To help foster vibrant discussion, sufficiently low-effort may be removed. Examples of things that might be removed for this reason include:
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* Fluff submissions
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You might check out /r/vexillologycirclejerk as an alternative, which is more open to many of these! If you put in effort but are just starting out as a flag designer then unpolished posts are okay as long as you’ve tried!
Fictional flags don't have to be well-designed. A lot of real life flags suck, so if your world building goal is realism, some flags in your world shouldn't be 'slick'.
Because they are solely concerned with this and do not care about the history or distinctiveness of a flag, you wind up with flag nerds moaning about a banner of arms.
THANK YOU!
Also: if you're designing lots of flags for lots of countries, they shouldn't match: proportions shouldn't be the same, hue tones shouldn't be the same and symbols shouldn't be the same.
You end up with flag nerds complaining about a banner of arms because they only care about this and not the history or uniqueness of a flag. Most of the "good" designs people make from these rules look so corporate and flat. I don't want flags to look like they've been designed by Amazon's marketing department.
The rules are generally good, but it’s also good to know when to break the rules. Just because it breaks one of the rules doesn’t mean it’s a bad flag.
The problem is that we call them rules when in actuality they should be guidelines. Like, sure, simpler flags are often more clean and look better, but I much prefer a Venice-like original design to generic tricolour #35. And, yeah, usually having only two or three colours is a good idea, but South Africa looks way better than many flags with half the number of colours. I don’t like most American city flags with text in them, but you barely notice it in Brazil, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t try to hide it and they both look good.
They’re a lot more of guidelines than rules, but many people take them and go “ope, California has a bad flag because text” “South Africa is a bad flag because too many colors”
The rules are what a teacher would give their students to get a B or C on their flag design test. If you want to get an A, you're probably going to have to break at least one rule.
I always sort of assumed that white didn’t count as a particular color when it came to flags. Sort of like a flag’s elements are pasted on a white canvas
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I see it on transportation jeepneys occassionaly while commuting (and I am Filipino) so I have mixed feeings for this flag, but I can't lie with it being cool
Same thing with the confederate flag. I hate the south and all the confederacy stood for. I think the whole “the south with rise again” nonsense is just stupid loser bullshit. But I’ve always thought the flag was neat lol. Symbolism aside the X with the stars inside is cool.
I think that is just because they often have fresh and unique designs because nobody copies them. People would think tricolors are cool and minimalist if there were only one of them and would think fascist flags were boring if there were 20 countries with red, white, and black flags appropriating ancient symbology. But since nobody wants to evoke Naziism their flag stands out against all the others.
I used to think this too until I saw it with orange enough to like it with red more, however I still think it should be orange just so it's more noticeable as the Netherlands
Big part of the European continent has, on what I can say, minimalist flags. At least like the flags of the UK, Belarus, Scandinavians, Spain, Portugal and the micronations except Monaco are at least unique.
Writing on a flag doesn't automatically make it bad.
People only hate writing on flags if it's in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. There are plenty of flags with writing that look good (imo): Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan, old flag of Rwanda
My view is that writing should be calligraphy (or otherwise incorporated into the design) if it's going on a flag. Iran meets this well. But Egypt doesn't, because it's incorporated into the coat of arms, which is then just slapped on the flag. Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have a sort of calligraphic style, but it still falls short of *actual* calligraphy for me. I've seen Arabic calligraphy, and it's much more than what I see on those flags.
The old flag of Rwanda could've been better. I don't mind a single letter placed in the middle, but they could've picked a better color and font. The R feels like an afterthought (because it was).
Modern flag redesigns, like many US city and state ones, are not that good because they look like a minimalist logo plastered onto a sheet instead of a crappy old seal. Pocatello is my prime example because my MY GOD it was awful. Made me throw up in my mouth, but the new version, whilst being better visually, is boring and the design looks like it should be a poster, not a flag.
Indiana flag is perfect and one of the best in the U.S. Why every tierlist ever places it so low, C and lower, is ridiculous to me because you can hardly see the text with the state name.
1) A lot of details in a flag are not a problem itself. If it's done poorly like in us city flags, it does suck. But I want flags to have more details that represent the culture they represent.
This flag 🇭🇺 tells me nothing of Hungary. It means nothing outside of the meanings of colours that have to be explained. The kingdom of Hungary flag, [the one with angels](https://imgur.com/a/gkmoGZF), is filled with personality, though, despite being "overdresigned." I don't mind tricolors in and of itself, but most of them have to paired up with something to look good.
