Flags & Vexillology

[Arctic Fox]

Somalia's flag is easily the best African flag.


Okay, also the original dutch tricolor is good, but not the modern one. The orange is very special and I don't know why they use red. The amsterdam flag is also nice.

I think you'll like this guy. He has a long series of videos discussing the meanings behind flags and their designs. Also has some other history bits joined in.

Don't be bothered about the union jack. A lot of shitty countries have cool flag designs. Also Hawai'i has the union jack on their state flag.

 

[Deadpool]

Flag hags.

 

[Pop-Tart]

 

[Kaede Did Nothing Wrong]

stars and bars will never be as cool as heraldry

 

[Absolutego]

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I've hung out with a lot of vexillology nerds over the years, and the maddest I've ever seen people IRL get over a flag was an Irish and Welsh nationalist at the same party as a Brit.

The Brit only went so far as to say he liked his country's flag, and the pants-shitting autism that inspired from the other two was really something to behold.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

In terms of Pirate Flags, my favourite is that of Edward Low, reputed to have been the most savage and sadistic pirate of the golden age of Piracy

Honestly the combo of Black background and solid red stripes/detail aint used nearly enough in vexillology for my liking.

Blackbeard's was better. Skeleton holding a glass of hooch in one hand and stabbing a heart with another.

You also have some shit that's just so bizarre it's memorable, like the Isle of Man flag:

 

[Absolutego]

There's a huge correlation between map nerds and Paradox map game fanboys, but for those of you who aren't, those guys made a huge collection of prospective country flags based on political ideology for Victoria II.

 

[Pixy]

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I always thought this one looked cool, a shame that the people who made it were evil.

There was an Australian women who joined them and raised the idea of giving their members (and child soldiers) cyanide pills. She's still kicking around in the UK after both governments let her escape without consequence.

 

[Lemmingwise]

The orange is very special and I don't know why they use red

The orange dye used in naval flags kept bleeding out until it was red when exposed to ocean salty water for long periods of time, so eventually the national flag becomed red-white-blue instead of orange-white-blue (the royal flag or "prince flag" remained orange-white-blue)


Friesland has a nice flag. Note: the lilies should never be hearthshaped.

There's some nice state flags.

 

[MediocreMilt]

right was a very good candidate that somehow lost.

You sure, Null? You want New Zealand's flag to be another fucking leaf?

Union Jack's weird btw. For some reason the full version isn't fully symmetrical:

 

[Irrelevant]

Here's a fun flag I learned about in Ukraine.

Russia (allegedly) is setting up satellite states to try and rip Ukraine up into tiny pieces which are subsequently friendly towards to Russia. One of these conceptual satellite states is Novorossiya (lit. New Russia).

Novorossiya's purported territory.
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Basically, all of the south.

And Novorossiya's flag.
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"komrade ivan, the kremlin need flag for southern ukraine puppet state. can you making of flag for new state? maybe reading of american history for flag idea, but change so it not obvious you copy."

It's based on the Russian naval jack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_navy_flags

I'm not a fan of flags which have stupid symbology like "blue represents the sea, green is the land, etc". So going by that logic would eliminate the African National Congress black/green/yellow but I do like how it's merged with the Dutch flag to form the South African flag even if the colours still suck.

 

[MediocreMilt]

Even if the flag shape was updated for the modern day it would still be fine and distinctive enough to not be confused for some generic UN department

Non-rectangular flags are weird and there should be more of them.

Here's Nepal (they somethimes extend a white rectangle off the end):

 

[ThinkThankThunk]

A flag should represent everything a country strives for. Strength, loyalty, superiority. It is an unwavering testament to the nation's ability to say "fuck you" and "I have better things to do" to the rats around it. I believe that only one nation has ever truly captured the essence of not giving a shit with their flag alone. That nation?

Spoiler: Peak Flag Design

L I B Y A

It didn't even bother to use a standardized ratio for fucks sake - just "wide" and "thin" variations because it cares that little about what you think of it.

 

[sasazuka]

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I feel like the Provo flag is trying to sell me multivitamins with that font and rainbow understripe.

 

[oldTireWater]

Simple but unique design. Garish, yet tasteful color scheme. It also pisses of the woke because it appropriates Indi'n shit.

 

[BingBong]

The flags of Fascist nations/political parties are some of my favorites.
Hungary:

Poland:

Romanian Iron Gaurd:

British Union of Fascists:

Falangist (Spain):

Brazilian Integralist:

Slovak People's Party:

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

The orange dye used in naval flags kept bleeding out until it was red when exposed to ocean salty water for long periods of time, so eventually the national flag becomed red-white-blue instead of orange-white-blue (the royal flag or "prince flag" remained orange-white-blue)

That's the folk explanation, but the real reason was probably a lot more complicated and political. The red-white-blue Staatsche or Hollandsche vlag likely predates the Dutch Revolt, and both flags were used alternatively by various parties (the navy used the Prinsenvlag, commercial shipping and the trading companies the Statenvlag). The flags became politicized by the two major political factions, Orangists on the one hand and the Statists on the other, and it's likely not a coincidence that the period in which the Prinsenvlag was phased out corresponds to the First Stadtholderless Period, in which the Statists were dominant.

There's some nice state flags.

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I've always like South Carolinas flag

It's apparantly based on a Revolutionary War rebel flag, which makes sense, as those were generally pretty awesome.

 

[Pissmaster]

Liberia's county flags all look like they were made by children, here are a few:

And here's YouTube Fact Man CGP Grey making fun of them on his podcast:

 

[Tragi-Chan]

In terms of Pirate Flags, my favourite is that of Edward Low, reputed to have been the most savage and sadistic pirate of the golden age of Piracy

Honestly the combo of Black background and solid red stripes/detail aint used nearly enough in vexillology for my liking.

I like Bartholomew Roberts’ flag.

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

The simple yet symbolic style of Stede Bonnet is one of my fav pirate flags