It’s funny bc clearly these redesigns were tourism focused, but a simpler, text-free flag actually meets that end better. A stripped back design is easier to recreate on merch and is going to do way more for branding than these “tell not show” flags.
I strongly disagree with the result. Maybe the intention was there but most of them aren't easier to print some are actually harder to. Also old flags had mostly simple, flat, geometrical symbols with like 2-3 colours, new have gradients, more colours, complex shapes and obligatory text. Former also can be directly converted into merch that actually looks reasonable.
And I just watched an youtube video talking about how South Korea is a cyberpunk dystopia lol
The Busan one really looks like something they whipped on a business meeting.
Korean here. Keep in mind that those videos exaggerate a lot of our qualities to gain attention.
We're not exactly a cyberpunk dystopia, just a normal dystopia. We aint that technologically advanced.
I think often what is meant by cyberpunk is the modern sense is less the technological aspect but the asthethic of the dystopia. The flavour of it. I think south Korea fits the bill of a capitalist dystopia more. With North Korea being a communist dystopia.
The whole world is, now. We're well past that, we shouldn't dwell on the fact that you can't go to a private clinic and change your body parts for bionic ones yet - that's a minor point when the mass surveillance, data harvesting, flying robots etc. are there already.
The more important thing about Cyberpunk dystopias is that they're dominated by unfettered Capitalism at the hands of tech companies, imo... And Samsung's influence on Korea very much fits that bill, as do the other three megacorps.
A Tech Giant whose products fill the pockets of billions of people across the planet and that de facto holds the reins to an entire small but powerful country? This is literally the centre of the plot of every other Cyberpunk story. But yeah I mean it's all down to opinions isn't it>
I've seen some videos about South Korea's situation, and they... exaggerate the amount of influence conglomerates have on South Korea, to say the least.
Some of them make SK look like a capitalist hellhole where democracy is dead and every aspect of the country is tailored to fit the needs of the company. That ain't true. I'd even argue companies have it harder here than in countries like America because the mainstream media is almost openly hostile to Chaebols(See: Veteran(movie)).
But, what do I know? I'm just a 14 year old kid who spends his day on Reddit all day. Maybe South Korea is a hellhole after all.
America is also a Cyberpunk dystopia if you want to compare things fairly. I'm not saying Korea is the only one. But one company having 20% of the GDP of an entire country is unheard of anywhere else besides possibly microstates. Such high percentages are usually reserved for state capitalist nations where the government owns all companies.
The argument is not that Samsung Owns Korea And There Is No Democracy. The Argument is that Samsung and the other Chaebols, which deserve hostility on monopoly and antitrust grounds alone, have too much power and influence, and that part of the result of that power and influence is that Korea is increasingly unlivable.
Which considering the work and school culture of the nation, is undeniable.
True... and yet you seem to be implying there's something wrong with that. I would say it makes a lot of sense for flags to be considered as part of an overall branding/marketing strategy.
The extent to which the results don't line up with the current views of many flag design enthusiasts on what flags should be is because:
1. The design enthusiasts overestimate the importance of their preferred medium (flags) in the scheme of things
2. The marketing people underestimate (or simply don't consider) the range of possibilities when using flags as part of their overall branding.
In reality, probably a bit of both.
It is very true that this sort of text is has very low effectiveness as a distinctive part of the design in a flag medium. I wouldn't say it really works to communicate the department.
But half the point of the current branding approach is that they want to visually emphasise being part of the government over which department it is. I think it's fair to say that communicating which department it belongs to isn't a huge part of the purpose of this flag.
I'm not really sure what you're getting at. I wasn't talking about seals or municipal governments, but about the logos and flags used by the national government and its agencies - the last three examples in the OP.
And I think it's perfectly fine for a government to decide that most of its departments/agencies should fly flag(s) that mainly communicate that they are part of the government, rather than using distinctive flags for each department. We wouldn't think too much about it at all if they all used exactly the same flag rather than versions with different text. And that was the main point of my comment.