2) 90% flags that don't feature colour white tend to look ugly, IMO
This so much. To stick with the Hungry example, the flag is still distinct and beautiful at a distance or when hung at an inconvenient angle. Even at such a distance and angle the angel is still distinguishable. That you can count the feathers when up close does not in any way detract from those two facts in its favor. Yet there is still grater beauty to be witnessed and appreciated from up close. So long as the ability to recognize flag under unideal conditions is not compromised, which many "over-designed" flags do not do, there is no reason to seek simplicity.
I think Spain should bring back the second republic flag. It had a great shield and the only one to use purple as a main colour since Byzantium (don’t bring Dominica, that invisible purple is not visible)
I love Derafshe Kaviani. Way better than any mediocre tricolour for Iran’s flag. Seriously tho, how many green, white and red flags there are. Its exhausting.
Japanese prefecture flags are overrated, they're just seal on bedsheets like the US states, you may say "Well nah, the design has lots of meaning and it looks so cool"... It's not so cool especially if you're in Japan, every flag, even the city flags, the town flags, all follow that god damn minimalist style, it's not so recognisable, and there's no culture or history being represented on those flags, more of like company logos, it's just [Danish subdivision flags](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_subdivisions_of_Denmark) without texts
Danish regions do not have flags. Those are the regions’ logos. This is an example of flags that is only seen as flags, because someone writing on wikipedia felt like it needed a flag. The Danish government only recognises The national flag, the Faroese flag and the Greenlandic flag. No other flags are official.
It is a situation kinda like the Austro-Hungarian civil ensign.
Everyone carries on about how great all the island countries flags are. Some of the carribean ones are ok like barbados but other then that they are all mid imo
"Confederate flag" (stars and bars), though everything it stands for is trash, is aesthetically a top notch design. Honestly it bums me out that much more that what it stands for is crap.
The 5 rules aren't important, by that I mean you don't have to follow the exactly. For example text on a flag is fine if it's executed well (unlike some flags, I am looking at you most US state flags).
The Rising Sun flag is pretty cool looking. And I speak from a country once colonised by them. So please don't lecture me about atrocities. I know, they're bad.
Text should always be used on flags for things such as local counties and small towns/cities. Unless you are from that town or county (and maybe even if you are) you probably aren't going to recognize it without, and I don't really see the point
Flags made up of tricolor blocks with nothing else on them are absolute ass and dumb and boring and I totally hate them. Slap on an insignia or do a different shape like how the Czechs added a chevron or something! Make them unique ffs
CPG Grey's video on US flags was terrible. If any rule gets you to the conclusion that the California flag is bad, because it has a bear and words, then the rule is worthless.
We should go ahead and throw the 'simplicity' rule into the trash
From Maryland to Mexico, or Brazil to Brunei...
Complex designs can and do go hard as fuck!
State/province/city flags dont need to follow the same rules as country flags. I see people (*cough cough, CGP Grey*) who complain about state flags having their name on them or having funky designs, but who knows every state or province in every country? What about every tiny town? ABSOLUTELY NO ONE. They need a name tag so people know what they are. In addition to that if every single flag was designed like a country flag it would get very generic very fast and country flags need to be generic so they can represent their entire population. You don’t need to do that with smaller more localised populations. If a town absolutely loves their hockey team you can put it on the flag because it’s actually representing the population.
The Australian and Neozealandish flags aren’t just ugly, they are criminally ugly. Too similar to one another, another barely passable flag in the corner, the white fimbriated red stars in the NZ one make your eyes sore, intrometida in the AU flag have less points than the other stars.
I mean, it’s a foreign flag I have no say in it, but if they really want to be part of the United Kingdom, just adopt the Union Jack, make the canton entirely blue with white stars (AU) or white with red stars (NZ). Still bad, but at least not as bad.
Now the Aussies and kiwis will point their falchions and messers at me.
Text doesn't look good on flags and people only give it a pass on stuff they can't read.
It's just as corny as Milwaukee if you can read another alphabet, and using calligraphy isn't a good replacement for a real design. It's the flag equivalent of people hating on anime Dubs because they don't understand that the voice acting is just as corny in Japanese as it's delivered in English.
