
Roman Mars Explains the Genius of the Chicago Flag - tptacek
http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/May-2015/Roman-Mars-Explains-the-Genius-of-the-Chicago-Flag/?utm_campaign=Chimag+Flag+051515&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=FB
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jinushaun
He talks a lot about the Chicago flag, but anyone who lives around DC knows
that the DC flag enjoys the same level of appreciation by its residents. It's
everywhere. The stars are often replaced with objects, such as a coffee cup.
The flag is often remixed and deconstructed, but still instantly recognizable.

I'm not sure where he stands on the flag of Maryland, but you also see that a
lot too. It's so outrageous and easy to identify.

Virginia? Not so much. Detailed seal on a blue field.

~~~
pandler
I'm personally a huge fan of the Maryland flag. It reminds me of a coat of
arms more than just a flag.

Looking at all of the state flags [1], it seems that the Virginia style
"detailed seal on a blue field" is pretty common. Thinking back to my time in
New Hampshire, I'm realizing that no one really flies the NH flag except for
government buildings. In the absence of a remarkable flag, the late Man in the
Mountain is usually the thing that you see used to symbolically indicate,
"This is New Hampshire", if any symbolism is used at all.

South Carolinas is another flag that seems to get a lot of love from its
citizens.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_U.S._states](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_U.S._states)

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defen
> It reminds me of a coat of arms more than just a flag.

That's because it is from Lord Baltimore's family's coats of arms - look up
Crossland and Calvert coats of arms.

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mhurron
> "The state name was specifically added in 1969 because no one could tell it
> was the flag of Illinois, because it is hopelessly generic. As opposed to
> the Chicago flag, the stars on which were designed to look like no star that
> had ever appeared on a flag before, by an expert in the history of flags."

Ok, how is the Chicago flag any different. If you didn't tell me what it was a
flag for, I would never be able to guess that it was Chicago's. How is some
white bars, two blue bars and 4 red stars not "hopelessly generic?"

Without labeling, any flag could be from almost anywhere until you're told
otherwise.

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tptacek
Isn't that true of almost every flag? Even the most iconic flags - Japan, the
UK - carry little intrinsic meaning.

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thaumasiotes
>> Without labeling, any flag could be from almost anywhere until you're told
otherwise

> Isn't that true of almost every flag?

According to the parent comment, yes.

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tptacek
Sorry! I read that comment on my phone screen and (ill-advisedly) replied
there as well, and missed that part.

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pcrh
I lived in SF for years, and I don't ever remember seeing its flag... although
the motto (Oro en paz, fierro en guerra -- Gold in Peace, Iron in War) is
common (e.g. on Police badges), I kind of liked that it was in Spanish too.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_San_Francisco.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_San_Francisco.svg)

~~~
waterlesscloud
The phoenix motif is odd.

Atlanta has phoenix motif as well, but since it was literally burned and
regrew it makes sense.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta#/media/File:Flag_of_Atl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta#/media/File:Flag_of_Atlanta.svg)

The Los Angeles flag couldn't be duller if it tried.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Los_Angeles#/media/File...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Los_Angeles#/media/File:Flag_of_Los_Angeles,_California.svg)

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ecksor
SF literally burned and regrew as well:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake)

~~~
tizzdogg
Yeah, if you're looking for it, you can see the phoenix motif all around San
Francisco, not just on flags. It's the symbol of the city.. a city risen from
its ashes. I quite like it actually, though I agree the actual flag is not the
greatest design. He didnt mention it but the gold border is a reference to the
gold rush roots of the city, if that wasnt apparent.

I dont think the flag is that hard to find.. it's flying over most government
buildings at least. Though I may be inclined to notice these things since I
could name the cities for a few of flags on his "bad flag" slide by sight.

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bunderbunder
I like the Milwaukee flag too; it grows on you after a while. It's like the
kid wearing stripes and plaids and polka dots and mismatched socks and light-
up shoes of city flags - it's not going to win any design awards, but you've
still got to respect it for rocking its own style. I tried to buy one at one
point, but discovered that nobody is producing them commercially - the ones
owned by the city look like they are all sewn by hand.

Cutting down on the number of elements to make a less cluttered wouldn't be
terrible, though. One thing the author didn't mention that makes the Chicago
flag so great is that it's easy for citizens and citizen groups to riff on;
between that star and the line of four graphic elements between the blue
stripes, the entire city's got a common graphic identity that everyone can
share.

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bitsweet
You must not have watched the Ted talk which makes a very compelling case to
why its a bad flag. The video talks about how great flags, like chicago's, are
flown everywhere and bad flags are not.

I grew up about an hour north of Chicago and an hour south of Milwaukee; I
visited and worked in both cities. I've never seen the Milwaukee flag but I
always saw the Chicago flag around.

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peeters
I think you're the one missing something; namely that while the TED talk cites
Milwaukee as a bad flag, the author (Whet Moser) of the linked article (which
_embeds_ the video) describes his disagreement. Hence the "too" in "I like the
Milwaukee flag too" means "as Moser does", not "in addition to (other flag)".

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tptacek
Whet doesn't hate the Milwaukee flag as much as Roman Mars, but he agrees with
that the Chicago flag is superior. (The TED talk doesn't cover this, but
Whet's actual article does.)

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wtbob
The only real problem with the San Francisco flag is the use of metal-on-metal
( _argent, a border or_ , in heraldic terms; 'yellow on white' in normal
English), and in fact argent on argent with the motto. The 'San Francisco'
label is pretty silly too.

Fix the colours, use a proper heraldic phoenix, remove the name and it could
be an incredibly great flag. Heck, _or, a phoenix enflamed proper, in base a
scroll gules, thereon the motto 'Oro en paz, fierro in guerra' or_ would look
pretty sharp. Could stick with _argent_ instead of _or_ , if one wished to
look more like the current flag.

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sjs382
Pittsburgh still has my favorite
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Pittsburgh](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Pittsburgh)

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Aloisius
Wow the SF flag is truly, truly terrible. I like the redesigned one at the
end. Personally, I'd go with more rainbows and less Giants/Halloween, but
that's me.

Anyone know where it came from or if there is an effort in SF to replace that
horrible, horrible mistake?

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csense
Based on the title I thought this would be about a psychological theory that
could explain both why certain gods were more popular than others among
ancient humans, and why certain flags are more popular than others among
modern humans.

Clicked on the article, was disappointed.

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jzymbaluk
I just listened to the 99pi episode about the history of the Portland flag,
and although roman mentioned how much he loved the Chicago flag, he didn't go
into detail about it. Great read, thanks for posting!

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WiseWeasel
[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/vexillonaire/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/vexillonaire/)

Indeed, an interesting story, with classic Act II tragedy and Act III triumph
playing out over 30 years of (not so) passionate struggle.

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jff
Why would anyone fly the boring San Francisco flag when they could instead put
up the awesome California state flag?

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function_seven
Agreed.

I think the California flag deserves an exemption from the "don't write the
name on the flag" rule. Somehow "California Republic" is very grand sounding.
Prompts a history lesson[1] for those who are curious.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Republic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Republic)

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tptacek
So great.

