Illinois Flag Referendum First Impressions
Added 2024-12-23 00:54:32 +0000 UTC
Comments
The seal and the history behind it are pretty dope. Stick with the seal.
Manul, a Cat
2025-08-15 18:19:16 +0000 UTCComing from a Massachusetts resident, Colorado's flag is way better than Ohio
John Coogan
2025-04-14 17:17:33 +0000 UTCAm I the only one who thinks the flag with the "Gear" in the center looks like a bus tire with tire chains on it?
Christopher Ulichney
2025-04-13 23:22:01 +0000 UTCThe rule of not drawing the country on the flag should be called “Kosovon't”.
15987358
2025-03-15 17:12:38 +0000 UTCButterfly one, but have Lincoln face instead. Boom. Done.
Joseph Wolfson
2025-02-03 00:59:01 +0000 UTCOriginal is fine as is, just delete the Illinois type and dates.
Sinan Kargı
2025-01-29 07:07:19 +0000 UTCOrange + Blue = Chicago Bears
Miqueas Barreiro
2025-01-12 18:34:42 +0000 UTCAs an Illinoisan having many conversations with Illinoisains about this... we're happy we're changing it but we're not happy with the options. Everyone seems to agree on your sportsball takes and we don't like them. The UI colors are orange and blue and we're all a little tired of seeing it everywhere, but that general design is kinda what they're all seem to be hoping for. Something more simple. I think the local consensus, at least in my community, is the Lincoln/state line version. It looks very French and we have a lot of very French cities, but we also have a strong native American history here so we'd like some of that represented. There's a growing faction of us that want to see the kingfisher represented, either in the college or the state at large. I have no idea where the butterfly came from, we're not really famous for them. So TLDR you're pretty much exactly right. Nobody's really excited about any of these options, we're just excited that it's changing. it's a shit flag and we've all known it forever, but we're also a state that is notably resistant to most of the things that Springfield does so if we fuck it up they might listen and consider changing it again.
Swamptrap
2025-01-02 08:14:47 +0000 UTCI love the old-school classic classroom videos. It's always nice seeing a new Patreon video and being reminded of it
Aristidi M
2024-12-31 01:15:13 +0000 UTCMy favorite is the butterfly one - Illinois has had some push to preserve and restore the natural prairie that had been the original landscape, but largely been destroyed by farming and invasive species, and butterflies (Monarch being the most famous probably) are a huge part of that. It's also relatively simple and the butterfly can easily be simplified / abstracted into other geometric or special use shapes. Oh as a side observation, I think that first simple landscape one with the hills might be a reference to the terrain creation method from glaciers, which we also have a ton of parks and plaques dedicated to, because outside of the northern part of the state Illinois is pretty flat (not Kansas flat but still) and it sort of reminds me of the glacier process
Imogen
2024-12-30 18:04:29 +0000 UTCFrankly, More content, less polished is preferred. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Sean Munson
2024-12-29 08:40:37 +0000 UTC1: Naval (Blue, White & Gold Star) -- Do it. 2: Centennial Design with the with and blue stars is okay, but less than the above.
Leo G.
2024-12-26 18:32:12 +0000 UTCI don’t know… the Zelda ruby looks more like a cat’s eye to me. Or some other eye…
Trevin Beattie
2024-12-25 23:36:38 +0000 UTCLol. Now I need to see them all.
Sarah G
2024-12-24 18:56:31 +0000 UTCFYI Miles MacClure has FOIA'ed *all* the submissions https://bsky.app/profile/milesmacclure.bsky.social/post/3ldzbpavdmk2r
Eric Prestemon
2024-12-24 06:25:06 +0000 UTCFeels like they gotta go with one of the Navel ones, far better than the other options.
Evan
2024-12-23 22:01:22 +0000 UTCInstead of making people count 21 stars, they should just go wild and use a Jack and an Ace (=black jack!). Let everyone thinks they have legalized gambling.
DixonLu
2024-12-23 18:21:53 +0000 UTCI actually really like the blue snd dark blue optical illusion flag, the optical illusion gives it a bit more character in my opinion. Anyways, centennial flag or naval with gold star (with color change) are the choices imo, even the other ones that I like don’t feel as distinctively Illinois
Henry Weldon
2024-12-23 17:59:24 +0000 UTCOMG, the centennial flag, please! You don't even need a redesign. Why wasn't this made official back in 1918? 100+ years later, it still looks great!
Dace
2024-12-23 17:42:19 +0000 UTCDo you love it because the vertical orientation makes it look like a dead butterfly?
Dace
2024-12-23 17:39:03 +0000 UTCThis is a Christmas video in the same way Die Hard is a Christmas movie
Dace
2024-12-23 17:38:24 +0000 UTCButterfly one has terrible vertical read.
Dace
2024-12-23 17:32:39 +0000 UTCI like the forgotten one best, then the centennial, then the floating I. I actually really like the river looking one, too. None of them really scream Illinois to me other than the river one, but they're at least different!
just me
2024-12-23 14:16:48 +0000 UTCThat's why I liked the landscape one - it completely ignores Chicago in favor of all that farmland. 😄
just me
2024-12-23 14:14:29 +0000 UTCMy favorite is the naval designs, especially the one that got accidentally skipped in the video. Sure, maybe it's a bit generic, but it's not generic in a way that resembles other state flags.
Randall Wald
2024-12-23 13:54:36 +0000 UTCThe “naval flags” will still look good in 100 years. I’m not sure we can say the same thing about new flags coming out recently.