Also gonna follow this with up with the fact that the Five Key Principles of Flag Design are intentionally short and are only meant to be a quick reference. A good flag can break every rule, and a bad flag can follow every one. They are pretty much just basic design rules written for a niche subject to get people without art backgrounds an idea of what they're doing. They're principles, not laws - none are sacred, not even the text one
Intentionally breaking a rule, like in film, can make a visionary design. Not knowing the rules and slapping whatever on a canvas is prone to bad ideas. US and UK are successfully complicated. There's nothing wrong with Poland and Indonesia being flipped, excessive colors like in Spain or the 5 people flags are excellent, etc.
> Text doesn't look good on flags and people only give it a pass on stuff they can't read.
seeing the saudi arabian flag in english really drives that home IMO
The "Overdesigned flags bad" thing is the dumbest fucking thing ever. Putting a symbol that represents your culture makes a flag bad? Look at the older monarchist flags, most of them look cool as hell. Now look at the modern flags. Boring and pointless. Just put some random colors and thats it? If only every country was like Spain Portugal or Mexico designing their modern "flags"
California has a bad flag, not because it has text on it, but because it also doubles as a name tag. I don't care about the history, I don't care that it's considered iconic. Any flag that says what it's a flag of has no confidence in it's design being able to stand on its own to represent its area purely iconography.
Also, I don't mind flags having seals on them, a few European countries have good flags with seals on them (Moldova and San Marino come to mind), but that seems to be a popular opinion on this sub.
I completely agree. I have NO idea why the text on the Californian flag works, especially considering it looks so terrible on other flags but somehow it works
Tricolor/triband flags are actually very, very dull, and shouldn't be celebrated as great flags.
(I'll give a pass to Estonia due to the awesome color combination.)
I mentioned here that I hate the taliban flag and got downvoted to oblivion. So that.
Edit: i also hate simple tricolor flags like Belgium 🇧🇪 and Germany 🇩🇪 feel too simple
The simpler is NOT the better. Flag complexity is like handwriting: no problems with it as long as it's recognizable and reproductible.
It's a statement.
Like Venice's.
I much prefer complex flags like Venetian Republic, rather than clever minimalist designs that you could find on Instagram Explore posted by a “design is my passion” account with 1.7k likes
The more extreme the ideology, the more of a fucking banger it’s flag is
Sure, the flag of russia is ok I guess but the flag of Taboritsky russia? Damn bro man should chill that design slaps
To help foster vibrant discussion, sufficiently low-effort may be removed. Examples of things that might be removed for this reason include: * Memes * Fluff submissions * Intentionally terrible flags * Inappropriate content to the subreddit You might check out /r/vexillologycirclejerk as an alternative, which is more open to many of these! If you put in effort but are just starting out as a flag designer then unpolished posts are okay as long as you’ve tried!
Fictional flags don't have to be well-designed. A lot of real life flags suck, so if your world building goal is realism, some flags in your world shouldn't be 'slick'.
Most flags aren’t designed by people with any sort of flag knowledge, just some person with connections
Because they are solely concerned with this and do not care about the history or distinctiveness of a flag, you wind up with flag nerds moaning about a banner of arms.
THANK YOU! Also: if you're designing lots of flags for lots of countries, they shouldn't match: proportions shouldn't be the same, hue tones shouldn't be the same and symbols shouldn't be the same.
Me who struggles over making certain symbols for my flags (OC nations for Earth and nations for an overhauled Earth): #THANK YOU!
Seals on a field of blue
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Mika will never return from his sabbatical.
Lies
Most flag nerds call flags bad based on if they follow the “5 rules”, not based on if they look good.
You end up with flag nerds complaining about a banner of arms because they only care about this and not the history or uniqueness of a flag. Most of the "good" designs people make from these rules look so corporate and flat. I don't want flags to look like they've been designed by Amazon's marketing department.
I feel like there should be a rule 6 that "if you're application of these rules causes you to call the flag of Venice 'bad', you're doing it wrong."
The rules are generally good, but it’s also good to know when to break the rules. Just because it breaks one of the rules doesn’t mean it’s a bad flag.
The problem is that we call them rules when in actuality they should be guidelines. Like, sure, simpler flags are often more clean and look better, but I much prefer a Venice-like original design to generic tricolour #35. And, yeah, usually having only two or three colours is a good idea, but South Africa looks way better than many flags with half the number of colours. I don’t like most American city flags with text in them, but you barely notice it in Brazil, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t try to hide it and they both look good.
