This is not say anything about the country or state or province, etc. This is just about the flags relative aestetics.

My nominations are:

1)The Massachusetts state flag. White with a symbol. "Hi, we are from Massachusetts. We surrender."
2)Some communist countries. Red with a little yellow symbol.
3) Ex-British Colonies. The Union Jack is pretty, but C'mon, think of something original for the upper left corner.
4)Tri-colors. When France did it in 18 something it was new and a refreshing change of pace from the boring standard of doubleheaded eagles and fluer d'lis (sp?). Now it is the boring standard.

The Alabama flag looks like the evil red X.


(you know, broken image links..)

Careful there, CC. You are starting to get into the politics and history of the design rather than purely the aesthetics. (Though I do think it's ugly as well having such baggage)

I agree with CC on aesthetic grounds. Any flag that clearly has another falg in its design seems like the whole county (or state or territory) is saying, "we are unoriginal m0r0ns and can't come up with anything ourselves."

Are the flags of Ohio & Nepal the only ones not to be rectangular or square?

Have you considered that flags are also meant to represent history and tradition?

Of course, I will say that a lot of US state flags are pretty ugly, simply because so many contain *words* on them.

Josh Gould,

History and tradition mean nothing if you just want "purty flags" around your used car lot. Maybe last centunry so a general could tell where the New Jersey Regiment is and where that Missippi Cavalary is they had a real purpose.

This came out of a discussion I had with a used car dealer who had many national flags decorating his lot but could not identify them. (Just for the record, neither could I.)

Nepal flag I have to give them points for discarding the need to be a rectangle, but it is very red.

Ohio flag Again I say bravo for no thinking "flag = rectangle" and it is colorful. It is a wee bit derivative, however. (I guess with a state that is more understandable than a sovergn nation.) (I'd rather not read why there is a red dot surronded by stars: I know it means something, but I am only looking at it as decoration.)

Blue--

Since this is your topic I'll ask before posting any, but since flags evolved directly from coats-of-arms (For example the Royal Flag of Scotland is identical to the old the Scottish Royal Arms, except for the shape), can we include old Royal arms? If it helps flags evolved at funerals, since a woman did not carry a sheild to place on her coffin: the practice began of draping a flag decorated with the coat-of-arms of her office, her husband or her father, as appropriate.

TomM,

Cool, as long as you provide a link (like you did) so everyone can see what you are taking about. If anyone says the 14th century flag of Moronica was ugly, please provide a link so everyone can see it. (No offense but not everyone has a knowlege of 14th century Moronica.)

I thought woman's sheilds were round whereas men's were "sheild" shaped.

A woman could not have her own coat of arms? I hate to be the guy who told Queen Elizabeth. (Maybe they made a round sheild exception for her instead of saying "No, your majesty.")

I thought woman's sheilds were round whereas men's were "sheild" shaped.

Women did not usually go into battle, and so they generally did not need sheilds or coats-of-arms. If a woman attained an office, like a reining queen (for example Elizabeth Tudor or Victoria Saxe-Coburg Gotha of England), she would inherit the arms of that office.

In Victorian times, gentlemen no longer carried sheilds into battle, and so the actual sheild was replaced with a sheild-shaped plaque. The arms of office for a clergyman (for example the Archbishop of Canterbury) were placed on a round or oval plaque, and a woman's arms were placed on a lozenge-shaped (the shape of the card suit "diamonds") plaque.

---------------------------------

Anyway, I think any flag or coat-of-arms which is a "quartering" of other arms is less than "beautiful," especially if the colors clash as in the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom where the blue flags of Ireland (the Harp) and France (the Fleur-de-lis) do not mesh well with the yellow and red flags of England and Scotland. Adding a second, shield-shape quartered arms and a crown into the center only made it worse.

The Red Hand of Ulster is interesting, but there is no way that I'd call it "purty."

I thought women's shields had wings and where oval?

The Red had of Ulster is, well, red. Although it has the little crown thingy it is essentially red and white. To be "purty" in my opinion it needs another color to be prominent before it could be "purty".

Like the Canadian flag. It is red and white. OK, but is a splash of purple to much to ask?
(That is another question, "Does anyone ever have purple in their flag? How about Indigo?")

St. Lucia's flag looks purple. But that was the only country I could find.

I've always thought that Kenya's and Qatar's flags looked odd with the deep brick red in them.

Off the subject, I found my family's coat of arms (McCabe/McCaba) and motto. http://www.whoswho-online.com/mccabe/personal/heraldry.html
IMHO, the motto is very close to the 95th Rule of Aqusition. "Expand or Die!" is the 95th rule. "Either Conquer of Die" is my family's motto.)

Does your family coat of arms have anything about evil twins in it?

That is another question, "Does anyone ever have purple in their flag? How about Indigo?"

Traditionally, there are only six "pure" tinctures for flags and coats-of-arms four colors (Vert = green, Azure = blue, Sable = black and Gules = red) and two "metals" (Or = gold = yellow and Argent = silver = white).

In addition arms can have two "furs" (Ermine* = white fur with prominant black tail-tips -- the actual fur is used for trim on royal robes, and Vair a two toned blue-gray -- the actual fur comes from a species of grey squirrel) and four "stains" (Purpure = purple, Sanguine = blood red, Tenne = tawny, a dull orange or yellowy brown, and Murrey = mulberry, burgundy or maroon), but furs do not work well in flags and stains are considered inferior, and are easy to mistake for one another or for other colors at a distance, so were not often used in flags, until more recent times with cleaner and more colorfast dyes. Even so, with the exception of light blue, most flag designers stick with the basic six tinctures.

*Once there were no longer any actual sheilds to trim with fur, and Ermine was merely indicated by black dots on a white background, three new "furs" were invented: Ermines (black with white spots), Erminois (Yellow with black spots) and Pean (black with yellow spots).

According to the CIA site that Blue links to for national flags, Kenya's middle stripe is simply red, not sanguine or murrey, though Qatar's flag is descibed as maroon, which would be murrey. St Lucia's field (background color) is described as blue.

Side note about indigo. When Newton discovered that white light could be split, he put "indigo" between blue and violet for numerological reasons (7 was a "divine" number).

I know this isn't what was intended, but this flag of the Federation looks pretty dull.

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/other/early-fed-symbol.jpg

as compared to...

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/other/ufp-emblem.jpg

Polls voice,

I agree the first one is, well, red. The second one I think needs more color to be "purty". Maybe a green background or something?

Since we don't have a need to see the troop formations from a distance (or identify our ships) Why not a sunset (or sunrise) or copy of American Gothic or something. We can make up symbolism. ("The three points of the pitchfork represent the three regions of corn production...")

My collar buttons to the left, while men's button
to the right. This is because men used to have
their swords on their left hip, and they would
draw it with their right hand. Men';s garments
button to the right to prevent the hilt from
getting caught in the placket.

It's amazing that this tradition continues today
and in so many countries. I even make sure my
crossover tie (uniform tie) is snapped so
the top part is pointing to the left.

I had always heard that men's clothing has buttons on the right because they dressed themselves, while women's is the other way because they had dressers.

yes, that's what I've always heard, too.

The only custom I know of that's related to sword-bearing is mounting horses from the left side.