Good Flag Design Can Be Child’s Play
Sometimes the mightiest heroes come from the most surprising of places. Such is the case of Calum Alasdair Munro of the Isle of Skye, off the North-West coast of Scotland. Little Calum, at only the age of nine, designed, submitted and won a public vote to have his proposal become the new flag for his Island home.
The Court of the Lord Lyon, established in 1592 to regulate heraldic matters such as family crests and regional symbols in Scotland, reviewed almost 400 entries submitted in response to their appeal for a flag design for the Isle of Skye.
The panel was inundated with proposals from around the world, but in the end a local primary school boy out performed them all. Over 7,000 locals voted from a short list of six flags and Calum’s design was a clear winner.
Editor of the West Highland Free Press Keith MacKenzie organised the competition and was very pleased with the interest shown by locals on the Island.
Commenting on the winning design he said;
“It is a tremendous design but the other thing that struck people is what it meant. It pulls together so many elements of Skye…There are notes to Christianity, there are notes to our Celtic heritage, to our Nordic heritage, to the clans. And also, the colours themselves reflect Skye as a jewel of Scotland.”
Calum, in his small local victory, has single handily secured a victory for good flag design everywhere. Flag design is not merely a consideration for vexillologists.
Betsy Ross flag of revolutionary United States of America
An artist designs a flag and vexillologists study them, but it is the everyday common man and common women who are the ones who need to look at it and identify with it.
A flag is more than a piece of cloth, it is a symbol that people rally behind, giving cohesion to a community.
This positive tribalism adds meaning to our lives. We all know in our hearts, whether we express it or not, that not all flags are born equal. There are objective standards as to what qualifies as a good design and what can be considered a bad design.
Ted Kaye is perhaps the worlds foremost expert on flag design. He edits a scholarly journal on flag studies and complied the North American vexillological association’s guide “Good Flag, Bad Flag: How to design a Great Flag”.
Sailors on board the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious 2005 in Portsmouth.
In the guide he sets out 5 basic flag design principles:
Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
Use Meaningful Symbolism. The flag’s images, colours, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
Use 2 or 3 Basic Colours. Limit the number of colours on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard colour set.
No Lettering or Seals. Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal.
Be Distinctive or Be Related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.
It is a simple fact that if you need to write the name of what your flag represents, on said flag, well then your attempt at symbolism (step 2) has certainly failed.
The 1801 Act of Union may certainly have been politically unwise, but it did also certainly give rise to one of the objectively best and no doubt iconic flag design ever conceived.
Canada’s pre 1965 flag
The Union Jack is perhaps one the best examples of integrating multiple symbolic traditions into one aesthetically pleasing flag.
In it one can clearly make out the flag of St. George representing England (red cross and white background), the flag of St. Andrew representing Scotland (white “X” on a blue background) and the flag of St. Patrick representing the Island of Ireland (red “X” cross on a white background).
This design, facilitated by the historical expansion of the British Empire, has inspired multiple reiterations and variations down the ages, each incorporating their own additional symbolism into the overarching motif.
This can be best seen in the flags of former British colonies and modern day Common Wealth states. The pre 1965 flag of Canada’s is a good example. In it we can see the use of the “red ensign” motif recognised around the world, yet the flag incorporates local symbolism that makes it distinctive.
Three Irish ensigns: Green Merchant ensign 1800-1922, early 20th century Irish Navy Yacht Club ensign and the white background modern Royal Irish Yacht Club
Often the red background ensign, most commonly associated with trade, was replaced by other colours, sometimes to better represent different regions and other times for different branches of military service. Ireland for example at times used a green or navy background merchant ensign, accompanied by a harp to represent the ancient high king Brian Boru.
UK aircraft carrier with white ensign
White background ensigns were most often used at sea. The need to identify ships at distance was a decisive factor in the development of flag design.
Simple flag designs with clear identifiable shapes and limited amount of colours were easier to spot from afar and in the heat of battle. This need for distinguishing friend from foe gave birth to the naval jack and war flags.
This pattern of a white background with Union Jack in top right corner is iconic of the countries that formerly made up the British Empire.
Australia and New Zealand for example swap out the flag of St. George for a navy or red constellation star pattern identical to that of their national flag.
Australian naval ensign flown from navy helicopter (left) and New Zealand naval ensign flown from flag pole (right)
The 20th century saw the advent of mass scale aerial warfare and with it, air forces as distinct branches of military services. Just as with naval combat, the heat of war necessitated the quick identification of friendly and enemy aircraft. This gave rise to Air Force ensigns with roundels (circular coloured disk patterns).
RAF
The Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom, founded in 1918 was the world’s first airforce to be organised totally independently as a separate branch of a nation’s armed forces.
Its war ensign, like that of the naval ensign, has a Union Jack flag in the top left corner, but rather that a white background, it features a medium shade of azure, similar to that of a clear blue sky.
Royal Canadian Airforce Ensign Flag: Heritage Auctions, HA.com
The flag became a common sight of the second world war, in which the RAF (along with the Royal Navy) would play a key role in the repelling German Invasion of the British Isles.
