-new-flag-design/

Benjamin Gibson

4y↑3

This guys podcast is legitimately the best podcast ever. I found it because of this talk about three years ago and I’m so hooked

Joanna M.

7y↑384

That second revised San Francisco flag design, with the Phoenix in the middle of black and gold, is gorgeous. Please make that happen!

PongoXBongo

6y↑21

Agreed. It's reminiscent of a Medieval battle standard.

AVlogaboutaVlog

6y↑11

you could sell the phoenix in the middle as a pin

Peter Brooke

6y↑6

i second this it looked amazing

Rebeca Mugwort

6y↑3

As a resident of a not too far away town, I can tell you They’ve tried to change the San Francisco flag many times recently... but in a significantly more... colourful, way.

NonsenseFabricator

5y↑8

The only problem is that there's another city you'd more closely associate with a Phoenix (cough)

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Mohammad Sarwar

3y↑1

I never gave that much attention to flags of the cities, well presented topic with lots of details and humor! Well done!

Darger Family

2y↑2

Roman Mars is an incredibly underrated guy. Not to mention, he has the coolest name Ever.

MandarinCat

4y↑3

I've always been complaining about this in my head for years. Finally someone puts it out.

Like A Fox

5y↑9

I’d never thought I would want a presentation on flags to be longer

HappyBeezerStudios - by Lord_Mogul

2y↑1

I stay with the opinion that the japanese Tottori Prefecture has the best flag. It is written 鳥取, with the first kanji meaning bird.
it displays "と" (read "to") modified in the shape of a bird. Tori is japanese for bird.
The flag basically writes the name of the prefecture, incorporates the meaning of the name but is still super easy to draw.

rhaphazard ✖️

9y↑434

Very cool to see a radio host perform on stage.
Shows you just how important the voice is in any kind of presentation.

Mahmud Ahmad

9y↑41

This guys voice is amazing

Aidan Attema

9y↑11

+Juil indeed so, there area lot of ted talks that are hard to listen to because the speaker laughs awkwardly, or breathes out of their nose right into the mic, either way the what goes into the microphone is very important

Tom Cotter

9y↑1

+Juil you should go see david sedaris or Ira glass

Ovenchicken

+Tom Cotter Ugh Ira Glass' voice is really annoying.

JiveDadson

+Juil But this talk needs pictures. Any talk about visual design needs pictures. Radio shows need stories that allow the listeners to design their own visuals in their minds. (Try listening to a cheap monster movie without the video. It's better that way.)

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maddie

5y↑1

I had to look up my hometown flag (actually found a picture of my old high school where you can see it on the flagpole if you zoom in, which explains why I didn't recognize it: as far as I'm aware, only four copies of the flag exist: the one over the high school, the one over city hall, the one over the courthouse, and the one over the "public safety" (combined police and fire department; I do not come from a large town) office). It is a blue flag with the city's name and state in white on the top half, and a white trail with trees along it on the bottom half. Why is there a trail on the bottom? May be a reference to the Oregon Trail, which passed through the town and serves as about the only remotely interesting thing about our town and its history, but what are the trees for? Do they have any symbolic meaning, or were they just tossed on there because the design otherwise felt too blank?

Tastaturensohn

5y↑3

I've always liked the flag of my home town (Bremen) but I never knew that that is because it adheres to vexolology so greatly.

WhiteGold251

4y↑6

I love the 99% Invisible podcast definitely worth a listen if you enjoyed this at all.

Phanuel Chew

I've been listening to his radio show 99%invisible ever since! His voice is a remedy after a long stressful day.

kwanl

42w

This is still my favourite ted talk after all this time.

Dalton Smith

8y↑9

This has to be one of my favorite more recent Ted talks. Not only interesting but I absolutely love the presentation style. Magnificent

MagentaLooks

5y↑2

For anyone interested, the City of Ottawa flag (Canada) is really beautiful with a bunch of obvious symbolism.

Leo & Penny!

5y↑3

This was an excellent video. Could listen to flag talk for hours.

たろー

2y↑1

How is this so amazingly funny, engaging, unique, and informative all at the same time??????

Sand guardian Guardian of the sand

5y↑1

This is probably one of the most entertaining ted talks I’ve watched.

