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Comment by billpg | Hacker News Reader

I use this to test flags. A flag may look fine when flat and still, but it has to work and be recognizable under windy conditions too.

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Just out of curiosity — what is it that you do that requires creating (I assume) a large set of new flags?

In my case, I work for a design studio that often creates branded flags (along with awnings, signage, stickers, etc) for restaurants and other storefronts. This is going to be great for our designers to test out what their flags will look like under semi-realistic wind conditions!

What types of patterns don't work on realistic flags?

Stuff that's heavily reliant on text, mostly. So we'll try to use logo marks that are identifiable as the brand instead of using the full place's name.

Sounds like adapting rules for mediæval heraldry might be useful for y'all. Shields & livery, after all, were meant to be clearly visible from a distance, in poor conditions, while the viewers were in psychological distress.

Likewise, flags which use bold swathes of colour & logos are more likely to be recognisable than wordy texts.

Also some words are confusing when flapping around and some are not, depending on how many other words can be formed with the letters that are not visible. Perhaps some algorithm could be made to ascertain the flagworthiness of a string.

Cool! Do you also design wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men? I'd love to see what kind of a virtual wind tunnel stress testing tool somebody could come up with for those!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3-JNf-5Yqw

Nice! And timely for this xkcd -- I tried to use this as the image, but hit cross site limitations:

https://xkcd.com/1969/

Good idea. It works if you upload the image to Imgur first:

https://i.imgur.com/ASPoRFI.png https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fi...

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