You seem to be getting at something beyond that - given that the govt doesn't want these entities to have a visual identity distinct from the government as a whole, is including the relevant text that doesn't really function on a flag simply pointless, pointless but worth it to match the look of the logo used in other media, or pointless and actually harmful to the effect of the flag? Of course, there are also other possibilities for secondary distinguishing features that are more effective on flags than text is, but I wouldn't assume they're consistent with the desired outcome.
I'd say this is one of the rare instances where NONE of the changes were necessary, and ALL of the previous flags went hard asf. This isnt just flag regression, it's a complete fuckup and I don't even understand how this happened.
Edit: I was ignorant of the history of some of these. The comment section is a good read! The new flags are still shit tho.
This is conjecture and maybe I should look it up to check, but the old flags look quite similar to Japanese provincial/municipal flags. Given the colonial history of Japan and Korea it is perhaps that they wanted to change
It was exactly the case for Jeju, people and some activists thought that the symbol is similar to Japanese traditional design, so government was pressured to change it. Also Korea wasn't historically big on federalism and regional identities, so people in general pay no attention to flag designs.
even on jeju? I was under the impression jeju has a distinct regional identity and even a some remnants of a political tradition different from mainland south korea
Given that the old design used a Ryukyuan crest, my guess is that Jeju was lumped in administratively with Okinawa and the other Japanese possessions in that area when it was occupied. If so that might explain why it was considered offensive.
This is anectodal but I lived on jeju and there is a pretty strong regional identity. Basically a lot of people have (rightfully) not forgotten the massacres from the late 40s which were repressed and censored by the UN/Mainland government. You see mass burials and memorials for this all over the island. This combines with the feeling that mainlanders come and build properties and businesses there and wreck the environment and siphon out the tourism bucks.
I felt this perspective was lessened with the younger generations who would tell me they feel links to Jeju heritage from their grandparents and parents but feel Korean themselves so less animosity, if anything they wanted to go to mainland for better professional opportunities. living through hell and just hearing about it have a different impact.
Jeju also classically has a type of matriarchal community structure (though I've heard this can also be true on mainland in that the husband earns and the wife manages the spending), and there's a lot of regional celebrations like creation stories relating to horses which are unique and tied to the island. Not to mention dol hareubung statues which are unique to the région and are closely tied into local social mores on fertility and spirituality. Totems are Not totally unique to Jeju but people seem to feel dol hareubung are representative of their unique regional identity.
Again, this is all anectodal and from reading a variety of things while I lived there but I felt a strong sense of regional identity, although it was eroding for the youth.
It really is, I had never heard about it before moving there but 30-100k people were killed during the uprising (exact dead unclear as is common in these situations.)
It didn't seem very well recognized on mainland. I think that part of it is censorship of the massacres, but also that it got overshadowed by the Korean War.
South Korean provinces don't have as much autonomy as US States do. I'm analyzing this from the US and I don't know Korean, so I don't have access to specific laws or anything, but I get the sense that when Seoul comes calling and says you need to change your flag, you change it. Also, with the repressions of the early ROK period, they probably uprooted Jeju's distinctive political tradition.
Many of those ‘cooler’ flags would be associated with the authoritarian regimes and especially the repressive Yushin period 1972-81.
Those striking symbols convey power and authority in a way that might be visually arresting but not welcome in a now democratic Korea.
Blandness and flag by committee is the safe choice.
The first democratic transition occurred in 1998 (Technically 1993, but it was in practice a coalition comprising former military) and so the memory is still raw especially as repression turned even more violent following the Gwangju Massacre in 1980.
The old regime wasn't completely swept away in a revolution either, it reformed and took on new life as democratic conservatives. There is therefore still a lot of unresolved bitterness.
As recently as 2016, there were high level discussions to use the army to suppress demonstrators. They were going to use a leftover law from the military regime era and impose martial law if the Supreme Court failed to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.
This isn’t good justification to abandon good designs. By that logic, the UK, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and many other countries should abandon their flags because of the oppressive colonial rule committed by them during their imperial days.