Ivan Bragin

39w

I watched this video about 15 times at this point and I believe it's one of the greatest Ted Talks that I've watched

Frances Marie Wallinger

5y↑25

He looks kind of intimidated by the big show and audience, but he killed it, with one of the most mundane subjects in the world this is one of the best TED talks and I've seen it many times. Props to the guy

Ethan Shohet

5y↑609

15:42 "But also it could become a symbol of how that city considers design itself"

One, singular clap

meranger92

5y↑8

Deserved. Seeing a city as some kind of homogene mass with one shared view on design is so primitive..
You could have the worst flag and be good at design in many other points, and you always will have differnt projets designed by different people, so to measure a city after their flag is just plane stupid.

Senorpoontang

5y↑57

@meranger92 The point is if you can apply principles of good, non-frivolous, design at a basic level, then there's more chance to adopt that mentality when it comes to larger projects. Symbols have been incredibly powerful since the dawn of time. The fact you would describe someone invited to a TED talk as having primitive views makes your point seem laughable.

Tamás Perci

🤣

Quill

4y↑2

Dude I paused at 15:41 to look at comments and your timestamp was so close lol

Matthieu Lucas

4y↑5

A literal 👏

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The Blue Ducks

2y↑1

I created a flag with horizontal light blue stripes to represent the ocean, white in the middle to represent peace, 2 stars to represent 2 islands, and a crown to represent monarchy inside of an olive branch. I think it is simplistic enough

Brian Williams

I cant think of a worse way to talk about design than radio. This was weird to watch but pretty cool cause you're able to immediately relate what he's saying to visuals.

Danielle Porter

I recognized the L.A. City flag right off the bat , it was the flag with the green ,yellow and red background with the LA city seal in the middle in the fourth graphic he showed. Being a native Los Angeleno, I've seen the seal of the city many times over the years when I've watched meetings of the city council on tv or when it's been on the podium that the Mayor stands behind during press conferences.

Gin Ōkami

4y↑2

so after i watched this i searched for the state flags in brazil(where im from),most of them have the same problems the ones on this video have but then i realized that the brazilian flag itself has some of these problems:it has small writing and too many stars with seemingly random positions,its basically impossible for a child to draw this flag from memory(i know i couldnt)

HappyBeezerStudios - by Lord_Mogul

2y↑1

And yet the blue globe in a yellow diamond on green ground is a great design. Taking off the finicky small things and you have a top tier flag that is easy to distinguish and can a child can draw from memory.

Chandler

7y↑1.8K

Yes, I did just watch an 18 minute Ted Talk about flags. Now I'm also extremely disappointed with the state of Florida.

Teeg Monkey

7y↑15

Chandler Farmer my poor poor state of Florida...

Daniel Steinle

7y↑107

Only NOW you're disappointed with the state of Florida?! You're trying to tell me it was THEIR FLAG that broke the camel's back for you??

pandorya

7y↑8

I am ashamed that I live in a state with such an awful flag

Alejandro Santos

7y↑13

Maybe they could just replace that seal with a yellow circle.

TheCsel

7y↑2

I don't get it? Florida has a solid traditional state flag design that meets all the guidelines.

25 More Replies...

Fernando Perez

Aside from the giant "CITY OF --------" words on my city flag, the design isn't that bad, and I recognized it pretty quickly not because I saw it as the city flag, but because the colors are used extensively in city services, from park signs to the electric company vans. The animal in the center of the flag, the swan, also means a lot to the city, and while the swan on the flag itself isn't the best for a flag (although recognizable and good for other swan-related city things), a simpler swan design would work wonders for the flag, as would better lining up the green oval outline to the white oval on the dark, sea blue background. But like I said before, the colors and swan design itself were incredibly recognizable, and served as a good start for a city flag, especially considering how well known they are as it is in my city. But also lose the words

Daniel Campbell

3y↑1

As an update... San Francisco and Milwaukee STILL have those flags, despite public pressure.

Pocatello updated their flag and it is beautiful!

