Bad Flag Design

The old flag is a bad design. And to show what good vs. bad design looks like, watch this:

The old Minnesota flag, like many other state and city flags, break multiple tenants of design:

1. Simple ❌
2. Meaningful Symbolism ⚠️
3. 2-3 Basic Colors ❌
4. No Lettering or Seals ❌
5. Be Distinctive or Related ❌

⚠️ The symbolism is where the old flag could be easily be seen as depicting white man “conquering” the natives. But honestly I think the old flag flyers are probably too dumb or ignorant to come to this conclusion themselves. Part of this is because those elements are hard to see vis-a-vis poor design. So I’m going to keep focusing on the design elements 😅

All of the old iterations of the Minnesota state flag were fantastic examples of “seals on a bed sheet” adopted by many other states. To prove my point, can you pick out your state flag from this grid if you only look at it for 5 seconds?

I removed the blatantly obvious text where the designers printed the state name – probably so you could identify it within the crowd. If you’re doing it right, no text is needed.

Good Flag Design

Here’s another grid with state flags that employ good design:

Many of these flags are immediately recognizable. Even if you can’t name all of the states they belong to, the people that live there recognize and can. This makes them a source of pride.

The new Minnesota flag literally checks all of the boxes:

1. Simple ✅
2. Meaningful Symbolism ✅
3. 2-3 Basic Colors ✅
4. No Lettering or Seals ✅
5. Be Distinctive or Related ✅

What’s not to like about it?

Need an upgrade?

If you truly cannot afford one and need an upgrade, here’s my proposition. Comment on this post. I’ll reach out to you via email. You MUST have an old flag that you’re looking to replace and have a photo with your old flag alongside a date identifying document to prove it.

You also MUST live in Minnesota. I’m not starting a charity for drunken ‘sconnies to burn our flag. While you’re at it Wisconsin, maybe think about changing your flag – because it’s also just as ugly.

This is a great find. The only disappointing thing was the size of the box it was delivered in from B & H Photo:

Couldn’t it have been sent in a bubble mailer? 😕

Disassembly & Prep

If you’re looking to gently take off your original jack, it (dis)assembles the same way as the replacement.

My old jack was bent, so there was no point in saving it. I cut the wire but made sure to not cut the strain relief sleeve. Alas I realized you must disassemble the old jack to get the strain relief sleeve out anyway.

Once it’s free, drop the sleeve into the new replacement casing.

Put the sleeve and casing on the wire, followed by the included clear insulation sleeve.

It’s imperative you put these on before soldering, because you can’t put them on after soldering 😬

Carefully strip the outer cable sheath. It’s very flexible and rubbery. Inside the three wires don’t have traditional insulation. They have a braided insulation that is similar to the wire itself. Separate them and wet your fingers to keep the twists tight.

Soldering

To keep everything together, pre-tin the wires.

Here’s the layout of the jack. I double checked with a multimeter before soldering.

I started by soldering the sleeve wire. Then I used a tweezers to thread the other wires through the holes.

Test & Final Assembly

With all wires soldered, but before crimping, test it out. I carefully plugged the headphones into a computer and verified sound in both ears and double checked correct left-right balance.

With everything confirmed working, we can now button it all up. First crimp the jack to the cable sheath with a needle nose pliers.

Then slip the insulation sleeve over the jack.

Screw on the outer casing and enjoy!