My name is Nick Julian. I am a recent college graduate from UMass Amherst where I majored in Public Administration and Social Change.

While I am working toward becoming a city planner focusing on transportation planning, I want to share a hobby of mine that is a part of civic engagement, vexillography or more commonly called flag design. 

I enjoy vexillography because it allows me to understand the history of cities and how a series of symbols on a piece of fabric can become not just a symbol of a municipality, but a symbol of the people. 

I also believe that every city deserves a good flag. In that spirit, much of my designs revolve around vexillologist Ted Kaye's Good Flag, Bad Flag handbook. Occasionally, I veer outside of those guidelines, but I always ensure that I follow them as closely as I can.

The five principles of flag design are:

1. Keep it simple

2. Use meaningful symbolism

3. Use 2-3 basic colors (red, yellow, green, blue, black, white)

4. No words or official seals

5. Be unique or related