How NOT to Design a Coat of Arms 

Discuss this video on Reddit! www.reddit.com/r/tapakapa/comments/uyzkhr

I sense some hostility towards the University of Vienna? :D

Fun fact: Erdberg (literally translated „dirt mountain“) has a strawberry (in German Erdbeere) in their coat of arms. Nice play of words!

I feel like this is more of a general city issue than just a Viennese issue, if you looked into other cities you could probably see similar issues.

ive always wondered why you make so many videos on austrian stuff and never once did it occur to me that you were austrian

The colors are horrible. There is a gold rule in heraldry, you dont combine two fields of the same color next to each other. Also, in the same field cant be two "esmalts" (red, blue, green, purple) or two "metals" (yellow, white/grey) with the exception of the black and auxiliar colors (skin and brown). There always have to be a color and a metal or viceversa.

4:03: Gules, a cross argent probably is the most common coat of arms in the world. As well as by Vienna, it is also borne by the House of Savoy, & many cities in Italy, and by the county of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

Maybe it is backwards. Divide the districts into smaller districts so you essentially have one former town equals one district. The seals still might not be ideal, but they’d be better for use. Just like how some military patches can get complicated, but they tend to be easily recognizable because they are distinct.

This must be the most obscure topic I've watched a YT video on. (and liked it a lot!)

If you think those are bad or too detailed, search up the Austro-Hungarian coat of arms.

So simple. So good… that it’s used by like a trillion other political entities making its simplicity a weakness outside the city level. Then again I love the clusterfuck coats of arms of Emperors and such so I’m a bad judge. Bottom line: I think applying rules of vexillology is way too limiting as opposed to the other hyper detailed extreme.

I like switzerland's cantons' coat of arms. A lot of them have simple two-tone colours divided by a diagonal or horizontal stripe. Some of the others have animals or people but still less excessive than what you've demonstrated here Maybe in some instances too simple, but the regions are able to represent their flags and coat of arms pretty easily and for places like Basel and Bern, it is THE very symbol of the city

The problem is that there is usually no incentive to change it and it costs money to do it. Plus by spending time not doing it you are giving it the "traditional" value

Huh, I know three of them and I know they were a mess, but I assumed it was just because they combined a bunch of things. I didn't know they started with seals that were purposely complicated, so that even picking one at random and saying "you're the winner" would result in something hard to see from far.

I feel like the same issue applies with Pakistani provincial flags as well I mean unless you are in a Govt. building then you probably won't ever see them anywhere And while Islamabad's flag is sick you never even see it The only flag you'd see is Azad Kashmir's but that's only because of it's disputed status

To be fair, many old (or those who like to be) university use logos that look complicated. Just look at Harvards logo or for a German one the one from Heidelberg.

2:56 they did the same thing for french region names for a while in the mid 2010s. I happened to have to learn them for an exam at the same time.

I'm not even Austrian, I'm Mexican but man I love your videos 😆💖

I like that there's literally a district called "Landstraße" translated Country Road. Must be a very exciting place to live.

Hm... "The most complicated coats of arms" sounds like an interesting video topic.

Wow, I was just thinking about a video of yours. Did I summon you?

Now I'm going to have to have a vegemite hat with corks to keep the flies away when I tour museums in Austria... Clearly that's the dress code!

I suppose we can’t all be the Tokyo Metropolitan Ward Flags

Brigittenau is also good... Very weird, but actually alright, especially relative to others.

Wait,districts of Vienna has freaking coat of arms,whata based City

Hey, my favorite English language youtuber who makes videos about the city of Vienna is back

Why don't you have more attention? Your channel is great!

my personal suggestion: include no more than 4 heraldic representations and quarter into no more than 4 quarters + 1 inner shield on an everyday-use coat of arms. the simpler the better. whole shields or halved shields (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally) are most recommended; thirded shields are also encouraged as long as they are clear and creative. quartered shields with diagonal quarters having repeated representations would not be simple enough, but ok. if the intended inner shield could be used on its own to represent the whole thing, do it.

Why don't you make a video with the new proposed district shields? I am sure you could make it hysterical! :D

Yeah, I know this symbol! It's Switzerland.

The real question is where did he het the plastic straw from, I can only find paper ones in these days… 2:20

No one is concerned for the similarity between the Vienna symbol and Switzerland? A white cross on a red field is very Swiss.

Is interesting how you spoiled the Vienna's coat of arms in the beginning right after you said you'd talk about it later...

Reminds me of a ted talk about city flags

this is something London Boroughs did well, as they were made brand new from scratch.

tbh the Hernals Coat of Arms is quite prominently featured in Hernals, but a mess nonetheless.

The only two relevant coats of arms you need to be aware of in Vienna are the ones for the football clubs.

- How many things you want to have at your coat of arms? -Yes.

The "German" version is so much better although I understand only half of it at best. Cheers.

Lmao I was walking just right by that church as I watched this video

Why is Vienna using Switzerland's flag?

Technically speaking districts could keep their current coat of arms as greater coats of arms and create the lesser version with just the subjects of the main former village - current name of the district

2:58 tbh, isn't that how the German language works anyway?

This wasn't in my sub box or recommended, so heres a comment to boost the video lol

Great video, they really look like a mess. This reminded me that most town in Czechia have their own CoA. Some are pretty cool, even.

