Rating U.S. City Flags
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- Rating certain US cities' flags on a scale of 1-10. I discuss the design of the flags, colors, and how it ties to local geography. I compare these opinions to the official ratings published by the North American Vexillological Association (link to their website below). This is not a ranking of the flags, just a rating score of the flags designed and introduced since 2015. Some of these flags are pretty bad, so there's some roasting of the flags, too.
North American Vexillological Association:
nava.org
Album displayed:
Jethro Tull: "War Child" (1974)
0:00 Intro
1:06 Ratings Begin
44:54 Wrap-up
Cities by state:
Alabama: 27:16
Alaska: 44:29
Arizona: 11:20
Arkansas: 25:47
California: 8:37
Colorado: 6:05
Connecticut: 39:40
Delaware: 37:19
Florida: 28:06
Georgia: 29:24
Hawaii: 44:48
Idaho: 5:23
Illinois: 23:00
Indiana: 33:00 ; 33:30
Iowa: Missed
Kansas: 15:10
Kentucky: 32:26 ; 35:39
Louisiana: 26:02
Maine: 43:35
Maryland: 36:12
Massachusetts: 40:15 ; 43:25
Michigan: 34:21
Minnesota: 20:06
Mississippi: 26:18
Missouri: 24:17
Montana: 5:50
Nebraska: 18:21
Nevada: 8:17
New Hampshire: 43:04 ; 43:31
New Jersey: 39:04 ; 39:21
New Mexico: 12:02
New York: 39:11 ; 39:31
North Carolina: 31:10
North Dakota: 20:00
Ohio: 33:22 ; 35:09 ; 35:45 Even though it was returned to twice, half of the state were still missed.
Oklahoma: 14:11
Oregon: 4:46
Pennsylvania: 37:34
Rhode Island: 40:14
South Carolina: 29:55
South Dakota: 19:07
Tennessee: 30:35
Texas: 12:12
Utah: 6:50
Vermont: 42:29
Virginia: 36:09
Washington: 1:35
West Virginia: 35:55
Wisconsin: 22:01
Wyoming: 6:02
Some missed cities were put in the wrap-up section.
Thank you! I'll pin this comment
Slay!
@@pokemontas8025 What? Why would I kill someone or something if my own or someone else's life is not threatened?
@@JohnGisMe 😑
@@JohnGisMe "Slay" in this manner is a cringey term that feminist morons use.
When people ask me why I like living in Switzerland, I always tell them the flag is a big plus.
😄
I have family in Lausanne, Vaud. 🇨🇭
Hi Kyle, Pocatello used to have one of the worse flags in the US. That's how I first learned about it, it was a Ted Talk aboiut city flags and the presenter chose Pocatello as one of the worse. So I think the reason people rated it so high is because compared to the original flag, it is waaaay better.
22:36 The Madison (WI) flag does a brilliant job of depicting the city's geography, as the heart of the city is located on an isthmus between two lakes.
Love Chicago's flag so much, represents our geography and history beautifully and is immediately recognizable as ours!
I have a sneaking suspicion that Wheeling, WV was taking notes.
I have it in my collection and fly it from time to time on big days in the city's history.
We need a 5th star on the Chicago flag for Chief Keef
Nice! A crossover of two of my favorite UA-cam channels!
I remember when Mayor Jane Byrne got the city picked to host the 1992 World's Fair for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage (and the 100th anniversary of Chicago's Columbian Exposition). I thought it was cool that there would be a *fifth* star added during my lifetime. But alas, the bid fell apart.
Kyle, I might be mistaken, but at 5:11, when you mentioned that Albany (Oregon)'s map looked like a three-way interchange, I looked up the city on Google Maps. I believe that that design *IS* a map, showing the "intersection" of I-5, US-20, and (in blue) the Willamette River.
Yeah it looked purposely to be conveying a river and a highway.
That make sense, although I still don't like it that much.
@@GeographyKing Same here.
