full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Roman Mars: Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed

Unscramble the Blue Letters


TK: A three-by-five-foot flag on a pole 100 feet away looks about the same size as a one-by-one-and-a-half-inch rteanlcge seen about 15 inches from your eye. You'd be surprised by how compelling and simple the design can be when you hold yourself to that limitation.

RM: Meanwhile, back in San ficsacrno. Is there anything we can do?

TK: I like to say that in every bad flag there's a good flag trying to get out. The way to make San Francisco's flag a good flag is to take the mttoo off because you can't read that at a distance. Take the name off, and the border might even be made tkceihr, so it's more a part of the flag. And I would simlpy take the phoenix and make it a garet big element in the middle of the flag.

Open Cloze


TK: A three-by-five-foot flag on a pole 100 feet away looks about the same size as a one-by-one-and-a-half-inch _________ seen about 15 inches from your eye. You'd be surprised by how compelling and simple the design can be when you hold yourself to that limitation.

RM: Meanwhile, back in San _________. Is there anything we can do?

TK: I like to say that in every bad flag there's a good flag trying to get out. The way to make San Francisco's flag a good flag is to take the _____ off because you can't read that at a distance. Take the name off, and the border might even be made _______, so it's more a part of the flag. And I would ______ take the phoenix and make it a _____ big element in the middle of the flag.

Solution


  1. rectangle
  2. thicker
  3. simply
  4. francisco
  5. motto
  6. great

Original Text


TK: A three-by-five-foot flag on a pole 100 feet away looks about the same size as a one-by-one-and-a-half-inch rectangle seen about 15 inches from your eye. You'd be surprised by how compelling and simple the design can be when you hold yourself to that limitation.

RM: Meanwhile, back in San Francisco. Is there anything we can do?

TK: I like to say that in every bad flag there's a good flag trying to get out. The way to make San Francisco's flag a good flag is to take the motto off because you can't read that at a distance. Take the name off, and the border might even be made thicker, so it's more a part of the flag. And I would simply take the phoenix and make it a great big element in the middle of the flag.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
city flag 7
flag design 6
san francisco 6
chicago flag 5
good design 5
bad flags 4
milwaukee flag 4
great city 4
north american 3
american vexillological 3
vexillological association 3
united states 3
design principles 3
basic principles 2
red stars 2
meaningful symbolism 2
basic colors 2
people love 2
love chicago 2
civic pride 2
francisco flag 2
city flags 2
city coat 2
good flag 2
city considers 2
sports teams 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
north american vexillological 3
american vexillological association 3
people love chicago 2
san francisco flag 2
good design principles 2

Important Words


  1. bad
  2. big
  3. border
  4. compelling
  5. design
  6. distance
  7. element
  8. eye
  9. feet
  10. flag
  11. francisco
  12. good
  13. great
  14. hold
  15. inches
  16. limitation
  17. middle
  18. motto
  19. part
  20. phoenix
  21. pole
  22. read
  23. rectangle
  24. san
  25. simple
  26. simply
  27. size
  28. surprised
  29. thicker