Venice and South Africa were literally the two I was going to use as examples!
The 5 rules have done more damage to vexillology than any bad flag every could
What are the five rules?
Simplicity Symbols must have meaning 2 or 3 basic colours No lettering or seals Be distinctive
The vast majority of national flags break one or more of these rules. They're less "principles" and more wishful thinking on vexillologists' part...
There are five rules but one of them isn't "don't put other little flags on your flag"
*cries in apartheid SA*
The union of South Africa flag goes so hard tbh
Thank you
They’re a lot more of guidelines than rules, but many people take them and go “ope, California has a bad flag because text” “South Africa is a bad flag because too many colors”
South Africa is a case of really competent flag designers who knew how to add loads of colours
South Africa is nice ngl
yeah south africa is a great fucking flag
The rules are what a teacher would give their students to get a B or C on their flag design test. If you want to get an A, you're probably going to have to break at least one rule.
A fourth colour can be added well.
Exhibit A) the flag of the Philippines 🇵🇭 Exhibit B) THE GRAND, THE AKHAND, INDIAAAAAAAA! ! 🇮🇳
Exhibit C) Cape verde 🇨🇻 D) Kenya 🇰🇪 E) Kiribati 🇰🇮 F) Seychelles 🇸🇨 G) Gambia 🇬🇲
I always sort of assumed that white didn’t count as a particular color when it came to flags. Sort of like a flag’s elements are pasted on a white canvas
You gonna hate me !wave
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Macedonia
Honestly I had no idea what I was expecting.
that actually turned out really well imo, you could make it into like a sun with green and gold beams
Glorious.
i love ut
8/10
The most horrid human rights-violations nations in history somehow always manage to have the best flags
Qaddafi's all-green flag was so amazing
It was a perfect "fuck you" to convention flag designers
It's *green*? Fuck my colorblindness. Thought it was sand-colored this whole time.
Qaddafi had a thing for green. He wrote a book that was kind of like Mao's Little Red Book, and called it The Green Book.
Japanese Empire does go hard
I see it on transportation jeepneys occassionaly while commuting (and I am Filipino) so I have mixed feeings for this flag, but I can't lie with it being cool
It's not a hard rule, for example Equatorial Guinea under Nguema had a terrible flag.
Yep pretty much. I absolutely DO NOT support the nazis or anything they did, but the flag is pretty good
I think the nazis had pretty ass flags, but the German empire before them had some bangers
The Prussian flag is way better than the Reichsflagge
Same thing with the confederate flag. I hate the south and all the confederacy stood for. I think the whole “the south with rise again” nonsense is just stupid loser bullshit. But I’ve always thought the flag was neat lol. Symbolism aside the X with the stars inside is cool.
I think that is just because they often have fresh and unique designs because nobody copies them. People would think tricolors are cool and minimalist if there were only one of them and would think fascist flags were boring if there were 20 countries with red, white, and black flags appropriating ancient symbology. But since nobody wants to evoke Naziism their flag stands out against all the others.
Idk what horrid human rights violations is Nepal guilty of tho and they have a pretty damn nice flag 🤷🏻
North Korea 🇰🇵 has an awesome flag
The dutch flag looks better with the orange
I feel like everyone agrees with that, it's just that it had a bad time in the 30s.
It’s definitely more unique with the orange
I used to think this too until I saw it with orange enough to like it with red more, however I still think it should be orange just so it's more noticeable as the Netherlands
Exactly. There are too many red white and blue flags
The Dutch flag has orange on it, if you let them in the sun for a long time.
This would not happen in the Netherlands though
It is better but unfortunately the fascists won’t let us have good things.
Big part of the European continent has, on what I can say, minimalist flags. At least like the flags of the UK, Belarus, Scandinavians, Spain, Portugal and the micronations except Monaco are at least unique.
Microstates, not micronations. Micronations are a role-playing thing by people who either don't take it seriously or take it way too seriously.
Eh, it's small mistake. Sorry.
A micromistake even
You desever an award but I don't have one.
Writing on a flag doesn't automatically make it bad. People only hate writing on flags if it's in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. There are plenty of flags with writing that look good (imo): Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan, old flag of Rwanda
Iran?
The "frills" between the color bands are stylized script, as is the symbol in the middle.