It’s 2 rivers (also the Calapooia) and the two highways. It’s actually a pretty nice flag.
Thanks for having a look at the flags in our survey! It was great to hear your thoughts. My personal favourite was Old Town, Maine, so I also thought it was underrated.
It was a lot of fun but wow some of those all-text flags are painful.
I'm surprised on how many flags look like business logos. As a former graphic designer, some of these make me wonder how they vetted them and how the flag went through numerous approvals before slapping it onto marketing materials.
Yeah, there’s numerous studies on what makes for visually appealing designs and fonts in a wide variety of contexts, but SO many of these look like they were put together by a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who once made a brochure for their company picnic with their 2003 MS Office Suite.
Almost all cities do NOT think about the flag; they just take the city logo that is already paid for and slap it on a rectangular cloth.
Hi, I'm from Wendell, MA and I'm here to confirm for you that it is a town of old hippies. We actually fly that flag all over town and have it on t-shirts and tote bags, etc. I love that monstrosity.
I'm at 11:50 and Kyle, you've noted numerous times about the "South Park art". I think you're right, but I think that this is the result of NAVA's influence. Three of their five "key principles" of flag design say:
> Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
> Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors.
> No Lettering or Seals.
And this is where "South Park art" comes from, especially from the first one.
I've noticed that unfortunately, quite a lot of flags were created either to be souless and corporate, or to be souless and follow the trends that NAVA likes. I'm speaking of the flat design, childish squiggly line or flower art.
I don't think "keep it simple" or "a child can draw it from memory" was meant to imply it should look like it was drawn by a child, and simple doesn't mean poorly drawn, it means don't have too many themes.
The first 2 "key principles" are the generic guidelines for every advertisement and logo in the last 25 years. No lettering can suck it. I don't get their or Geo King's dislike for words (particularly the name of the city)
San Francisco's flag, the greatest city flag in history (not its current misinterpretation) has the words "Oro En Paz, Fierro en Guerro". (Gold In Peace, Iron In War). That looks good on any flag.
@@promontorium I agree, words on flags is okay
@@promontorium Your statement ,"I don't think "keep it simple" or "a child can draw it from memory" was meant to imply it should look like it was drawn by a child" is quite correct. They are saying *not* that a child could create it, but could replicate it. But regardless, it *has* influenced flag design.
I'm also okay with limited inclusion of words, and in fact, given how few people will get to know city flags, I think it's arguably *better* for most city flags to have the name of the city. Big cities like Chicago may have recognizable flags, but any city with less than a million people might be better off with the name, large and easily read.
As far as other words, I have always like scrolls, so the SF one is okay with me, but I hate marketing mottos, such as Long Beach. Fewer words *is* better. Despite the negative impact NAVA is having on flags (IMO), I totally get their disdain for words or small non-word details. If you have to strain to see things, they better be very attractive to justify them.
Tell me why you don't like the current incarnation of the SF flag. I think it's good (though I do actually prefer Chicago and Phoenix).
@@promontorium I think Fayetteville (31:36) strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and inclusion of the name.
Another great video. I’m always excited for new content. My favorite geography related channel on UA-cam. Rock on, Kyle
Hey Kyle, it would be great to see a rankings video of every US state drivers license. I love seeing these types of videos!
Your picture in picture covers some of the ratings & flags. I’m gonna give this one a 5.5 ;)
Mount Dora, FL sits on a lake and does have a lighthouse.
Could you do the same thing for the top 50 or so metro populations? Obviously there hasn't been a study so maybe just your thoughts. I'm from Cincy and want to hear your thoughts. Thanks as always Kyle.
This would be great. This video is pretty fun, but 99% of them are monstrosities for cities the vast majority of people haven't heard of.
I do plan on looking at best and worst flags amongst cities with populations over 100,000 in a near future video.
@@GeographyKing Awesome!
@@GeographyKing That would be great. Some are really good, like Washington DC or Phoenix, while some still are monstrosities...