My city, antwerp, has a great logo and coat of arms. No idea if the sub municipalities have their own come to think of it

I love your uploads! Perfect on a bad day like today

Making coat of arms from seals is why i dont like many of finlands municipal/city coat of arms 😅

Its like a flag, but painted on surface. Therefore the same design principles apply. Makes sense to me.

anything smaller than a town doesnt really need a coat of arms. Districts or small villages can just adapt the one from the cities they belong too

Please more heraldry videos

The coat of arms of Łódź, Poland (Literaly translated as "Boat") is a yellow... boat... on a red shield

U.S. states have the same problem with their flags

...in terms of recognisability the nepalese flag is outstanding - instead, or more BECAUSE of its strang shape...as shown in your other videos 👍 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J59JkE2x42o.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cXys6bCcdLM.html ...an yes...less is sometimes more - especcially in the context of flags, logos and coat-of-arms...! 👍

How NOT to Design a Coat of Arms Tapakapa: *insert video* Turkiye: just dont make one lmao

Well... Now the question is, who's city coa is older, Tallinn or Vienna, as they look similar.... Hmmm 🤔

My attempts to pronounce tapakapa: -takapapa -tapapaka -katapapa (why did I say this) -tapakapa

First

I'm not here to shout you're wrong, but the term "coats of arms" is clumsy and long. simply saying "arms" is more than enough. if you'd like a seremonious sound, armorial achievement is good.

I think there's a balance to be struck. The actual coat of arms, featured on the literal coat (the tabbard) and the shield (the escutcheon) does need to be recognisable from a distance. However, and this is more true for individuals than other entities, inheritance and unions need to be taken into account. Heraldic achievements showed who you were, and who's families you came from and married into, often by splitting the designs of two families and merging them, or by sharing common themes between father and son (the women didn't get much of a say in it in medieval times). I think a key point is to think about symbolism and representation, rather than literal statements. I know its a flag, but take England's flag: a red cross on a white field, known as St. George's cross. The white field represents St. George, who is said to have carried a white flag, in itself symbolising purity, divinity and peace. The red represents the blood of the dragon he is said to have slain, which stained his flag and tabbard. The cross, of course represents the Christian faith. I give this example as I'm English, so its the most familiar example, but anyone could condense any rich culture and history into a simple and recognisable design if they only considered their actions instead of slapping a seal on a shield and called it a day.

Fun, its the Austrian version of USA's municipalities SOB flags

2:55 Meanwhile Porto with União das Freguesias de Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória 🙄

I'm not proud to admit that i went the whole video and read some comments before realizing i was mistaking Vienna for Venice. Probably made worse by the fact that i'm currently learning german.

I don’t agree. I think they look cool and wouldn’t be used even if they were simpler. By changing them you would just remove the historic values they hold and they’ll look very unoriginal.

4:11 those "weird 3d borders" help to distinguish that cross from the Swiss cross :) The cross on that district's shield looks like Switzerland

Less than 2 mins in and I am in awe of how messed the logic was to take the seals/crests/sigils of the towns and mix them together, and they thought that was a coat of arms... smh

If you want to see a bad coat of arms search the one of the Spanish province of Guadalajara. I'm sorry for your eyes.

Omg i genuinely at first thought GCP grey had posted a new video that i didnt get a notification💀💀

Ok so do you know that cot of arms is Brigandine and your "coat of arms" is called seal or logo LOL.

Mm.. good content but, trying to be cgpgrey.

As an American, I don't understand the point of this sort of thing at all, but I am entertained nonetheless

what a quintessential first world problem lol

Could be missidentified as Denmark.

0:52 recognition value of -28? Dude the bottom left is definitely Saint Nicholas of Myra. Ask any Dutch person. Any.

hey... they took r flag -denmark

1h 2.7k 451 28th. Before this gets popular.

As Americans I love all of them

"Wohnhaus der Stadt Wien" I don't think a simple house would clarify that.. that it's a simple house xD

Pretty sure districts in Brazilian cities that might have them don't have coats of arms, only proper municipalities have them. They usually look decentish.

Meanwhile Czarków's CoA: dude in a bathtub

Before making a coat of arms you should study some heraldry basics, it has really a lot of rules and principles. Also in a lot of countries there's a heraldric authority, if you have one in yours you should check their recommendations. Usually they are meant to create beautiful and accurate coats of arms.

THEYRE AWESOME WDYM

CGP Darkish

7 buckets

Furry substitute children that weird way to say dog

Thanks.

mmmmmm vegemite

At least it isn’t the Stowe Armorial

Crazy!

Can I Redesign Them?

I like them to be honest.

Did you mispronounce the Archangel Michael or is this a local variation of his name?

So t's NOT just the US whose local flags and heraldry are a mess. We're just the "best" at it.

coats of arms are supposed to be crowded so that you can put every important part of your noble lineage on them, flags on the other hand evolved out of the simple & easily recognizeable recurring elements on coats of arms, if you want easily recognizable symbols for the districts, go with flags

No

Being from Norway I'm spoiled with well designed coats of arms for all the counties and municipalities. So I'm often surprised when other countries have such bad and overly complex arms. All the municipalities and regions have coats of arms and almost all of them are really simple 2-3 colour flat designs (some also have a black line art on the figures). The least simple are generally some of the bigger cities like the capital Oslo that uses an arms based off an old seal, but Oslo also recently created a modern simplified version of it that is used as an official logo for the public services. Part of the reason they are all simple and mostly quite elegant is that they probably aren't that old; most of them probably less than 100 years old; and when there has been mergers they have either just used one of the two arms or designed a new one so there's very little marshalling going on (I only spottet 3 arms that looks like it's two separate shields combined on the current list and two of them are still pretty simple).

well you say that cross design is great I say nah, it sucks. It is so generic that I have already seen te exactly same design used by some Norwegian town not to mention looks almost like a flag of Denmark hahaha