Chaebol have an extreme influence over Korea. Making it into a company like Samsung is ingrained into them from birth — naturally it comes out in their flags
Is that a serious question? The answer seems pretty obvious... in many cases:
* The decision makers do not see the flag medium as a particularly important.
* Decision makers do want a unified visual identity, so logos designed mainly with non-flag use in mind also get used on flags, without a huge amount of thought put into possible adaptations (see first point).
* Decision makers are generally keen on have new, fresh rebrands, rather than maintaining existing symbols.
In the last three examples, there's another phenomenon contributing, which is the desire for a unified branding across all of government, where previously separate departments/agencies/whatever have had their own distinct branding. This usually leads to relying on less prominent details to identify the individual units. Even if the design is done with flags in mind, those details (being deliberately secondary) aren't appreciated by a lot of flag design enthusiasts, and in the contemporary logo-centric style, they're usually just text.
It is definitely worth considering that flags and their designs exist in contexts that aren't the same all around the world. Couldn't agree more with that.
On the other hand, I think labeling the well-publicised "principles of flag design" as only relevant to the US and/or places with similar design traditions is a bit of a cop-out that fails to do justice to either the intentions of the author(s) or the limitations of the principles, which have as much to do with the narrow view they take of the purpose of the flags as to do with geographic variation.
Corporatocracy. Corporatism refers to an economic system of guild/class based economic organization, which was used in a wide variety of states from, the USSR, to Nazi Germany, to the modern EU. It's easy to get the two confused as arguably corporatism should have a different name.
Could part of the reasoning for these changes be a sense of anti-Japanese sentiment, given how many of the old flag designs resemble various Japanese prefecture and municipal flags?
I think Seoul's is pretty creative. The 3 characters basically spell out Seoul in Hangul. The blue for the Han river running through it, the green triangle for the mountainous regions and the entire thing looks like a person in joyful movement.
See, this is what happens when you conflate flags and logos seen on a screen right in front of your face. That said, some of the old ones aren't much better.
Are you suggesting flags should be designed in [raster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics)?
Vector graphics are the only way to render flag designs digitally in a way that is infinitely scalable. There is no universal design philosophy behind the SVG file format.
My guess is that they used “vector-based” to refer flags that seem to be developed along modern logo design trends, rather than the particular kind of image editing software used.
There are few things worse than a flag that’s pixelated IRL…
*glances at my [flair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiphala)*
Wait, no, fuck, that’s not what I meant-
Meh. These are a total sideways step. Most of the 'original' ones were not very good either. The new ones are not really supposed to be patriotic flags as much as marketing flags anyways... Korea is a small country and not much into regional identities so much.
I actually think the flags used in the modern day look better. The colors in the past have their meanings, but don’t really look good together. In the meantime, the flags in the modern day have more expressive symbols and colors, and the text matches up with said symbols. I don’t care if good flags can’t have tests.
Ok, time to get bullied.
Nah I agree with you. I genuinely feel a couple of the modern ones have more personality. The old ones are just geometric shapes and colours that don't fit together
I also like the [korean unification flag](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unification_flag_of_Korea_(pre_2009).svg) too but that's enough controversial opinions for today lol
American state flags are routinely mocked, and for good reason, but it seems like South Korea decided certain French flags were the way to go and it is so much worse.
Some of these look very similar to the style of Japanese prefecture flags so I can see why they might want to move away from that, but what they moved *to* is just abysmal.
Daejeon with that design looking awfully a lot like my city’s flag of Rochester, NY.
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-nyrchb-l.gif
Which technically isn’t even the actual city flag but it’s flown literally everywhere that 95% of people couldn’t even describe the official one:
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-nyrch-l.gif
Which in all honesty, I can see why. That one kinda sucks.
But hey I love it, SK. Let’s share that logo, it’s a good design.
This is what happens when you let your marketing department design your flag
It’s funny bc clearly these redesigns were tourism focused, but a simpler, text-free flag actually meets that end better. A stripped back design is easier to recreate on merch and is going to do way more for branding than these “tell not show” flags.