Those heroic fighter pilots, whom Churchill would refer to as “the few”, would in the darkest days of the war in 1940 to 1941, when the British Empire stood alone in resisting National Socialist Germany, would scramble a moments notice, take flight and intercept incoming enemy bomber squadrons.
In this effort, the entire empire would be represented. The Empire called and the colonies answered. Men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and South Africa volunteered to fly for the RAF, some out of patriotism towards Britannia, others like Poles and Czechs in exile, to liberate their homelands.
RAAF ground troops in Afghanistan.
These colonial pilots would return to their own countries and later incorporate their own cultural symbols into the RAF ensign. The Canadian airforce replacing the red dot with a red maple leaf and later removing the Union Jack altogether.
Australia chose to retain the Union Jack with the star constellation similar to their national flag and interestingly a red Kangaroo in place of the red dot of the RAF roundel.
Bavarian flag Munich
Other states have, since the Middle Ages, been designing flags that don’t operate within expected norms but please the eye nonetheless. The diamond checkered flag of Bavaria is a prime example.
Simple symmetrical patterns like that of Bavaria lend well to adaptation in the form of banners, tablecloths and other merchandisable items.
Other symmetrical patterns of note include the Habsburg Imperial standard. The Imperial Standard was a common sight among the military forces of the Austrian Empire (1804-1867) and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Imperial Standard of Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary (left). Frontpage of illustrated magazine showing Imperial standard as battle flag of frontline infantry on the Carpathian front (right)
The triangular checkered frame of the Imperial Standard contains the traditional colours of the Habsburg Monarchy (black and yellow), in addition to the traditional colours of the Archduchy of Austria (red and white). This red-white-red flag design is one of the few elements of Austrian culture that predates the rise of the illustrious House of Habsburg.
Its origins can be traced to the days of the Babenberg dynasty in the 12th century. Legend holds that Duke Leopold V of Austria while leading his troops from the front at the Siege of Acre, during the third crusade, was drenched in blood. Upon removing his belt after the victorious battle, the cloth underneath was left stainless and thus the distinctive red-white-red pattern was written into history.
Austrian Bundesheer Gardebataillon parading with Regimental Standard, Heldenplatz (Hero’s Square) Vienna 2018.
This tradition of red-white-red continues in Austria’s current national flag. The triangular checkered frame also lives on in the Regimental Standard of the Gardebataillon of the Austrian Bundesheer. Their flag not only contains the double-headed Habsburg Imperial Eagle on one side, but also a beautiful image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception on the other.
Dublin City Hall with Irish and Dublin City flags.
Since the late 18th century, the vertically striped tricolour has been a common sight among the flags of the world’s nations. Sadly it is interstitially associated with the excesses of the so-called enlightenment. Philosophically excesses in the form of rationalistic positivism and historically military excesses in the form of tragic scenes like that of the Vendée genocide.
However, if one sets aside this important iconological context, these flags can be appreciated for their simple and recognisable design. Ironically this distinctive nature has been greatly demised by endless repetition and imitation. For example confusion can be expected in distinguishing between Senegal, Mali and Cameroon, between Romania and Andorra, and between Ivory Coast, Ireland and Italy.
It is due to these impracticalities in addition to the inseparable connection with the sudden and regrettable vicissitudes that befell late 18th century France and which were later violently exported across Europe, that we believe Ireland should ourselves consider it time for a redesign.
Niall Buckley: Four ensign designs based on a quartered Saint Patrick's saltire (red “X” cross on a white background) and the traditional harp of the Kingdom of Ireland.
It is therefore in the spirit of the audacious Scottish schoolboy, Calum Alasdair Munro, that we have complied the following proposals for your consideration.
They represent a range of most representative styles and iconography connected to Ireland.
Niall Buckley and Ian Mc Kay
August 2020
Niall Buckley: State Harp of Brian Boru on a background of St Patricks blue a with modified Saint Patrick's saltire.
Niall Buckley: Green, White and Gold traditional European horizontal pattern with golden harp of the Kingdom of Ireland on a black background.
Niall Buckley: Nordic Cross design with Green, White and Gold bars. Smaller golden harp of the Kingdom of Ireland on a black background.
Niall Buckley: Left pale with modified Saint Patrick's saltire containing superimposed golden harp of the Kingdom of Ireland. Green and Gold boarders to white background, in which contains Golden Rose (representing Our Lady of Knock), St. Bridget’s Cross and Shamrock
Niall Buckley: Simple Green, white and yellow Nordic Cross
Ian Mc Kay: Symmetrical Celtic cross diving flag in four. High King of Ireland in Centre, with golden harp of the Kingdom of Ireland and St. Bridget’s Cross in diagonally opposite coroners.
Ian Mc Kay: Celtic Nordic Cross containing harp of Brian Boru and cross of St. Bridget in top left quarter.
Ian Mc Kay: Nordic Cross harp of Brian Boru in top left quarter.