American State Flag Redesigns are BORING (But We Can Do Better)
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- čas přidán 23. 05. 2024
- Roman Mars’ 2015 TED Talk on flag design ignited a wave of interest in improving the flags of American cities and states… but nearly a decade later, the results are a bit of a mixed bag. In my view, the prevailing wisdom of the North American Vexillological Association is too restrictive, placing excessive emphasis on simplicity and minimalism, and leading to some pretty boring new flags. Join me as I explore the recent history of this movement within American culture, examine the widely cited “principles of good flag design,” and offer both my own thoughts, as well as redesigns that I believe strike a balance between iconic simplicity and creative distinctiveness.
Uh… happy April Fools’ Day?
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CZcams Videos Referenced:
Roman Mars TED Talk: Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed
• Why city flags may be ...
CGP Grey: DOES YOUR FLAG FAIL? Grey Grades State Flags!
• 🇺🇸 DOES YOUR FLAG FAIL...
J.J. McCullogh: The "bad" US state flags are good, actually
• The "bad" US state fla...
Froyour History: The Internet is Wrong about Flags
• The Internet is Wrong ...
Inspirations for various designs:
Minnesota: Brandon Hundt
brandonhundt2?lan...
Georgia: Titanium_Helm
/ us_state_flag_redesigns
Florida: 1clikgtramg
/ florida_flag_redesign
West Virginia: NxMaGiiCz
/ west_virginia_state_fl...
Kentucky: NxMaGiiCz
/ kentucky_state_flag_re...
Massachusetts: Smiix
/ massachusetts_new_flag...
Rhode Island: Titanium_Helm
/ us_state_flag_redesigns
Vermont: Rarely_Common
/ vermont_state_flag_red...
New Hampshire: MikeFrench98
/ tried_my_hand_at_a_new...
Michigan: Pathos316
/ michigan_state_flag_re...
8-Bit Cover of Never Meant by American Football: • American Football: "Ne...
00:00 Introduction
03:03 The NAVA Principles of Good Flag Design
05:05 Virginia
08:08 The South
12:54 The Northeast
17:20 The Midwest
22:09 The Mountain West
24:50 The West Coast
27:08 Conclusion
28:11 Credits - Zábava
I think you have a “centered horizontal stripes and a circle” motif replacing the SOAB
Lots of "circle in the center with bars on the sides" in this one, huh? :^)
I’m only at massachusetts but buddy u aint kiddin, this is just a soab w extra steps
Also a lot of state flowers. Like why would you make the central focus of a New Hampshire flag about the state flower? New Hampshire has the perfect state symbol of The Old Man on the Mountain, plus the color most associated with the state is green, not purple. If any state should have a primarily purple flag, Connecticut makes the most sense, but he gave them the Washington Commanders Burgundy and Gold for some reason.
West Virginia's redesign looks like a flag that you'd see flown by a kingdom of Dwarves
Pretty much what West Virginia is
12:35 I hate to "um, actually" an April Fool's video, but the central design on the Oklahoma flag is actually an Osage war shield.
Critique of New York, it only focuses on the city when the vast majority of the state is upstate.
I thought the same thing
yeah, even the capital is in upstate.
"vast majority" ha... NYC has 44% of the state's population.
@@Armakk not talking about population. Talking about the sheer amount of state that is up there. The amount of land is far greater than the city and there is far more cultural heritage in upstate than in the city.
Lived in New York and upstate and western New York would have broken off over accepting a NYC centric flag
As a new yorker, i like the symbolism, but some people gotta remember that NYC is only a small part of the state
Eh you gotta remember that the rest of the state is only a very small part of the population
13:54 I hate to "um, actually" an April Fool's video, but the Charter Oak of Connecticut was an individual tree, not the species. (I use the past tense because it fell in 1856.) The Charter Oak was a specimen of white oak.
Smh, did Ohio dirty.
I love non rectangle flag shapes imo.
Funn video, thanks
op: "i love non-rectangular flags"
tampa:
On the OK flag, it’s not a dream catcher. It’s an Osage shield with 7 eagle feathers. And removing the olive branch and peace pipe removes the symbolism of the peace between the European and Indian nations that now live there together.
Also (less importantly) the little crosses on the shield are actually stars. The original flag had a star but Okies thought it looked too socialist.
Quite apt! It is also a neat subversion on European coats of arms that use European shield designs.
best re-design: Vermont; honorable mentions: Missouri, Kansas; worst re-design: New York. but as an upstater maybe i am biased. i don't like the 100% removal of any detail in the flags. the detail on the bear in California for example, or the landscapes of the seals .. they add a lot of personality! but i truly have never thought about flag design before so thanks for another thought provoking video.
I feel like the blood on the Louisiana flag didn’t make since
Hopefully this video doesn’t get “flagged” for its content. ;) Jokes aside, April Fools Cardinal. Everyone.