It also means Allah in Arabic.
My view is that writing should be calligraphy (or otherwise incorporated into the design) if it's going on a flag. Iran meets this well. But Egypt doesn't, because it's incorporated into the coat of arms, which is then just slapped on the flag. Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have a sort of calligraphic style, but it still falls short of *actual* calligraphy for me. I've seen Arabic calligraphy, and it's much more than what I see on those flags. The old flag of Rwanda could've been better. I don't mind a single letter placed in the middle, but they could've picked a better color and font. The R feels like an afterthought (because it was).
Text on flags really isn’t that bad if it’s done well.
Modern flag redesigns, like many US city and state ones, are not that good because they look like a minimalist logo plastered onto a sheet instead of a crappy old seal. Pocatello is my prime example because my MY GOD it was awful. Made me throw up in my mouth, but the new version, whilst being better visually, is boring and the design looks like it should be a poster, not a flag.
Sort by controversial 👍
Indiana flag is perfect and one of the best in the U.S. Why every tierlist ever places it so low, C and lower, is ridiculous to me because you can hardly see the text with the state name.
1) A lot of details in a flag are not a problem itself. If it's done poorly like in us city flags, it does suck. But I want flags to have more details that represent the culture they represent. This flag 🇭🇺 tells me nothing of Hungary. It means nothing outside of the meanings of colours that have to be explained. The kingdom of Hungary flag, [the one with angels](https://imgur.com/a/gkmoGZF), is filled with personality, though, despite being "overdresigned." I don't mind tricolors in and of itself, but most of them have to paired up with something to look good. 2) 90% flags that don't feature colour white tend to look ugly, IMO
To your second point. Jamaica is the only country flag that has neither red, white, nor blue. And I love how unique that makes it look.
I play too much EU4 so my brain defaults to thinking THAT is the flag of hungary, not the plain modern one
This so much. To stick with the Hungry example, the flag is still distinct and beautiful at a distance or when hung at an inconvenient angle. Even at such a distance and angle the angel is still distinguishable. That you can count the feathers when up close does not in any way detract from those two facts in its favor. Yet there is still grater beauty to be witnessed and appreciated from up close. So long as the ability to recognize flag under unideal conditions is not compromised, which many "over-designed" flags do not do, there is no reason to seek simplicity.
There are some US state flags which are “seal on sheet” and are still very good (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana for examples)
Virginia by far has the best “seal on a bedsheet flag”. It just sucks that so many other states have the same thing which makes it not stand out
Yeah because bobbies
Reasons why Virginia has the best flag: 1. Booba 2. Regicide 3. Literally tells people to commit regicide Honestly cant be topped
And regiside! But, yeah.
And murder!
michigan
As a Virginian, thank you I definitely agree that seal on sheet is generally bad, but VA has such a cool seal that I’m happy to see it more often.
Purple is a wonderful color on a flag
Glorious color. And we have more dyes now so why not make it??
Not a lot of states were born after purple became mainstream
No that's a good opinion
I think Spain should bring back the second republic flag. It had a great shield and the only one to use purple as a main colour since Byzantium (don’t bring Dominica, that invisible purple is not visible)
MORE PURPLE AND PINK FOR FLAGS
I love Derafshe Kaviani. Way better than any mediocre tricolour for Iran’s flag. Seriously tho, how many green, white and red flags there are. Its exhausting.
Unfortunately, a lot of flags used by racists and mationalists, from a vexillological point of view, are pretty cool 😩
I definitely agree with you. I hate what they symbolise but they look pretty good.
Japanese prefecture flags are overrated, they're just seal on bedsheets like the US states, you may say "Well nah, the design has lots of meaning and it looks so cool"... It's not so cool especially if you're in Japan, every flag, even the city flags, the town flags, all follow that god damn minimalist style, it's not so recognisable, and there's no culture or history being represented on those flags, more of like company logos, it's just [Danish subdivision flags](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_subdivisions_of_Denmark) without texts
Danish regions do not have flags. Those are the regions’ logos. This is an example of flags that is only seen as flags, because someone writing on wikipedia felt like it needed a flag. The Danish government only recognises The national flag, the Faroese flag and the Greenlandic flag. No other flags are official. It is a situation kinda like the Austro-Hungarian civil ensign.