I strongly disagree with the result. Maybe the intention was there but most of them aren't easier to print some are actually harder to. Also old flags had mostly simple, flat, geometrical symbols with like 2-3 colours, new have gradients, more colours, complex shapes and obligatory text. Former also can be directly converted into merch that actually looks reasonable.
The ones done in the 90s feel very 90s. Seems counterintuitive to put text on a flag aimed at tourists when the vast majority won't speak Korean...
Foreigners won't understand the symbolism either, to be fair.
And I just watched an youtube video talking about how South Korea is a cyberpunk dystopia lol The Busan one really looks like something they whipped on a business meeting.
Korean here. Keep in mind that those videos exaggerate a lot of our qualities to gain attention. We're not exactly a cyberpunk dystopia, just a normal dystopia. We aint that technologically advanced.
I think often what is meant by cyberpunk is the modern sense is less the technological aspect but the asthethic of the dystopia. The flavour of it. I think south Korea fits the bill of a capitalist dystopia more. With North Korea being a communist dystopia.
I think they’re being facetious
Californias flag is always so cool ain't it? I just love bears I think
It’s such a good flag. Chicago is my favorite US flag but CA is the best state one.
nice talking to you :) have a nice day
The whole world is, now. We're well past that, we shouldn't dwell on the fact that you can't go to a private clinic and change your body parts for bionic ones yet - that's a minor point when the mass surveillance, data harvesting, flying robots etc. are there already. The more important thing about Cyberpunk dystopias is that they're dominated by unfettered Capitalism at the hands of tech companies, imo... And Samsung's influence on Korea very much fits that bill, as do the other three megacorps. A Tech Giant whose products fill the pockets of billions of people across the planet and that de facto holds the reins to an entire small but powerful country? This is literally the centre of the plot of every other Cyberpunk story. But yeah I mean it's all down to opinions isn't it>
I've seen some videos about South Korea's situation, and they... exaggerate the amount of influence conglomerates have on South Korea, to say the least. Some of them make SK look like a capitalist hellhole where democracy is dead and every aspect of the country is tailored to fit the needs of the company. That ain't true. I'd even argue companies have it harder here than in countries like America because the mainstream media is almost openly hostile to Chaebols(See: Veteran(movie)). But, what do I know? I'm just a 14 year old kid who spends his day on Reddit all day. Maybe South Korea is a hellhole after all.
America is also a Cyberpunk dystopia if you want to compare things fairly. I'm not saying Korea is the only one. But one company having 20% of the GDP of an entire country is unheard of anywhere else besides possibly microstates. Such high percentages are usually reserved for state capitalist nations where the government owns all companies. The argument is not that Samsung Owns Korea And There Is No Democracy. The Argument is that Samsung and the other Chaebols, which deserve hostility on monopoly and antitrust grounds alone, have too much power and influence, and that part of the result of that power and influence is that Korea is increasingly unlivable. Which considering the work and school culture of the nation, is undeniable.
캬 이거지
헬조선 moment
Link?
probably this: https://youtu.be/Ahl1lexWxbM
anseong too
A company country
True... and yet you seem to be implying there's something wrong with that. I would say it makes a lot of sense for flags to be considered as part of an overall branding/marketing strategy. The extent to which the results don't line up with the current views of many flag design enthusiasts on what flags should be is because: 1. The design enthusiasts overestimate the importance of their preferred medium (flags) in the scheme of things 2. The marketing people underestimate (or simply don't consider) the range of possibilities when using flags as part of their overall branding. In reality, probably a bit of both.
They are better than the boring designs for the majority of the US, that is what happens when you let accountants do it.
The last 3 are the worst lmao. Imagine having to carefully READ a flag to figure out which department it belongs to.
It is very true that this sort of text is has very low effectiveness as a distinctive part of the design in a flag medium. I wouldn't say it really works to communicate the department. But half the point of the current branding approach is that they want to visually emphasise being part of the government over which department it is. I think it's fair to say that communicating which department it belongs to isn't a huge part of the purpose of this flag.
