The last top five list I tried was very entertaining, so I'll try another. These are my choices for top five flags from around the world. Flags are some of the finest and oldest examples of 'branding' to be found and there are some truly wonderful examples. Simplicity and originality are the most important criteria I give points for. And, entirely by coincidence I think, most of them are primarily red.
- Hong Kong, see the flag
- Switzerland, see the flag
- Bhutan, see the flag
- Tunisia, see the flag
- The Isle of Man, see the flag
My flag vocabulary isn't as strong as some people, so I hope you can trump my top five list with your own suggestions.
Comments
Alan - December 11, 2003 1:25 pm
These are good and thanks for the flag brag for me. I had a Bhutan which I gifted with my house as the guy who bought it walked up and said "cool, Bhutan". Have a look at Ohio for an 1880's US dream, Maryland for historical and unconventional, all the Russian republics for local variations of the theme of a vertical tricolour. Denmark, the oldest flag from the 1200's and, like all Scandenavians, meant to be hung longwise up and down is in line with your red and white theme is simple and lovely. The coolest of all time, however, remains Tanganyika (1919-1964) and its tribute to Jerome the Giraffe.
Daniel Burka - December 11, 2003 1:32 pm
That flag from the Russian Republic of Kalmykia-Khalm Tangch is beautiful. Thanks Al. (see the flag)
Alan - December 11, 2003 1:53 pm
Flag poles are 100 bucks of pure joy. I am sure silverorange's new digs could have one in the front yard and run up Swaziland now and then.
Bazusa - December 11, 2003 2:12 pm
I like the design of the Welsh flag, but then again I'm biased.
Another excellent flag site: Flags of the World provides detailed history and other flag related information.
Jake - December 11, 2003 5:04 pm
I also fell in love with the Kalmykia-Khalm Tangch flag.
filmgoerjuan - December 11, 2003 6:45 pm
I'm pretty happy with our Canadian flag, especially if you consider some of the alternatives. I saw a documentary on Newsworld a few months ago that covered the debate over the flag...it was a bit frightening to see how close Pearson came to getting his personal favourite adopted by Parliament.
Melda - December 11, 2003 9:51 pm
daniel, with all these top five lists you probably owe Nick Hornby some money.
Alan - December 11, 2003 11:36 pm
I was trying to figure out where in Russia this grat flag is from and all I can come up with this fairly dead link to an index page to the capital. Nope, here is the government site. Smaller population than either PEI or Kingston. Great flag. Bet they have a KTC that could cluster.
Hans - December 12, 2003 10:45 am
About a year ago, I read about an international flag competition judged by heralds, scholars and graphic designers. I think it was in globeandmail.com. The #1 flag in the world they chose was New Mexico and second place went to the Province of Quebec. Their criteria included historical significance of the symbols displayed. They particularly hated all those American states that have their state seal in their flag and any flag that has a letter of the alphabet as its primary symbol (such as Rwanda).
The Danish flag (the "Danebrog") was created when a white cross fell out of a red sky on to a battlefield during King Valdemar's invasion of Estonia (that's right, Alan, circa 12th century). Naturally, it spurred them on to victory. It is the oldest national flag still being used, I beleive. It is way cooler than the Swiss flag, but I might be slightly biased.
Mandy - December 12, 2003 12:00 pm
Daniel,
you seem to like flags are are simple red and white designs. Classy. I am a sucker for flags lions on them. Very British Royalty if you will.
Steven Garrity - December 12, 2003 12:08 pm
The Olympic flag is pretty nice.
Jamie - December 12, 2003 12:53 pm
You have to give credit to Nepal for having one of the only odd-shaped flags.
Mella - December 12, 2003 6:03 pm
What about Mozambique? You know a country means business when their flag features an AK-47.
...Yipes.
Peter Rukavina - December 12, 2003 8:25 pm
<p>Republic of Kiribati:</p>
<img src="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/kr-lgflag.gif" width="300" alt="" />
Steven Garrity - December 13, 2003 12:44 am
The open-source vector drawing tool Sodipodi website has an amazing (and free/open) collection of vector versions of hundreds of flags.
Matt McQuaid - December 14, 2003 1:24 am
In grade 5 my teacher asked everyone in the class to make our favourite flag. I immediately took a piece of green construction paper our of my desk and handed it to her. "And what is this supposed to be, Matthew?" she said.
"Libya," I replied.
Unfortunately she failed to see the humour.
Al O'Neill - December 14, 2003 7:08 pm
<p>I personally always thought Canada get a clue about what most of the country's forests actually look like and 'borrow' the Norfolk Island flag.</p>
<img src="http://ahpc-jp30.st-and.ac.uk/~josh/flags/fotw/nf.gif" width="300" alt="" />
m - December 15, 2003 12:02 pm
The New Mexico one is cool, although when I checked it out on the world flag site I clicked on the link to their first flag which might be the worst flag of all time! It looks like it's for a boy scout troop.
Alan - December 15, 2003 3:03 pm
<p>Another candidate for Canada would be among the pre-revolutionary flags of New England including my favorite:</p>
<img src="http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/images/u/us-neng4.gif" width="300" alt="" /><p>...or was it one of the others?</p>
Reg Szikora - February 17, 2005 3:22 pm
I believe the flag of Canada is probably one of the two most destinctive in the world for recognition. It has simplicity, style, and crispness to it, along with Japan.
In a sea of flags it always
reg