I laughed at "armchair artist". Isn't that what all reviewers and critics are, in a way?
I think it's fitting for local flags to be more detailed and specific while the flags of countries are much more simple and broad.
8:53 I hate to "um, actually" an April Fool's video, but the reason for that activity in South Carolina is because there is actually no design standard (in more ways than one) for the state flag. All use the crescent in the canton, the palmetto, & dark blue field, but each flag manufacturer has a slightly different proprietary design. (For example, they use different shades of blue, different crescent shapes, and different palmetto designs.) The recent activity has been to try & standardize the flag design.
you don't seem to hate it very much do you lmao
@@michaelwilliams-owolabi8365 I do not hate the flag at all. I think the design seems pretty solid.
@@robertborland5083 nah i was talking about the first couples words of your comment
@@michaelwilliams-owolabi8365 Ah. I tried to resist that urge to try and add technical corrections but failed.
As a fellow Virginian I'm kind of split on the redesign, I like the flag itself and the parts thereof, but it kind of removes the fighting tyranny part of the flag that I like. Also it might be a bit unfair but the cardinal looks a bit too close to your own cardinal to me and in that context it feels a bit wrong if that makes sense.
For the other states my favorite redesign just on looks for me is either West Virginia or Indiana, and I'm sorry but the Ohio white space filler flag is absolutely the worst one to me, I personally really like unconventional flag shapes and I don't think it needs changes at all. As another note I think the Wyoming flag didn't really need changes to the border, just remove the seal and it's pretty much perfect.
As an alaskan, I will say, I do not like your flag, the polarbear is not that special here lol
This was a fun April Fool's video! I got a kick out of it.
I like animals on flags, but i strongly disagree with the idea they need to abstracted or simplified right out of the gate. The great thing about detail is it's easy to remove in situations you don't want it but hard to add; so you might as well include "detailed" drawings on the official flags and only resort fo the abstract versions when necessary (e.g. the welsh flag has a very detailed dragon, but also is easily simplified when they want to stick it on merchandise)
The only important rule imo is "is it embraced in a transformative way by the public - do they stick it on cakes, tattoos, tourist merch etc.?
13:23 I hate to "um, actually" an April Fool's video, but the inclusion to the pine tree is a reference to the number of historical "Pine Tree Flags" as enduring symbols for Massachusetts & New England since the colonial period. (The pine design used by u/Smiix is the design used on the state's naval ensign.)
this was an april fools video?
Finally someone who has a similar Vexillogical opinion as me. although you definately have a stronger bias to horizontal stripes than me lol.
Honestly, just remove the words from indiana's flag and its a solid B+ design
13:00 i was very surprised to hear modern baseball in your video.
TIL that old flags were meant to be seen on huge pieces of fabric, and today's flags are meant to be seen in small jpgs on websites. The Alaska upgrade is awesome BTW. Louisiana's is also a major improvement.
I cannot unsee it but the GA flag redesign you did looks like a Pokeball with the state seal in the center where the button would be
As a Marylander I respect your opinion on my flag
i wish you wouldnt keep stopping for clips from other shows or whatever, it really disprupts the flow of the video, but otherwise, your videos are all really great and relaxing
Why does everyone get rid of the people?
idk
I personally think Rhode Island's flag being square is better because it's more unique. Plus, it's technically the smallest aspect ratio, and Rhode Island is the smallest state, so it's a perfect match.
As an Oregon resident, I agree that the reverse of our flag is much better than the obverse, but I didn't care too much for your redesign. The colors you chose (really, mostly just the red) just don't seem aesthetically pleasing to me, and the stripes and circle are too abstract and look too similar to several of your other redesigns. I think using fewer design elements would have been better in that case. The beaver is distinctive enough, so just make it bigger and drop the circle and some of the stripes.
Also, I like the non-rectangular Ohio flag, it's distinctive and looks nice. Filling in the space with white just looks unfinished and bad, like you accidentally exported without transparency or something.
Otherwise I think your designs were pretty good in at least 3/4 of cases.
As an Idahoan, Idaho has way too much negative space I would suggest a design similar to Utah's but a focus on the gem, its a good motif to both states being settled by Latter-Day Saint pioneers
Why is everyone so set on making Ohio's flag conform? It's a great design, let us be our weird-shaped little selves >:V
I think my personal design tastes differ a bit generally (I definitely don't love small stripes quite as much, haha), but this was still a fun watch.
Yo the minnesota flag seal originally had a native riding west into the sunset, getting pushed out by farmers. Some tribes here didnt fly the flag and hated having the seal on all their paperwork.
So i low get annoyed when people always act like "nah mn's flag is fiiiine just leave it"
But yes ik... April fools and all.
(Btw turn the new mn flag sideways)
I redesigned the NC flag and I put the Dogwood on there too, I’m just wondering if you took inspiration from that?