Jon C
2024-12-23 12:49:04 +0000 UTCI would take the one with Lincoln's silhouette on the Illinois shape in the ring of stars, and I'd do three things: 1. Remove the state shape. 2. Make Lincoln's silhouette white. 3. Make the silhouette larger, so the ring of stars scales with it like a picture frame.
Derek H.
2024-12-23 12:31:05 +0000 UTCHI Gray! Ok, I love you and I love your videos. However, I feel I should point out that you're being somewhat disingeniuous with this video. You ragged really really hard on the bluebell/seal State flags in your original classroom video, I think reasonably, given what you laid down in that video, and I think you probably contributed non-trivially to this wave of State flag redesigns. But you're completely changing your criteria for all of these redesigns. None of these redesigns have long words in them. They're all geometrically simple. They're all far more recognizable than the super-complicated seal flags. Now I think the one fundamental criticism that I agree with is Lincoln's face and Illinois' outline is sort of distinct but impossible to draw, so that should get a solid letter grade deduction for any flag with those. But every other candidate has everything you said you wanted in your original video. Please grade the new flags on the same criteria as you originally did, and I think they'll all be D-grade or better, most of them Cs or Bs.
Craig P Steffen
2024-12-23 12:01:42 +0000 UTCI have to agree with this! I like it as well.
Peter Marenthyu
2024-12-23 10:48:36 +0000 UTCToday I learned
enchantedsleeper
2024-12-23 08:23:09 +0000 UTCpersonally, I think that the Centennial flag is far better than the 10-redesign submitted. But what would I know I'm just some Aussie (yes, our state flags also suck).
Chris Thunder
2024-12-23 07:31:40 +0000 UTCJust have 4 stars to represent Chicago, and an ear of corn to represent the rest of the state. Done.
Darren Pierce
2024-12-23 03:10:00 +0000 UTCI'm from Illinois, didn't know about this and now I'm intrigued, thank you CP Gray!!!
Omar Mtz
2024-12-23 02:27:51 +0000 UTCThe one where Lincoln looks at Illinois was remarked elsewhere as looking like Lincoln is staring at dat ass. I'm for the butterfly one if we have to pick
Jessamyn Larsen-Kast
2024-12-23 02:25:58 +0000 UTCButterfly one actually looks nice. The I flag is ok too. The magic eye hidden face is weird.
Parker Bond
2024-12-23 02:25:22 +0000 UTCIt's a Christmas video!
Parker Bond
2024-12-23 02:23:08 +0000 UTCI'm just gonna say it: The butterfly flag is my favorite of the bunch....though that's kind of like being the smartest monkey in the zoo. Edit: Also I generally hate butterflies.
Anna V
2024-12-23 02:13:50 +0000 UTCIf I was forced to pick, I would choose the all blue one with Lincoln and the state as they feel the most "state flag" flag. I don't mind the state flag 2.0 either. The "naval" flags are too generic, they could be anything from police flags to space flags. The rest are just too bad to even consider.
Nathan Swapp
2024-12-23 02:12:10 +0000 UTCOf the flags mentioned, the one with lincoln's profile set within the state ringed by stars is the least worst. but it's just that -- the least worst option.
Kyle Jensen
2024-12-23 02:08:06 +0000 UTCWelp, it’s too late. The flag change raid has already begun.
Patrick and Rachel
2024-12-23 01:56:04 +0000 UTCI said literally the exact same thing about the river/Lincoln's head flag! We don't like it one bit, nor any of the others. (And as a Chicagoan, we don't need the six-pointed Chicago star to be on the state flag. The rest of the state is sick of Chicago representing it as a whole as it is.)
Moxy Fruitbat
2024-12-23 01:45:40 +0000 UTCCan we make holiday flag updates a new Christmas tradition? Because I'm digging these updates!
Stéphane Lemay
2024-12-23 01:44:22 +0000 UTCProbably the worst thing about the butterfly flag is that it's a dead butterfly! (See Emily S. Damstra's "Please, enough with the dead butterflies!" blog post for an explanation of how to tell)
I give you permission to get weird with it
2024-12-23 01:40:40 +0000 UTCI'm starting to think that coming up with a good flag design is really hard.
Practicality
2024-12-23 01:29:34 +0000 UTCI actually enjoy the gear one, would be my first pick.
Nathan Bakken
2024-12-23 01:28:19 +0000 UTCGreat take as always! I’m surprised you didn’t call out the North Korea vibes from flag two…
PJ
2024-12-23 01:27:31 +0000 UTCMany folks on social media had fun things to say about the Lincoln/state shape idea
Michael Wyzard
2024-12-23 01:20:51 +0000 UTCThose are some bad looking flags!
Dylan Weaver
2024-12-23 01:19:55 +0000 UTCFlag 1 is just adding stripes. Flag 2 is just a reminder of North Korea. Flag 3 is MS Paint. Flag 4 with the outline sucks. Flag 5 is giving me Indiana. Flag 6 is too complex. Flag 7 is clever, but that’s not good. Flag 8 looks better…just not sure about the butterfly. Flag 9 is like FedEx…the I is clever but it’s just not right either. Honestly, keep the current one.
Dennis Negron-Rivera
2024-12-23 01:16:22 +0000 UTCIllinois is in fact the 21st state.
Joe Donahue
2024-12-23 01:12:39 +0000 UTC