I had no idea that cities had their own flags. And I still have no idea WHY they would have flags. Does my neighborhood have its own flag too? Can my house have an official flag?
"The United Republic of Jake Koenig - population: 2.5 - One human, one dog, one part-time resident on a girlfriend VISA"
That could work, Jake, but make sure you don't have a label on the dog that says "Jake's dog" and don't have a TM (trademark) on your girlfriend.
That's quite a collection that you went through! I had no idea there were so many. It's too bad Albany, NY didn't come up - would have been interested to see your rating on that one. (EDIT: my apologies, I didn't realize at first that this survey was about flags since 2015 only.)
Maybe it's my quirky sense of humor, but I found this to be your funniest video yet!
I think it's because it was unscripted.
Already know this will be epic
Wendell MA actually has a great flag for the town. The town motto is “We’re all here because we’re not all there,” and it is notorious for having the most interesting and eccentric personalities in the state (a high achievement for Massachusetts). It is a town of about 850 people if I remember correctly, and it has a nice charm.
Enjoyed the video. Good to get the feel of our towns.
If you ever get the chance, look into the meaning behind the Tulsa flag with the colors, it makes it go above and beyond. I’m an Oklahoman but their flag is definitely one of the best i’ve seen.
Can't wait to see all the Microsoft paint and 90s clip art flags
Imagine your city has finally grown recognizable enough locally to have a flag. You get your cities best artist to design a flag, there’s a ceremony in town announcing the flag. Finally, everyone can be united under a similar banner. It’s a great time for your city.
And then Kyle says:
“That looks terrible, 2”
As a graphic designer this vid is right up my alley. Nice job! The 'less-is-more' approach is one of the hardest things to do in design. Like you stated, text on a flag is rarely done well. People usually forget the natural viewing distance to a flag. It's gotta be striking from a distance.
Some of these flags' colors are uploaded in an RGB color space which doesn't accurately depict what their flag color would actually look like in real life. i.e. Seward is in RGB. This might have some of the judging being a little harsh. Burlington, VT color space is accurate, I wonder if Seward was uploaded with the Burlington's colors maybe it'd rank higher?
Nearly 50 minute video!? Let's go!
Milwaukee's current official flag is pretty bad, but there's a popular "People's Flag" depicting a sunrise over Lake Michigan that, if adopted as is, I think could be among the best in the country. It looks superb. I recommend looking it up if you haven't seen it!
Reno really loves our 'People's Flag'. So much so that they turned it into a mountain for their official flag.
It looks similar to the former flag of the Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine
Loved the video, Kyle! Thanks for making me laugh and teaching me my city has a flag after living here for 10 years 😅
Milwaukee has an unofficial post-2015 flag that's quite nice, too bad the city rejected it
But Reno accepted it.
@24:40 im kinda amazed you are so cool with the fleur de lis, I find to put a ensign of the royal house of france on flags of citys in a nation that is probably the foremost republic in the world absolutely mind boggling
Great video. You said just about everything I was thinking.
Also could you rate the flags of major cities or the ones that have had flags for a longer time?😊
Thanks for the 8.5 rating @ 25:13 I would agree as well. This is a cool nerdy type of video I'm interested in.
The Swedish horse on the Lindsborg, KS flag is called a Dala horse.
I love your responses! lol
Can someone check on western Massachusetts to make sure they're okay?
The entire region is tripping, man . . .
14:07 “…some of these look so similar! It’s almost like they all hired the same guy on Fiver..”
😂😂😂 Lmao!
Kyle!
Great video. Something different and something funny. Your cynical observations of the hideous flags had me laughing throughout!
I saw the length of this video and thought there was no way I would watch the whole thing... until I started watching it, then finished watching it
Happy new year, Kyle!
Baldwin, Ks has the maple leaf on it, because they have a fall festival every october called the Maple Leaf Festival.
