“Create a flag which represents your own Island”: explore culture through design in our latest Insta brief

We’ve teamed up with the British Council to create a design brief that explores the themes surrounding Island: The British Pavilion presentation commissioned by the British Council for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

For this brief, we’re asking you to create a flag that represents your own Island; your very own micro-nation, where you can define the values, cultures, traditions and ideas that make up the community. What would your flag be? What would it represent?

The brief is open until 3pm on Wednesday 18 July, and entries should be made with #MyIslandFlag on Instagram. Nine individuals will be selected and featured across It’s Nice That and British Council channels, on Friday 20 July.

To kick things off, we asked graphic designer Caterina Bianchini and design studio Team Thursday to respond to the brief. Here, they talk us through their flag designs and the meaning behind them. 

Team Thursday 

“The image spells out TTHQ (Team Thursday Head Quarters). For two years, we’ve had a studio in the middle of Rotterdam, and it’s very central and open. We like our studio to be an island to meet people, make a mess, to play and move around.

Our TTHQ can exist in more than one place, wherever we happen to be; playing is very important to our process, it leads to important steps in our designs. We value the do-it-yourself attitude and aesthetic, and from this our design also references visual street culture in Seoul, where we spent five months last summer. The shop windows are plastered with typography, stickers and handcrafted posters, packed full with combined patterns.”

Caterina Bianchini

“This design explores the idea of an island with no pre-conceived ideas or culture. It’s just about living, however you want to live. The shapes in the middle have been created to feel like they are alive and moving, creating little creatures that we have no name or label for. It’s up to the viewer to interpret them in whatever way they want.

The Scottish and Italian references come through in the colours, which borrow hues and tones from the Scottish and Italian flag. The second reference to Italy (which is the culture I relate to most) is the shapes sat on Fibonacci’s sequence, which is essentially what we know as the Golden Ratio, and is used across the creative sector still today.”

How to enter:

Create your flag and upload it to Instagram.

Write a description for what your flag represents and why.

Include #MyIslandFlag, @itsnicethat, @BritishArts and @British_Design in the caption.



Hints and Tips

The flag can been digitally designed, illustrated, or any method you feel is best to use.

What values are most important to you? How can they be presented in a visual form?

How can icons and colour help translate your values?

What shape does your flag take? The traditional format or something entirely new?

You can enter as many flags as you like.

T&Cs

Entries are open between 9th July – 18th July 3pm GMT.
Nine designs will be selected by the It’s Nice That creative team.
The designs will be featured on itsnicethat.com and social channels from Friday 20th July.
The designs will be featured on all British Arts social channels from Friday 20th July.
All entries must be made on Instagram, including #MyIslandFlag and tagging @itsnicethat, @BritishArts and @British_Design.
All entrants must have full copyright and relevant permissions for the image they enter.
By entering your design with #MyIslandFlag, you give permission for It’s Nice That to publish the selected work on all digital channels.
By entering your image with #MyIslandFlag, you give permission for British Arts Council and @British_Design to publish the selected work on all digital channels.
You can find It’s Nice That’s general terms and conditions here.