I complain so often about the design of national flags that my friends dared me to explain my reasons. So here it is, my list of the world’s worst flags, following an elimination process.
A national flag should be a clear identifier of the country. If the flag gets confused with another flag, it fails miserably in its mission. Flags that are too similar to other flags are the first to be eliminated.
Indonesia and Monaco basically have the same flag, with just a slight difference in the shade of red. Poland is the Indonesia flag upside down. All three are nixed.
Romania and Chad also have the same flag. Now replace the blue stripe with a green stripe and you get a big mess of African flags. Guinea has red, yellow, and green stripes. Mali has green, yellow, and red stripes. Cameroon is just the Mali flag with a yellow star in the center. And Senegal is the same flag but the star is green. Embarrassing. All six nixed.
India and Niger also have almost the same flag. Another two bite the dust.
The Luxemburg flag is just the Netherlands flag with the colors faded. The Ivory Coast flag is just the Ireland flag flipped horizontally. El Salvador and Honduras also have almost the same flag, only the central emblem is different. El Salvador also gets penalized for displaying a coat of arms, but we will talk about that later. Another six get nixed.
New Zealand and Australia should be ashamed that their flags are nearly identical. Both feature the Union Jack and stars. New Zealand has four red stars with white borders, while Australia has six white stars. They also get penalized for the Union Jack, but we will talk about that later. Both get nixed.
Any of the flags in this next group would be a good flag if they were unique. However, someone decided that all these countries should have the same flag with different colors. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are all nixed.
Palestine and Sudan are in the same situation, with flags that are too similar. And then there are the Balkan countries with variations on the same theme that are not dissimilar enough: Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Another seven nixed.
Just on the issue of uniqueness, we have eliminated thirty flags. On to the next problems.
It’s a universal standard that national flags are rectangular. Not a square, not a triangle, not other fancy shapes. You can vary the ratio of the rectangle, but it has to be a rectangle. That nixes the flags of Nepal, Switzerland (it would have been a good flag if it was rectangular), and the Vatican.
A country can have a flag, a coat of arms, and a map. But don’t mix them. Don’t put your map or your coat of arms on the flag. Also, don’t put the name of the country on the flag. It’s a flag, not a label. So let’s nix the following offenders: Afghanistan, Andorra, Belize, Bolivia, Brunei, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, and Venezuela. And Cyprus, the only country to put a map on the flag. That was a lot of flags. Let’s add a few more. It’s not only the name of the country, just don’t write anything on the flag. It’s supposed to be a visual representation, not a placard with slogans. I’m talking to you, Brazil, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
Next on the list, don’t put a flag inside your flag. It’s usually the Union Jack that gets used this way. Look at Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tuvalu. And don’t blatantly copy the idea from other flags. Liberia and Malaysia attempted to emulate the United States of America but ended up with an inferior version of a flag that is not even particularly good.
Did I eliminate all flags already? Not even close. There are many left, although some of them are just plain ugly for different reasons: too many conflicting and/or repeating colors (like Central African Republic, Comoros, Seychelles, Uganda, and Zimbabwe), unpleasant angles (like Eritrea, Guyana, and Marshall Islands), unnecessary frames (like Grenada and Maldives), and funny mascots (like Dominica and, again, Uganda).
Yes, I’m picky, and this is all a matter of personal taste. So, you may ask, what are the flags that I find pleasing? Well, usually the minimalist ones. For example, Albania, Barbados, Canada, and Palau all have just two colors and one symbol. Among the ones with stripes, I like Greece (just two colors and an interesting geometric arrangement), Chile (it reminds me of Mondrian), Cuba (good contrasting colors and shapes), and Ukraine (just two stripes with well-chosen colors).
But to me the very best are the most minimalistic ones (again, just two colors and one symbol): Japan and Vietnam.
