In Defense of Bad Flags

2019-10-04 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:27 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Prompted by 99% Invisible merch at DFTBA and Roman Mars's case against bad city flags, Hank admits Montana's and Milwaukee's flags are bad but argues Milwaukee's cluttered flag earnestly conveys compromise, politics as thinking about others; good design is about more than design, and not every place needs a great flag.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Pointer to John's last video; 99% Invisible merch at DFTBA and Roman Mars's flag talk

• ★★ Hank tells viewers who haven't seen John's last video that this one is nothing to it: leave and click the card. — 00:00:00 · John Green
• ★★ DFTBA.com has recently started selling 99% Invisible merch, which Hank loves; as a podcast about design, its designs are good. — 00:00:00 · DFTBA Records
• ★★ Roman Mars, creator of 99% Invisible, is known for many things, but his most popular YouTube video is about bad flag design. — 00:00:00
• ★★ Hank says he lives in a state whose flag was voted third to last. — 00:00:00 · Montana

00:00:29 — Montana's bad state flag, the 406 area code and the old license plate

• ★★ Hank admits Montana's flag is bad: it looks like every other state flag, and its seal shows a glacier meeting a large body of water, which doesn't happen in the state. — 00:00:29 · Montana
• ★ Hank says Montanans identify instead by their single statewide area code, 406, which everybody loves, and by the old license plate design, which is quite good. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Montana

00:00:58 — Milwaukee's flag and the People's Flag: good design versus a flag that conveys compromise and politics

• ★★ Roman Mars's TED talk focuses on Milwaukee's flag, which Hank agrees is bad design, with a flag on the flag. — 00:00:58
• ★★ Hank, who loves good design, relays Roman Mars's case that a good flag doesn't just represent civic pride but can increase it. — 00:00:58
• ★★ Since the TED talk an alternative flag has arisen among a certain kind of Milwaukeean, the kind who watches TED Talks. (playful) — 00:00:58
• ★★★ Hank calls the People's Flag of Milwaukee good, iconic design, readable across a baseball stadium. — 00:01:27
• ★★★ Speaking not as a Milwaukeean but from design, Hank says the People's Flag feels a little posh, as if it cares more about design than about a city. — 00:01:48
• ★★★ Milwaukee's current flag is bad design, but Hank sees it conveying compromise, what we call politics: shipping, the gear, church, beer, baseball and the old flag all had to get in. — 00:01:48
• ★★★ Hank says politics is often actually synonymous with having to think about someone who wasn't me. — 00:01:48

00:02:30 — Democracy and good design, the US and Pocatello flags; not every place needs a great flag; sign-off

• ★★ The current Milwaukee flag feels earnest, sweet and kind of Milwaukee, but that doesn't make it a good design or a good flag. — 00:02:30
• ★★ Democracy is not incompatible with good design, Hank says: the US flag is very different from most flags but deeply iconic and very good. — 00:02:30
• ★★ Hank praises Pocatello, Idaho for replacing its flag with a better one, though it should have chosen another suggested design. — 00:02:30
• ★★★ Hank concludes that good design is about more than good design: a great flag needs to be simple, but not every place needs a great flag. — 00:02:59

Humor (significant)

• Maryland ranked above Montana's flag, which makes Hank suspicious — 00:00:29

  “because do they want me to know what the flag looks like? Because I've looked at it and I can't tell.”

• Montana's flag is so generic that — 00:00:29

  “This is why in Montana we actually identify by our area code.”

• Describing Milwaukee's flag — 00:00:58

  “There's a flag on the flag.”

• Hank ends by ranking Pocatello's new flag above the big city's — 00:02:59

  “Pocatello, blow a New York City out of the water.”

Mentioned

Central: compromise · Flag of Milwaukee · People's Flag of Milwaukee

Also: People: Roman Mars

Projects: DFTBA Records

Works: 99% Invisible · Flag of Montana · Flag of the United States · Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed

Concepts: civic pride · democracy

Places: Maryland · Milwaukee · Montana · New York City · Pocatello, Idaho

Replies to

• answers · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — “First, yes, your last video.”

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