I noticed that in the background of the Aberdeen, SD flag is the Scottish flag, a callout to Aberdeen, Scotland. Cool
Rapid city's president reference has to do with all the presidents statues downtown. I will agree that the Mount Rushmore could be considered false advertising
If you ever do something like this again, you should make sure your webcam isn't blocking any of the flags.
I go to the University of Maine (which while not in Old Town, is right next to it) and I have never seen the flag before, so it was interesting finally seeing it.
The Old Town flag is my favorite, followed by the Lincoln, NE one.
Yes. You skipped my wife's home state, Iowa.
Enjoyable video overall!
Kyle I’m crying this might be one of your funniest videos yet😭🤣🤣 the way you get annoyed the longer the video goes on about the stupid flags in Tennessee and North Carolina has me in tears!!!!
“Durham. This is what Durham came up with”
*sighs*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
I honestly can't believe you liked my home city's flag as much as you did. I was sure Kansas being Kansas it would find its way further down your list.
Topeka did something nice for a change.
I went down the vexillological rabbit hole last year and was shocked at how many new, quality flags the state of Kansas has. It's a shame he missed two of the better ones in Kingman and Dodge City.
I'm less than four minutes into this video, and I must say I am blown away by how influential NAVA has become. Before NAVA got into the flag ranking business about 20 years ago it was the rare individual who had even seriously considered the merits of *state* flags, let alone municipal flags. But now NAVA has basically written the textbook for what a good flag looks like, and even the bad flags here show clear indications of trying to meet NAVA standards.
Seems like it will lead to a future of boring samey flags
@@guppy719 Oh, I think you're quite right. I loved NAVA's standards when they first came out, but now it has led to this. A few minutes ago I mentioned to Kyle that this "South Park art" that he keeps mentioning is the *result* of NAVA's standards.
@@guppy719 I mean, we already had boring samey flags, it's just now they actually look like flags instead of "seals on a bedsheet".
But I do agree. Some of these flags are nice in a vacuum, but the blue/green color scheme with a swoosh does get old pretty quickly.
@@guppy719 Thank you for having the guts to say this. I feel like the urge to meet NAVA standards has led to the Ikea-fication of flags. I particularly like the creative nature of many of those flags of towns in Massachusetts. They are not boring, and I find them beautiful.
Kyle's shirt is the official flag of Coolsville.
28:12 Hey that's my town Coral Springs! And that new flag we adopted in 2017 is soooo much better than our old one.
Great vid! 😊 can you please make 'Rating Flags of County's in Colorado'?
The way that Kyle just completely roasted Anaheim has already made 2023 a better year than 2022.
I think Pocatello is getting a bump because of how bad their previous flag was. Roman Mars, podcaster and fan of flags did a TED talk about city flags and dubbed it the worst one in the US. Too many colors and design elements, a silly slogan, plus a trademark and a copyright.
13:28. This is a committee flag! One member wanted a lawman badge for The Texas Rangers, another member wanted his high school mascot on the flag, Butch the Bulldog? I guess the third member wanted to show some oil gushing, after all this is Texas. They argued and argued, but heck it was getting close to 4:00 pm so I guess everybody compromised, each got his pennant wish, locked the doors and left happy, beating that Ranger TX bumper-bumper traffic.
would have thought you would have noticed the map on the madison, wi flag. very cool aspect of it. I’m not even from there, but I thought that might have been a 10 honestly.
DAMN, Kyle cutting right to the quick!
The Salt Lake City flag is an image of the state flower, the Sego Lily. I'm currently just north of Provo and Orem, which are in the same big valley, right at the foothills between Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains. There's an 11,000 ft peak right outside my window. (Mt. Timpanogas. Give it a goog!)
I wish there was time for more context for each city's design.
I do have something coming up looking at only the flags of the larger cities.