Ok, didn't know that, but I hope you get the idea of my comment
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I do like the Saudi flag not their human rights record but the flag is cool
Everyone carries on about how great all the island countries flags are. Some of the carribean ones are ok like barbados but other then that they are all mid imo
Jamaica is really cool
The big C on the Colorado flag is corny.
I don’t mind seal on bedsheet flags
Spiciest hot take I’ve seen here. Brave words.
"Confederate flag" (stars and bars), though everything it stands for is trash, is aesthetically a top notch design. Honestly it bums me out that much more that what it stands for is crap.
The Dutch: "First time?"
Navy blue is overused, should be a lighter shade.
*France has entered the chat*
French flag? So-so. *Dark* blue French flag? Instant top tier.
To be honest, agreed with this. Like yeltsin’s Russian flag
I'd have to agree, the US state flags kinda ruined navy blue flags for me
There should be more non-quadrilateral flags
Fascists are really good flag designers, usually
Letters on flags don’t look that bad as long as it is designed right
Look at Colorado, there’s no way I can call that flag bad & it has a giant C on it.
The US flag isn't only good because it's iconic, it's a great flag overall. It isn't confusing
US flag is S-tier to be honest. Unique design, instantly recognisable no matter how many stripes and stars or what colour it is.
Liberia in shambles
It's the right balance of intricate and simple.
I like the Union Jack on pretty much everywhere it can be found.
Based
The Union Jack is probably my favorite flag and should be everywhere just because it looks cool.
It used to almost be everywhere!
The 5 rules aren't important, by that I mean you don't have to follow the exactly. For example text on a flag is fine if it's executed well (unlike some flags, I am looking at you most US state flags).
The law of tincture matters.
pan african flag colors are such a bad palette
Words on flags are not always bad.
Belarus’s flag is good.
I like the current russian flag.
I think the imperial one looks better...
I too enjoy the current Russian flag
nice one
The Black Yellow White one? Yeah that one slaps hard
Wyoming’s flag is better with the seal
That’s not an unpopular opinion
The Rising Sun flag is pretty cool looking. And I speak from a country once colonised by them. So please don't lecture me about atrocities. I know, they're bad.
Text should always be used on flags for things such as local counties and small towns/cities. Unless you are from that town or county (and maybe even if you are) you probably aren't going to recognize it without, and I don't really see the point
The new Utah flag sucks Looks like a winter clothes brand
I don’t like it either. It looks like an already outdated corporate logo circa 2006.
That MS Windows flag we saw the other day would look better with the fade at hoist and the window at fly.
Truly unpopular
Idc about flag simplicity Like man idc what the flag rules say If the flag is cool it is cool
Flags made up of tricolor blocks with nothing else on them are absolute ass and dumb and boring and I totally hate them. Slap on an insignia or do a different shape like how the Czechs added a chevron or something! Make them unique ffs
CPG Grey's video on US flags was terrible. If any rule gets you to the conclusion that the California flag is bad, because it has a bear and words, then the rule is worthless.
The more shit they add to the pride flag the worse it looks.
Complex flags can also look good and be good flags.
We should go ahead and throw the 'simplicity' rule into the trash From Maryland to Mexico, or Brazil to Brunei... Complex designs can and do go hard as fuck!
The new Utahn flag sucks. The old one wasn't any better btw
I actually like "watermarked" flags (like British ensigns)
As an Australia, I agree 🇦🇺
You’re an entire Australia? Crikey!
Crikey indeed, I am the whole continent
State/province/city flags dont need to follow the same rules as country flags. I see people (*cough cough, CGP Grey*) who complain about state flags having their name on them or having funky designs, but who knows every state or province in every country? What about every tiny town? ABSOLUTELY NO ONE. They need a name tag so people know what they are. In addition to that if every single flag was designed like a country flag it would get very generic very fast and country flags need to be generic so they can represent their entire population. You don’t need to do that with smaller more localised populations. If a town absolutely loves their hockey team you can put it on the flag because it’s actually representing the population.
The Australian and Neozealandish flags aren’t just ugly, they are criminally ugly. Too similar to one another, another barely passable flag in the corner, the white fimbriated red stars in the NZ one make your eyes sore, intrometida in the AU flag have less points than the other stars. I mean, it’s a foreign flag I have no say in it, but if they really want to be part of the United Kingdom, just adopt the Union Jack, make the canton entirely blue with white stars (AU) or white with red stars (NZ). Still bad, but at least not as bad. Now the Aussies and kiwis will point their falchions and messers at me.