Alpay Aslan

5y↑1

This is truly the art of storytelling

CrazyLittleWorlds

4y↑1

I love my city's flag, it comes from our coat of arms, as well, and follows those principles. 2 red stripes top and bottom, white background and a black bear in the middle: Berlin, Germany. And it actually doubles, because, Berlin is a city and a state. The state flag is slightly differently, you still have the red and white stripes, but the bear in included in the coat of arms and includes a crown above the shield. But you always know, it's the Berlin flag, easy to recognise and we drew the flag as children is school.

T26E4

I’ve recently created tricolor flag for a fictional country which the sides are blue to represent the ocean and the navy, another line of blue behind to represent the rivers, olive branches to represent peace, an red sword to show power and strength, and black wings as a important cultural symbol

Rachel Moody

5y↑13

My dad found this talk years ago, proceeded to have the entire family sit down and watch it, and now it is one of the things that we insist new people we meet see at least once.

jeimuzu shimoru

5y↑2

japan has a ton of great city and prefecture flags, all very simple with unique simples.

Marlowe

5y↑35

Being from San Francisco when I started this I thought to myself ‘he is going to bash our terrible flag’ and I am glad to say I was right.

Swampwyag

2y↑2

When I visited New York City for the first time, I wondered why there were so many faded french flags flying

Quinton Murdock

My city is too small and uncreative to have a city flag. But someone on Reddit drew one up and I fucking adore it. I was sitting trying to think how you could make a simple flag to represent this town, I saw the flag design idea and immediately knew what they were going for

NumberTJ47

I live in canada and just looked up "kelowna city flag" I was truely shocked. I did not think my city could have a worse flag than even the worst ones in this video.

Edit: I did not see the last flag when I posted this. My bad.

three person couch

7y↑35

Like many of you, I didn't care about flags at all and once Milwaukee appeared I was like "NOOOOOO". And now I'm googling vexilology and I want to do something about this.

TED talks are the greatest things and yet sometimes it ruins me

Isomer Mashups

My city's flag has a drawing of a barely famous clock tower in our main park and the name of the city in a font with varying letter sizes with a complicated serif font. I've seen it on precisely one building (city hall), and everywhere else uses the seal (which is just a cut-out from the flag).

Marie T

If the Coat of Arms is simple enough I think it looks quite good on a background of colour taken from the coat of Arms.
Though I do have to concede that for City branding/merch in my homecity we mostly just use the coat of Arms. Which is quite funny cause each of our City districts also has coat of Arms of their own.

blue sansball

4y↑45

I thought: "huh, my city flag is actually pretty good"
Then I realised that I was thinking of the Ohio flag, not the Columbus flag, then I was disappointed

Timi Hobbs

Big fan of 99%. Great TED, Mr. Mars. I am a voice fan and yours is my favorite on the radio.

Niicolas S

I swear I’ve accounted for half the views on this video. Roman Mars is incredible.

Also: Every single person on the face of the earth should check out 99% Invisible

jeffdmusic

9y↑42

So awesome, I love 99% Invisible and what Roman does, it's amazing he got invited to TED. Nothing bad about any of this! :)

tatiana

9y↑1

scrubby4130 i did not know this podcast do you have a link for me?

Lena Nguyen

9y↑1

I love him too!

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TimesNewLogan

I love how you can tell how nervous he is, and yet he keeps going despite it.

OreoBunny123

I watched this 5 years ago when it came out and thought about doing it. Got tied up with school and life and it fell to the background and, eventually, from memory. Glad it came up in my recommended again now that I have a lot more time and no option to go out.

JasonWolf

As a writer who does a lot of worldbuilding for fantasy I've done a lot of work with flags and I'm really proud of the one I designed for a city build by a canyon based on Letchworth State Park, NY. 3 colors are a dark green, light gray, and a semi-dark pale blue. Representing the forest, the gorge rocks, and the water respectively. The flag has two gray right trangles in the corners for the rock and two green parallelograms on the sides. This leave a sort of S shape to the middle which if you think of it as an ariel shot looks like the snaking canyon, but if you look at it at up down it's one of the many waterfalls that letworth is famous for. The colors of the flag are also matched to what the city's protectorate, The Rangers, wear which is a green and gray uniform if they're based on land or a blue and grey uniform if based on the water.

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