Ohioan here. This redesign would never fly here, we rather like our non-rectangular flag as something unique we have.
So, I had no idea that a TED talk started the whole flag redesign thing (I live under a rock sometimes). But I was thrilled when Utah (my home state) started our flag redesign a few years ago. I never liked the old state seal slapped on a blue background. Hell, our state seal is even pretty boring. It’s just the US seal with a beehive in the middle. In fact, that was really my only real hope - that whatever design was chosen, it had the beehive symbol in a place of prominence.
Most of the short-listed entries had that beehive, I am pleased to say. And I love that the colors of the new flag are meant to evoke the blue of the mountains, the red rocks, and the white salt flats (and white snow, of course). Utah has some pretty varied landscapes, and I think our new flag represents all those features quite well.
Thanks for the video. Fascinating stuff! Even if it was “just” an April Fools vid. 😉
as a Kansan I can confirm we have a bunch of sunflowers lol
I love your Virginia design as a Canadian.
As an Ontarian, I hate how we got the worst provincial flag tied with Manitoba meanwhile the flag of British Columbia is so epic
kind of forgot that the Connecticut flag had nutmegs on it around the border of the shield, it's the nutmeg state.
Minnesota definitely should've left the tricolor in the final choice instead of ruining it
Could have used the Jersey Devil instead of a regular horse on the New Jersey Flag though. Since i don't think i ever seen any redesigns with a Cryptid on it.
I don't think cgpgrey has independent thought
Why?
For North Carolina just use the one during the civil war without text, the only difference is the red and blue are flipped but its such a good design
Center symbols and bars could be adopted by a couple states but after a while it would be the new “generic” flag
12:04 im not sure if the top star should be bigger since the us is a federation and the states and national government should share equal power by definition
Not what I was expecting. You know McCoullough did a sequel video, right? czcams.com/video/kRtUiORUh7c/video.htmlsi=eVIUWJFMiWVPbxUp
Also, whats with all the animal crossing music? Lol. I also see you included beastars music ^^
State flag redesigns always feel off, with the exception of the actual new Utah flag. I think it mostly comes down to colors. I notice that the redesigns can't just have normal colors, they always use either an overly dark shade, or overly bright shade.
18:37 the tri color should probably be the same color and oriented the same since its supposed to look french not dutch
My boy JJ got a shout out wooooooo
6:00 is this another blue and black dress type thing because that is not blue that is green
I could see a Pennsylvania flag redesign having a black or grey color on it to represent the coal and steel industries of Pennsylvania
Your we redesigns heal similar to each other but different but I like that
People keep dragging Nevada's flag but tbh I love it. Maybe I'm biased because I'm from Nevada, but I personally feel like it has a lot of personality. Plus you could joke the main design being concentrated in one area against a lot of negative space reflects how sparsely Nevada is populated outside of a few major cities. I do like the redesign too, but it just doesn't feel quite like Nevada to me. Honestly if I were to make a happy medium I'd take that silver and sort of create a diagonal divide from the lower left to the upper right half. Which could reflect both raw and refined silver. As miners finding silver would come across "blue mud". Because gee, the silver state sure is great. Also I like our sagebrush , it's pretty.
Idaho is actually considered part of the Pacific Northwest, not the Mountain West 🥲(The States Biggest Agricultural Area and previously most populated and important part's weather and geography is affected by the Ring of Fire and the Pacific Ocean)
These are some beautiful designs, very meaningful but strikingly distinctive. I'm from Shetland in the UK and am proud of my local (and simple) flag. I don't fly flags or have ones in my house. But if I lived anywhere else in the UK is would fly the Shetland one, if I lived outside the UK I would have that and the Union Jack up in my house.
Overall, this video has the most redesigns that I wholeheartedly agree with, and those most untouched flags that I also agree with. As a former Montanan, though, I always wish people would give Montana a bit more effort - it's a state with a horrible flag with little to pull from, and it's a state where barely anyone lives, so most people doing these redesigns don't know much about it and the history/iconography the state has to offer.
Even though I prefer the sword in the crown for Virginia's flag redesign, I also really like this redesign as well. Florida's looks great here, along with Kentucky, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana (even though I don't think the flag needs any change. Maybe just remove the name) Kansas & North Dakota.
All solid designs, but those ones were my favorites. 😊
Also Maine's old flag will be on the ballot in November this year. I sincerely hope the majority of Mainers vote to change it back!!
