Mental Roger Lapel Pin

The Studio Flag, Cast in Pewter, 2017

Mental Roger is the studio’s flag. In 2017 we cast it in metal: a three-dimensional die-cast pewter lapel pin, finished in antique silver, so the flag could fly on something smaller than a galleon.

The pin is the flag itself, not a badge with a flag printed on it. The silhouette is a waving banner on a short staff, the cloth engraved with the ripples of the wind and raised at the edges, and the skull and blades stand proud of the cloth in relief. Two swords sit uncrossed around a human skull: one held low, at the ready; the other swung high, slicing the top of the skull open. They are in balance—power and mindfulness, precision and surrender—and the cut is not violence. It is exposure. Mental Roger is meant to be optimistic: a signal of defiance turned inward, evoking our species’ bold journey into the future.

The cast was modeled with care before it was commissioned as a die-cast, and the pewter holds the detail. The antique-silver finish sits dark in the grooves of the cloth and bright on the edges of the blades, so the relief reads at a glance and the flag looks like it is moving even when it is pinned still.

It is a lapel pin in the plain sense. It goes on a jacket lapel, a hat, a bag strap—anywhere a flag is worth planting.

If someone handed you one of these, you’ve met the studio. Outright Mental makes original games and experiences that are sharp, strange, and deliberately human. The portfolio is what the flag has flown over since, and the manifesto is what it stands for.

Get one

US $4.99, shipped free in the US, on eBay.

Wear it in good health!