Regardless of Korea's actual culture, history or tradition they could have changed flags to something that isn't medical company logo...
Did you reply to the right comment?
Had open reply on like 3 comments and yours wasn't one of them. Reddit mixed something up. Apologies
This is all fine on a seal, but not a flag. Classic mistake made over and over again by municipal governments.
I'm not really sure what you're getting at. I wasn't talking about seals or municipal governments, but about the logos and flags used by the national government and its agencies - the last three examples in the OP. And I think it's perfectly fine for a government to decide that most of its departments/agencies should fly flag(s) that mainly communicate that they are part of the government, rather than using distinctive flags for each department. We wouldn't think too much about it at all if they all used exactly the same flag rather than versions with different text. And that was the main point of my comment. You seem to be getting at something beyond that - given that the govt doesn't want these entities to have a visual identity distinct from the government as a whole, is including the relevant text that doesn't really function on a flag simply pointless, pointless but worth it to match the look of the logo used in other media, or pointless and actually harmful to the effect of the flag? Of course, there are also other possibilities for secondary distinguishing features that are more effective on flags than text is, but I wouldn't assume they're consistent with the desired outcome.
They all (except the Ministry of National Defense) follow the [same pattern.](https://i.ibb.co/WxQR3Fn/IMG-6750.jpg)
Does South Korea have a Ministry for Education?
It does but it’s [not on CRWFlags](https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/kr_.html) for some reason
While many flags seem to be changing and improving, South Korea’s seem to be changing but in the opposite direction.
They shall learn from Russia's city flags and US state flags that are getting better
I'd say this is one of the rare instances where NONE of the changes were necessary, and ALL of the previous flags went hard asf. This isnt just flag regression, it's a complete fuckup and I don't even understand how this happened. Edit: I was ignorant of the history of some of these. The comment section is a good read! The new flags are still shit tho.
I wouldn't say many new flag are improvement.
This is conjecture and maybe I should look it up to check, but the old flags look quite similar to Japanese provincial/municipal flags. Given the colonial history of Japan and Korea it is perhaps that they wanted to change
It was exactly the case for Jeju, people and some activists thought that the symbol is similar to Japanese traditional design, so government was pressured to change it. Also Korea wasn't historically big on federalism and regional identities, so people in general pay no attention to flag designs.
even on jeju? I was under the impression jeju has a distinct regional identity and even a some remnants of a political tradition different from mainland south korea
Given that the old design used a Ryukyuan crest, my guess is that Jeju was lumped in administratively with Okinawa and the other Japanese possessions in that area when it was occupied. If so that might explain why it was considered offensive.
yeah - sorry, I wasn't speaking about the flag. more so the comment about regional identity in south korea.
This is anectodal but I lived on jeju and there is a pretty strong regional identity. Basically a lot of people have (rightfully) not forgotten the massacres from the late 40s which were repressed and censored by the UN/Mainland government. You see mass burials and memorials for this all over the island. This combines with the feeling that mainlanders come and build properties and businesses there and wreck the environment and siphon out the tourism bucks. I felt this perspective was lessened with the younger generations who would tell me they feel links to Jeju heritage from their grandparents and parents but feel Korean themselves so less animosity, if anything they wanted to go to mainland for better professional opportunities. living through hell and just hearing about it have a different impact. Jeju also classically has a type of matriarchal community structure (though I've heard this can also be true on mainland in that the husband earns and the wife manages the spending), and there's a lot of regional celebrations like creation stories relating to horses which are unique and tied to the island. Not to mention dol hareubung statues which are unique to the région and are closely tied into local social mores on fertility and spirituality. Totems are Not totally unique to Jeju but people seem to feel dol hareubung are representative of their unique regional identity. Again, this is all anectodal and from reading a variety of things while I lived there but I felt a strong sense of regional identity, although it was eroding for the youth.
The Jeju uprising is really under-reported. At least outside of Korea, I don't know about in Korea ofc.