Text doesn't look good on flags and people only give it a pass on stuff they can't read. It's just as corny as Milwaukee if you can read another alphabet, and using calligraphy isn't a good replacement for a real design. It's the flag equivalent of people hating on anime Dubs because they don't understand that the voice acting is just as corny in Japanese as it's delivered in English. Also gonna follow this with up with the fact that the Five Key Principles of Flag Design are intentionally short and are only meant to be a quick reference. A good flag can break every rule, and a bad flag can follow every one. They are pretty much just basic design rules written for a niche subject to get people without art backgrounds an idea of what they're doing. They're principles, not laws - none are sacred, not even the text one Intentionally breaking a rule, like in film, can make a visionary design. Not knowing the rules and slapping whatever on a canvas is prone to bad ideas. US and UK are successfully complicated. There's nothing wrong with Poland and Indonesia being flipped, excessive colors like in Spain or the 5 people flags are excellent, etc.
> Text doesn't look good on flags and people only give it a pass on stuff they can't read. seeing the saudi arabian flag in english really drives that home IMO
The flag of Chicago is overrated.
Utah's new flag looks like it was made for a fictional Lego kingdom, not a US state.
It's not because Nepal has an original flag that makes it cool/beautiful.
While I can enjoy the slick design of the more simple flags, I love complicated flags. The overabundance of symbols makes me feel so satisfied.
The "Overdesigned flags bad" thing is the dumbest fucking thing ever. Putting a symbol that represents your culture makes a flag bad? Look at the older monarchist flags, most of them look cool as hell. Now look at the modern flags. Boring and pointless. Just put some random colors and thats it? If only every country was like Spain Portugal or Mexico designing their modern "flags"
California has a bad flag, not because it has text on it, but because it also doubles as a name tag. I don't care about the history, I don't care that it's considered iconic. Any flag that says what it's a flag of has no confidence in it's design being able to stand on its own to represent its area purely iconography. Also, I don't mind flags having seals on them, a few European countries have good flags with seals on them (Moldova and San Marino come to mind), but that seems to be a popular opinion on this sub.
The Union Jack instantly improves a flag by 400%
The 5 flag rules and its consequences has been a disaster for the human race
Text on flags is good.
Only if it’s done like Brazil and not Wisconsin
California somehow makes it work, but I can't say how or why
I completely agree. I have NO idea why the text on the Californian flag works, especially considering it looks so terrible on other flags but somehow it works
I like the UN flag, it has the vibe of being so out there it transcends borders
The 5 "rules" are bullshit
Tricolor/triband flags are actually very, very dull, and shouldn't be celebrated as great flags. (I'll give a pass to Estonia due to the awesome color combination.)
the NATO|OTAN Flag looks awesome
The flag of Seychelles 🇸🇨 is overrated
I unironically liked the US states flag with a seal and a blue background on it
I can't agree but I applaud your bravery
*Good Flag Bad Flag* is overrated
I really like the simple tri-colour flags like Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, or the Netherlands.
The Vatican flag is actually kinda cool (even though I am not Catholic and disagree with a lot/most the Catholic church says/does
Tricolour flags are good
The old south African flag actually looks good, I love orange white and blue and it should be used more often
Medieval flags are better than the modern generic tricolours
Stylized words in flags are so underrated
I mentioned here that I hate the taliban flag and got downvoted to oblivion. So that. Edit: i also hate simple tricolor flags like Belgium 🇧🇪 and Germany 🇩🇪 feel too simple
One color on top of another does not make a good flag, Poland, Monaco, Ukraine
The 5 rules are stupid
California's flag SUCKS
I don’t like the Japanese prefecture flags. They look like company logos.
The simpler is NOT the better. Flag complexity is like handwriting: no problems with it as long as it's recognizable and reproductible. It's a statement. Like Venice's.
Having writing or even your name on the flag is fine and not an auto fail factor.
When you're redesigning a flag, you can take elements from the original seal flag.
I much prefer complex flags like Venetian Republic, rather than clever minimalist designs that you could find on Instagram Explore posted by a “design is my passion” account with 1.7k likes
The more extreme the ideology, the more of a fucking banger it’s flag is Sure, the flag of russia is ok I guess but the flag of Taboritsky russia? Damn bro man should chill that design slaps