You’d think the USA is the cleanest, least polluted country in the world with how like half the towns using blue and green as their primary colors. Great video & I laughed about 1,000 more times than I was expecting to. And BTW I love the one for Nitro, WV for all the exact reasons you say it’s terrible; definitely the winner of the “so bad, it’s good”competition for me!
Earlier this century, the Pocatello flag was a corporate logo that was voted worst flag in North America by the NAVA. There was a competition for the design around 2010, using the NAVA's advice on flag design. And you're correct; they hate words on a flag. The two blue lines at the bottom are supposed to represent the Rivers that run through or next to the city, and the three mountain peaks the major peaks that border the city on the SW and SE.
Places named "Madison" have amazing flags I guess.
My hometown (Bellingham, WA) the very first flag you looked at. I love our flag since everything you see in it means something. It's a flag designed to pay homage to the local geography and Native Americans of the area. The blue semicircle is Bellingham Bay, the three wavy lines are the "noisy waters" (which is what the county name "Whatcom" means in Coast Salish). The two stars are the two tribes that call the area their home- the Lummi and the Nooksack. And the 4 greenish stripes represent the 4 original towns that merged together to form present day city of Bellingham: Fairhaven, Sehome, Whatcom, and Bellingham.
I live in Bothell, WA and appreciate the education on BHams flag
Oh, it's just flags since 2015. I was about to say, the flag of Phoenix is probably one of the best out there.
It may have been mentioned already, but the Madison, WI flag is great because the geography is accurately represented by the layout, and the central component is symbolic of the positioning and layout of the state capitol building in the middle of the isthmus
Hopefully Milwaukee's 'People's Flag' will be on this list at some point. It is used more frequently than the outdated official flag. It's so well liked here in Wisconsin that Reno used a lot of elements from it.
This is such a strange list; a lot of major cities aren’t on here? Hopefully StL is on it next time. Our flag is perfect! :] It depicts how the Lou sits at the convergence of the Mississippi and Missouri which become one after the city, we are depicted as a Fleur-de-lis (honoring the French heritage of course). Coincidentally, it is the color of all four of our major league sports teams too. :]
It is a coincidence about the MLB, NHL, XFL, and MLS teams being the same colors now because the Rams had that random gold color with the blue when they left and the Browns (MLB) who became the Orioles were Orange. Also the MLS team was almost branded green, luckily it is the red and blue of the flag now. If we could just get the Battlehawks to exchange the white on their color scheme to the yellow of the flag it would be perfect! (Well until we get a NBA team then hopefully they adhere to the flag colors 😅)
The StL flag was adopted in 1964. This video covers cities with much newer flags (since 2015).
As a fellow Saint Louisian, I agree
Our city flag is one of my favorite flags period. Such a simple but memorable design
Rapid City's downtown has a statue of every president
The rose on Madison , NJ's flag looks like the rose emblem for the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose that is put on the field at the Rose Bowl. But maybe i had that reaction because I grew up watching and going to the rose parade every year.( Grew up watching the Rose Parade, only went a few times as an adult. Haven't been in almost 20 yrs. NYC has the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and Southern California has the Rose Parade. Being a native Angeleno, which am I nmore biased toward do you think?🤔🌹😁🌺 😂🏖️🌊🐚😉 )
I had to look up Concrete, WA, because "there has GOT to be a reason!" The grey thing in the foreground is the thing most known about the city; their Welcome sign. It's huge and made from (you might have guessed) concrete. Population of 750.
Would you be willing to look at county flags? Not all of them of course, since that would take way too long. Some get real creative (and vice versa) with their designs, and it's interesting to see how they differ or borrow from the state flags.
The day I found out that there is such a thing as a "city flag".
I don't know why but I like the ones that look really bad just because it's funny, like I would love to have my city represented by that 😂 loved this video though, watching from England :)
Hey Kyle. Cornwall, CT the “red thing” you couldn’t figure out is a covered bridge. Hope this helps 😂
Thanks. I see it now, but that wasn't my first thought
As someone who grew up in South Bend I really like the new flag. It’s got the river that’s vaguely shaped like an S, the yellow and blue works well, and the star is kind of like Chicago
Watching him cover every state around Iowa waiting for its turn and then just skips it 😭
i’m surprised that Wichita, KS flag wasn’t rated, underrated tbh
He’s rating flags that were changed or approved as of 2015.