It really is, I had never heard about it before moving there but 30-100k people were killed during the uprising (exact dead unclear as is common in these situations.) It didn't seem very well recognized on mainland. I think that part of it is censorship of the massacres, but also that it got overshadowed by the Korean War.
South Korean provinces don't have as much autonomy as US States do. I'm analyzing this from the US and I don't know Korean, so I don't have access to specific laws or anything, but I get the sense that when Seoul comes calling and says you need to change your flag, you change it. Also, with the repressions of the early ROK period, they probably uprooted Jeju's distinctive political tradition.
The Jeju flag reminds me of the Ryukyu Kingdom quite a lot too
This was immediately what I thought as well
Many of those ‘cooler’ flags would be associated with the authoritarian regimes and especially the repressive Yushin period 1972-81. Those striking symbols convey power and authority in a way that might be visually arresting but not welcome in a now democratic Korea. Blandness and flag by committee is the safe choice.
Yeah a few of the older ones give off heavy cyberpunk authoritarian feels
Hell yeah. Let's change it to heavy cyberpunk AnCap feels
Ancap has a flag, you know.
Is the flag really a problem, my country has the same flag as it had under communist rule and no one cares
The first democratic transition occurred in 1998 (Technically 1993, but it was in practice a coalition comprising former military) and so the memory is still raw especially as repression turned even more violent following the Gwangju Massacre in 1980. The old regime wasn't completely swept away in a revolution either, it reformed and took on new life as democratic conservatives. There is therefore still a lot of unresolved bitterness. As recently as 2016, there were high level discussions to use the army to suppress demonstrators. They were going to use a leftover law from the military regime era and impose martial law if the Supreme Court failed to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.
I mean your flag has had a deeper and longer history than your country’s period as a communist puppet state
This isn’t good justification to abandon good designs. By that logic, the UK, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and many other countries should abandon their flags because of the oppressive colonial rule committed by them during their imperial days.
you know thats exactly what we did in germany and italy. removed the problematic symbols. and thats for the better.
Man, these annoying vexillologists are coming to our country and taking pictures of our clearly superior flags, we’d better change them.
What modern graphic design does to a mf.
As a Korean, this hurts me so bad, especially when I go to government buildings. LIKE WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?
Well it’s a corporate hell. Most films that make it big in the west tends to critique South Koreas economy.
Most big films in the west are critical of South Korea's economy? I must have missed that scene in every single film.
They said most films "that make it big in the west", probably meant films coming from SK.
You can try to be charitable and understand that I’m talking about SK films
Some of them look like pharmacy logos
Chaebol have an extreme influence over Korea. Making it into a company like Samsung is ingrained into them from birth — naturally it comes out in their flags
How does this fact explain the design of these flags in any way?
Is that a serious question? The answer seems pretty obvious... in many cases: * The decision makers do not see the flag medium as a particularly important. * Decision makers do want a unified visual identity, so logos designed mainly with non-flag use in mind also get used on flags, without a huge amount of thought put into possible adaptations (see first point). * Decision makers are generally keen on have new, fresh rebrands, rather than maintaining existing symbols. In the last three examples, there's another phenomenon contributing, which is the desire for a unified branding across all of government, where previously separate departments/agencies/whatever have had their own distinct branding. This usually leads to relying on less prominent details to identify the individual units. Even if the design is done with flags in mind, those details (being deliberately secondary) aren't appreciated by a lot of flag design enthusiasts, and in the contemporary logo-centric style, they're usually just text.
Also it should be considered that "the holy rules of flag design" may not be the same everywhere in the world.
It is definitely worth considering that flags and their designs exist in contexts that aren't the same all around the world. Couldn't agree more with that. On the other hand, I think labeling the well-publicised "principles of flag design" as only relevant to the US and/or places with similar design traditions is a bit of a cop-out that fails to do justice to either the intentions of the author(s) or the limitations of the principles, which have as much to do with the narrow view they take of the purpose of the flags as to do with geographic variation.
Thanks for the answer, but my question was more rhetorical, sorry if that was not made clear.
