Mini flags are bought on price per unit and judged in the first ten minutes of an event. These four decisions are what decide the second part.

Ask how the flag joins the stick

A hand flag either has the fabric heat-sealed into a closed sleeve around the dowel, or it has two staples through it. The first spreads the load along the whole dowel; the second concentrates it at two points that work loose within minutes of waving.

This is the single most useful question in the category and almost nobody asks it. If a supplier cannot answer, assume staples.

A desk flag is a base, not a flag

Desk flags live on surfaces people lean on and knock. A light base with the pole sitting loose in it leans, wobbles and falls, and it reads as cheap however good the printing is.

Ask for the base weight. For a row of flags in a boardroom, a single base bar keeps the spacing and stops them drifting across the table over a morning.

Bunting should be sewn, not tied

Bunting is a tape with flags in it. Sewn into a continuous binding tape it hangs in a consistent line and takes tension along the tape; tied to a cord it sags unevenly, lets each flag rotate, and drops them.

Specify the spacing between flags and measure the run you are covering. Two lengths knotted together in front of a crowd is the thing everybody notices.

Size from the viewing distance

A hand flag is read at arm’s length. A fan flag is read from the opposite stand. The same artwork cannot do both, and shrinking a crest until it fits produces a grey smudge at distance.

Tell your supplier how far away the audience is and let them simplify the artwork. For coordinated stadium displays, colour blocks beat crests every time.

What to send when you ask for a quote

Quantity, format, where the flags will be seen from, whether children will handle them, and your artwork. That is enough for a real quote and a mockup the same day.

We redraw free, because a small flag almost always needs opening out rather than scaling down.