Honestly, the southern mountain west flags are all awesome (except Nevada), now that Utah redesigned theirs. People criticize the "C" on the Colorado flag, but it's not really bad at all. The flag looks good, and that's one of the most aesthetically pleasing letters to put on a flag. Arizona and New Mexico both have awesome flags. Wyoming is so close; if they literally just remove the seal and leave everything else the same, they would have one of the absolute best flags in the entire country. That bison is 👌
o is better ðan c on a flag imo
Don't take those rules seriously. Lots of great flags break those rules
a white flag with a red pine tree is the flag of new england, thats why it showed up in so many massachusetts redesigns
Those so-called five principles of good flag design were made up by one guy in bedroom one day NAVA had no input
As Louisianian, I do not approve of the new Louisiana flag
Michigan is a bit weak if I’m honest. The meaning behind the design you chose is definitely great and I mean it’s not like you can easily fit the automotive industry on a flag anyway. I guess I just don’t really like the zigzag up and down on the border of it. It’s a good start for sure but it could use some work
I found this charming *Says the Canadian*
Why do all of your designs include mainly three things: Thin Horizontal Stripes, Center Circles, and Center Symbol?
Also, as a Michigander, I would rather use the SOAB flag over yours.
Too many circles with horizontal lines. Some of the flags were improvements, but I didn't like a lot of the redesigns. I like the idea of the cardinal on the Virginia one.
I dont like most of your redesigns 😅. They all feel similar like the SOABs. Two contrasting colors with a similar and oversimplified design in the center, sometimes with vertical striping and a circle in one of the aforementioned colors. They don’t fit rule 5, in being unique. Definitely too many dual colors. I’ll just pick one but for Iowa I would keep the overall design, simplify the lines on the eagle, but not too much. Then remove the words on the blue ribbons or swap ribbons/add corn or wheat.
When you design 50 fags, you're gonna ahve some ressemblances ^^
Notice the release date.
You got some wierd ahh colour pallets
Mississippi redesign was great 10/10
Utah redesign was pretty good, a bit reddit-esque but about as good as Colorado, 7.7/10
Minnesota redesign sucked, the old Minnesota flag was 4x better, 1.5/10
Really enjoyed this video, and I like a lot of the redesigns, but North Dakota easily has the worst flag of the entire union. The seal in its center is not only stretched weirdly to make the eagle look unnatural and ugly, but it’s not even North Dakota’s seal in the middle… It’s the seal is the United States of America!Meaning that, apart from the words “North Dakota” at the bottom, there is nothing about the flag that is actually identifying of the state of North Dakota specifically. Also, bison are SUPER iconic in North Dakota, and in my opinion trying to redesign North Dakota’s flag without including a bison on it feels kind of laughable
The South Dakota one...... ☠
New Sub
Old Sub, new video.
new topic, familiar creator
Every time I see the flag for Wichita, KS (I live nearby) I always think it's some kind of Ku Klux Klan flag
Really making sure I watch to the end by making my state flag last, huh? 😁
ur a washingtonian?
I dont have problem with my California flag its beutiful although I hate the stereo type of So Cal. Nor Cal is just better.
2:40 why is Wyoming gone?????
I think this guy likes flowers
I was so ready for a new xenofiction video and then I saw the date
lmao
I think the rule for a good flag should be, would you recognize it if a kid drew it?
The ship on NH flag is one they built.
The current flag includes the official state seal centered onto a blue background, surrounded with a wreath of laurel with nine stars interspersed, in honor of New Hampshire becoming the ninth state. That seal depicts the frigate USS Raleigh, one of the original warships of the U.S. Navy, which was built locally in 1776.
Chile: well if i fought texas it could cause me a little trouble
But would you lose?
Nah I'd Win
k
many of these are too futuristic looking.
VA Represent
Eugh... I love your videos a whole lot, and I dont want to be too rude or anything.
I was hoping since you were criticizing CGP Gray you wouldn't go as far into the "make every state flag a spur-of-the-moment corperation-circa-2018 redesign that doesnt stick" thing, but like... eugh...
These would work better for hunger games esque districts.
A lot of these designs I dont hate in isolation. Theyd be great for fictional stuff. But to just entirely replace styff and say yours is better just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The Virginia one is nice though. I didnt make it past the South before I couldnt help myself. (EDIT: as someone who has been a proud resident of Iowa and Ohio... honestly how dare you, im so sorry if this vid is a joke but... wow...)
Trust graphic designers, its a profession and field of study for a reason.
Hawaii has a terrible flag. Imagine having rhe flag of another nation on your flag. Hella cringe.
They just liked it
You really like flowers on flags, do you?
Edit: Nice swastika for south dakota xD
Oh boy we're going political now
And text that VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTION is a good usage of TEXT!?
I am not a fan either; the state motto "Virtute et armis" would be the better choice if any text were to be included. The Mississippi state legislature mandated that the new flag design had to include that motto.
You know...make the background red, the liberty and freedom of having your blood flow out of your body due to lack of health coverage.
Getting rid of Pa’s Flag’s horses is a crime which will not be forgiven.
They are to complex, I had to draw that flag as a kid and it looked terrible
Bro missed on every single one, other than Wyoming, Alaska and Connecticut