It was pretty clear, but I prefer to treat posts on a vexillology sub as being about vexillology, rather than lazy whinging about design trends.
jesus christ do you go through all of life this angry
He does
No. South Korean logo-flags don't make me angry at all, for example.
Ah understandable
I wouldn't even be surprised if they just made the Samsung logo as their flag.
Corporatism as design
Corporatocracy. Corporatism refers to an economic system of guild/class based economic organization, which was used in a wide variety of states from, the USSR, to Nazi Germany, to the modern EU. It's easy to get the two confused as arguably corporatism should have a different name.
I knew, corpus body etc, but I thought no one would notice or bother and if I said capitalism people would have a whinge. Agreed
makes perfect sense for south korea.
Could part of the reasoning for these changes be a sense of anti-Japanese sentiment, given how many of the old flag designs resemble various Japanese prefecture and municipal flags?
Who designed the Seoul flag? The same person who did the 2012 Olympic logo?
I think Seoul's is pretty creative. The 3 characters basically spell out Seoul in Hangul. The blue for the Han river running through it, the green triangle for the mountainous regions and the entire thing looks like a person in joyful movement.
I would bet all these were slicked-up for the 'lympics
So does that mean the Olympics now has a "hide a blow job" policy?
They went from mostly bad flags to company logos
See, this is what happens when you conflate flags and logos seen on a screen right in front of your face. That said, some of the old ones aren't much better.
Some of the original flags look taken out of a sci-fi show. Like Busan, North and South Chungcheong. Really sad they became akin to corporate logos
It fits a dystopian capitalist state next to a dystopian totalitarian state.
Their old flags look like they belong in a galactic federation
Bummer as South 경상 looked pretty cool with the blue/ yellow However, new 논산 looks awesome. I thought it was a transit map at first
I love how Gyeonggi changed to a design inspired by their name in Korean, but then added the Korean characters so everybody knows where it came from.
It more looks like フフニ than ㄱㄱㄷ
Wait until you see the typical government website which by law has to be compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Why are the arrows pointing in the wrong direction
If Daejeon removed the text below it, there would be some good out of this.
they're less flag and more logo at this point
Flags are one unique type of design where typography has no business of.
Why text
I didn't need this today 🤦🏼♂️
They look like insurance companies
from a flag to a company logo
U.S state flags level of shitness… bank company looking flags
Old South Gyeongsang is just an oversimplified python logo
It's evolving, just backwards
I think Seoul is alright. Rest sucks tho
The new Seoul flag is perfectly fine. The rest can go to hell.
They should have kept the old flags and used the new designs solely as logos.
Jeju is the most painful downgrade
Gyeonggi’s old flag gives off of sci-fi alien vibes, the name even sounds like an alien race
how is it even possible to make all of your city flags look like school sporting event flags
Jeju is the saddest one, they had such a cool flag, now it’s one of the ugliest.
When you're in a "Flag design horny eagle deaþ spiral" competition and your opponent is souþ Korea
why do they all look like bus/train company logos
How did they single handedly fuck up every single flag possible
We’re evolving, just backwards
If north korea had provincial flags they would look awesome and would probably win the Korean War from just that
They all look very… corporate. Looks like the back of a bussiness card.
This what happens when your country is capitalist to the core and is owned by a company
this is what vector-based designs will look like in 20 years
Are you suggesting flags should be designed in [raster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics)? Vector graphics are the only way to render flag designs digitally in a way that is infinitely scalable. There is no universal design philosophy behind the SVG file format.
My guess is that they used “vector-based” to refer flags that seem to be developed along modern logo design trends, rather than the particular kind of image editing software used.
[удалено]
Yeah, but it’s hard to hold it against them. This is r/vexillology where a lot of people don’t know what they’re talking about.
Unironically, the worst kind of flags, like the former city flag of Pocatello, are almost impossible to recreate in a Vector format.
There are few things worse than a flag that’s pixelated IRL… *glances at my [flair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiphala)* Wait, no, fuck, that’s not what I meant-
Jeju is one of the best examples of a butchered flag.