But I also love Wichita’s flag. I had no idea that Hutch has a flag.
was really hoping you'd review the Loveland, CO flag
Tulsa, I agree, is the best. My top five others: Sioux Falls (SD), Springfield (MO), Kennebunkport (ME)j, South Bend (IN) and Chester (VT). This was really cool and now I'm going to look up the flags of the major cities that haven't had recent updates.
Hearing some of your reactions as cracking me up
A bunch of these look like Real Estate signs to me
@20:17 a norway flag a fleur de lis and a canadian maple .. then a stamp with the quintessential est. (and then some unimpressive recent year) and as cherry the generic farm because thats what makes any town in the midlands of the US unique... x'D
Most US city flags look like something dreamed up by the local Chanber of Commerce.
I live in Tempe AZ now and that flag is pretty bad, wow haha. The logo for my hometown of Chandler is cool as hell in my opinion
My student actually designed the flag for Henderson, KY. Not bad when considering he was in the 9th grade. 32:48
That was designed by a teenager??! I'm very impressed.
I think that Manhattan, Kansas (13:52) was pretty cool; it showed the hilliness of the region around Manhattan, but your're right the colors aren't the best. Keep the blue and change out the green for yellow, kind of like Ukraine (wheat under the sky), unless that's the only part of Kansas that doesn't grow wheat.
Columbia, SC did an great job with their redesign.
The blue lines representing the three rivers of the city 👍
Davis is my hometown.
A bike is appropriate.
At one time, or maybe even now, they had more bikes registered than the population. A university town is why.
They also used to call it "The People's Republic of Davis". It used to be the 4th most densely populated city in the US, too.
(You may have known that since you're from Sacramento)
i think oaklands is very nice, i feel like the metric of a good flag design is really how much merchandise it goes on
Chicago might be a crime-riddled hellscape, but it does have the best flag
Some of the more corporate-looking ones have a bit of an excuse. At least for the Crestwood, MO one, it was designed more for signs at the city limits, letterhead, and the city website. Use on a flag wasn't discussed back when they last updated it. As for the old logo, it was designed in the '80s and took inspiration from the logo of the city's once-very-successful shopping mall, Crestwood Plaza. The need to move past that era motivated the logo update, but all they did was change the typeface.
Kyle looking at Riverside’s flag:
“Eh…there’s no water in the river” 😂😂😂
This aged like milk.
I love you Kyle!
I was raised in Niles, MI, and Dowagiac is just to the North of Niles. I grew up hearing everyone say it as Duh-WAH-jack (accent on the second syllable, hence the upper case).
Even though this Flag wasn't in the video, I think the flag for Phoenix is one of the best ones.
Along with Topeka.
Wanted to give a shoutout to my city's flag. Baltimore has one of the most unique city flags and definitely has that Maryland flair.
Well, that was fun! Montpelier's was awesome...very Vermont, very state capital-ish.
Skipped Iowa. I’m sorry we didn’t send you enough corn and pork chops. 😂😂
Some of the flags looked a lot like record album covers from the 70s' & 80s'.
I love the longer video, but I wonder why Washington, Missouri is missing. They just changed their flag in 2020.
15:10 how come Wichita wasnt on there? That so happens to be my favorite city flag too lol. Also the Bennington VT flag is iconic, super surprised that also did not make the cut.
Was Wichita flag designed in the last 7 years ?
With just about all of these my gut reaction was, "Why'd they bother?"
Several flags look like they had a contest for citizens to make a design, and kids participated. 😁
There is one in Mississippi that looks like a wrapping for a package of hot dogs. 😄