At the heart of Old Glory’s overarching concept is the notion that the symbolism of the US flag is fraught with contradiction. “It’s been planted on the moon, but also used by rioters at the 6 January protests in 2021,” adds Harry. “In one instance the flag represents hope and prosperity, and another, despair and tyranny; but to some, 6 January also represented hope and prosperity – confusing and contradictory, right?” Naturally, the imagery in the project reflects this ambiguity, with photographs of Nicki Minaj saluting in front of the flag presented alongside photographs of military trucks with the flag flying from the roof. The flag means nationalism, militarism, democracy, pop culture, and a million other things depending on your perspective and personal beliefs.
The images are accompanied by detailed sections of text that provide informed insights into the subject, with Harry explaining that this writing was taken from his previous studies: “My dissertation used critical theories to explore how places like art galleries or military bases shape the meaning of the flag, and conveniently left me with over 5000 words of written content to use – a graphic designer’s dream.” Coupled with the images, the text provides snapshots of the subject for readers to peruse in any order, and all of this content is presented on cotton US letter paper.
Minor details like this were important to Harry during the creation of Old Glory and he recalls “going to town on getting nerdy with the rationale.” For example, when dealing with the layout, he only used inch measurements and a 13 column grid to reference the 13 stripes on the flag. He also opted for red, white and blue as the colour palette for the project, and chose Gotham (a typeface used in political campaigning since John F. Kennedy in 1960) and ABC Diatype as his typefaces. “GT America by Grilli Type was of course a very close contender, but I had to make a visual compromise on that one,” he adds.