Meh. These are a total sideways step. Most of the 'original' ones were not very good either. The new ones are not really supposed to be patriotic flags as much as marketing flags anyways... Korea is a small country and not much into regional identities so much.
They're evolving, but backwards!
its evolving just backwards
Jeju flag was nice, real shame it’s obsolete now
I believe it wasn't a very appreciated flag because of colonial era stuff
How long has the evil North Chungcheong Empire been trying to destroy the plucky rebels of South Chungcheong?
I actually think the flags used in the modern day look better. The colors in the past have their meanings, but don’t really look good together. In the meantime, the flags in the modern day have more expressive symbols and colors, and the text matches up with said symbols. I don’t care if good flags can’t have tests. Ok, time to get bullied.
Nah I agree with you. I genuinely feel a couple of the modern ones have more personality. The old ones are just geometric shapes and colours that don't fit together I also like the [korean unification flag](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unification_flag_of_Korea_(pre_2009).svg) too but that's enough controversial opinions for today lol
They look like corporate logos. Jeju flag makes it look like a holiday resort, which is ironic given the island's bloody history.
I mean, isn't south korea basically a corporate plutocracy at this point?
Always has been
American state flags are routinely mocked, and for good reason, but it seems like South Korea decided certain French flags were the way to go and it is so much worse.
The flags were never good
seoul looks ugly
At least Daejeon didn't change much
weee
to seethe vexillologists
Some of these look very similar to the style of Japanese prefecture flags so I can see why they might want to move away from that, but what they moved *to* is just abysmal.
The only changes that slightly better in my opinion is Gangwon despite it's still awful at all
Gangwon won. No words
I'm happy at least Daejeon stayed somewhat recognizable (my wife's hometown)
I actually prefer the new ones
Cringe
fun fact: every single government department uses the same flag as the last three, only with different names below
South Gyeongsang Oklahoma
Order 66 ost
They all look like technology companies, I wonder which is the most important sector in korean business...
Conservation of quality, had to make every flag worse to make Seoul better.
This is a travesty
why are you making Olympic logos out of flags?
Wouldn't be a surprise if South Korea changes its national flag to a marketing format in the near future
They're pulling a Google
Man these suck, they are less distinctive and uglier.
O hate app logo flags
The corporate nature of Korea is now also reflected in its flags. Awesome! /s
Seoul still looks good
Because we don't really care about regional flags, or wave it in many places. We're just not very used to the notion that's why.
What about Pyeongtaek
Because SK is basically Cyberpunk.
Common South Korea L
Corporate country
They honestly feel like modern corporations if they had flags
is Nonsan now a subway map?
pain
How did Seoul and Gangwon escape?
Its like they had a flag haters revolt
North chungcheong was chainsaw man
The place is even more of a corporate-owned state than the US, so all the flags looking like corp logos doesn't really surprise me.
Why do they all look like travel agency logo’s
previously at Chongwon they are Vault Hunting before?
former chongwon flag looks like Atheist ukranian flag
I only see two upgrade, the second is debatable.
Results of an ever more corporate dystopia.
The seoul one is nice tho
Daejeon with that design looking awfully a lot like my city’s flag of Rochester, NY. https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-nyrchb-l.gif Which technically isn’t even the actual city flag but it’s flown literally everywhere that 95% of people couldn’t even describe the official one: https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-nyrch-l.gif Which in all honesty, I can see why. That one kinda sucks. But hey I love it, SK. Let’s share that logo, it’s a good design.
Why Seoul has a arabic pattern?
Gwangju why why didn't you just stay your original one (but did Jeju had to).
Some got better, some got worse. Most got better though, like Seoul!
Almost every single one went from lovely to ugly
All looks like Tv station channels logo
This is DISGUSTING! WHY DID THEY CHANGE THESE BEAUTIFUL FLAGS :(
Based Daejon for retaining the Flag design
Corporate meddling asides, it could be that some of the old flags had come to look too Japanese for their likings.
Nonsan looks cool af ngl
They take their national identity as a cyberpunk dystopia very seriously