Red, White, and Boring...

[Magnus]

Let's be honest; red and blue national flags are boring, because around the globe, they are all too common. I took a look at the symbology and history behind quite a few of these unimaginative nations, and changed a bunch of their flags into something that I think would make them stand out more prominently on the world stage. First up is Slovenia.

Cape Verde is next. It never made sense to me that a nation called "the Green Cape" would not use green in their flag.

Following that is Samoa.

[Magnus]

North Korea

The Chollima is a mythical beast said to be representative of the North Korean people. I thought that it was an obvious choice for a redesign of their flag. The red star of communism features centrally on the beast, so as not to upset the Dear Leader.

Chile

Chile's economy is heavily dependent on its mining sector. I thought that this would be a good basis for a new design for their flag. The Andes mountains represent the stunning geography of the nation.

Panama

As the crossroads for North and South America, I made a simple design to represent Panama's most well-known feature; the Panama Canal, which separates North and South America, and provides a very useful route for shipping worldwide.

[Magnus]

Czech Republic
This one was fun to design. I'm not sure if many countries would want to say "We make a lot of beer" and have the rest of the world know about it, but the people of the Czech Republic are very proud of their beer industry. I think they would probably love a flag that shows their pride in craftsmanship.

Croatia

Very little was changed about the original flag here. I simply added yellow from the crest to the tricolour band, and recoloured the checker pattern so that it looks like a real checkerboard.

Philippines

I dramatically simplified the Philippine flag to their unique sun symbol. It makes it a unique flag, as only one other country uses white and yellow as their national colours (the Vatican, with which many Filipinos associate).

[Magnus]

Dominican Republic
The reasons for the choice of colours are described above.



Costa Rica



Slovakia

Puerto Rico

Though it is not actually an independent country, many in Puerto Rico desire it to be. I propose this redesign if they ever become fully independent.


Cuba
Given that the country is slowly changing from a fully communist nation to one with some elements of capitalism, I offer this redesign to mark a new era in Cuban history. Viva la Evolucion!


Cambodia
The ancient temple of Angkor Wat features more prominently in this redesign.


South Korea
Not much has changed. I added the national flower.

[Magnus]

There are a few other redesigns that I have made, but I thought they were less attention-grabbing than these.
All of them can be found here.

[PaperThin]

A few of these flags have a long and strong history behind them...

But it's a concept, so who cares.

Most of these are very rough. The temple in Cambodia's flag now looks like it was in an NES game, I wouldn't recolor it. If Cuba is changing to a country with some elements of capitalism, then why have the red star for communism? That confuses me. I don't understand Puerto Rico. I understand that Puerto Rico contains a large U.S. population, but it isn't owned by the U.S. , and why is it black for the Taino population?

I like some of them, but I really think you should take some more time on these.

[Magnus]

A few of these flags have a long and strong history behind them...

But it's a concept, so who cares.

Most of these are very rough. The temple in Cambodia's flag now looks like it was in an NES game, I wouldn't recolor it. If Cuba is changing to a country with some elements of capitalism, then why have the red star for communism? That confuses me. I don't understand Puerto Rico. I understand that Puerto Rico contains a large U.S. population, but it isn't owned by the U.S. , and why is it black for the Taino population?

I like some of them, but I really think you should take some more time on these.

Sigh...so which ones do you actually like?

I do see the resemblance between the temple and NES games, but I think it is because the temple emblem is too detailed. Perhaps I should simplify the temple.

As for the Taino people...they have dark skin. It is as simple as that. Perhaps something close to mahogany might be more accurate, though.

[PaperThin]

A few of these flags have a long and strong history behind them...

But it's a concept, so who cares.

Most of these are very rough. The temple in Cambodia's flag now looks like it was in an NES game, I wouldn't recolor it. If Cuba is changing to a country with some elements of capitalism, then why have the red star for communism? That confuses me. I don't understand Puerto Rico. I understand that Puerto Rico contains a large U.S. population, but it isn't owned by the U.S. , and why is it black for the Taino population?

I like some of them, but I really think you should take some more time on these.

Sigh...so which ones do you actually like?

I do see the resemblance between the temple and NES games, but I think it is because the temple emblem is too detailed. Perhaps I should simplify the temple.

As for the Taino people...they have dark skin. It is as simple as that. Perhaps something close to mahogany might be more accurate, though.

Slovenia, the Philippines, Cape Verde, and the Dominican Republic are the ones I like.

I recommend not using black in the Puerto Rican flag. It just feels very offensive, like saying the white stripes in the American flag represents the majority of white people in America. It just doesn't feel right.

[Magnus]

I'll try mahogany. Thank you for your input! I think that the reason I used it was because I remembered the Pan-African colours, but it turns out I got them confused with Pan-Arab colours.

Also, Cuba is still "officially" communist. It is simply trying some experimentation with capitalism at this stage, and is still controlled by the Communist Party, so I thought that was important to retain.

I too am quite happy with Slovenia and the Philippines. I think Czechia is my favourite though, because BEER.

[Magnus]

Here are a few more.

Australia - pretty self explanatory.

Anguilla - dolphins are on the territory's crest, but I think they look great on a flag.


Thailand - the national animal is the elephant

Belize - the black orchid is the national flower

[Germanshepherd]

That elephant looks more like a purple orange with a straw coming out of it.

[DolphinManatee]

I don't think any of these flags are upgrades (mostly designwise) , other than Cabo Verde, Cambodia, and Australia. You need to improve your drawing (possibly by drawing on paper first). I'm curious, what program are you using to make these? Also, didn't you say you weren't going to use blue, white, or red? (I didn't mean to be rude or harsh, sorry if I sound that way.)

Dominican Republic
The reasons for the choice of colours are described above.



Puerto Rico

Though it is not actually an independent country, many in Puerto Rico desire it to be. I propose this redesign if they ever become fully independent.

As someone who is both Puerto Rican (Boricua) and Dominican (Quisqueyano)*, I have to say 2 things for these 2 flags:

1. You went from very interesting designwise (and a little boring colorwise) to a little interesting colorwise and a lot boring designwise. I would have rather you recolor their existing flags.

2. I think la República Dominicana has more significant Taíno ancestry than Puerto Rico (at least by looking at census data and looking at both sides of my family).

*Though I can't put together a coherent sentence in Spanish together. And no, I am not from anywhere around New York.

[Morgan33]

Australia is perfect. No need for that Union Jack anymore, or the tired colour scheme associated with it.

[IceCap]

The thing about Australia is that even among Australians who want a Union Jack-less flag the majority still prefer a red, white, and blue design. Australia's national colours may be gold, green, and blue but there doesn't seem to be a desire to stick those colours on a flag. Union Jack or no Union Jack.

Most of these are pretty cool. There are a few I want to address. Not because of poor design per say, but because they violate the rules of heraldry. The rules behind designing coats of arms that over time evolved into flags. What's interesting is that these rules are generally still kept to in most fields of graphic design. Probably because they weren't arbitrary. They were designed with aesthetics in mind and so they endured rather then fall into the dustbin of history.

Anyway the problem here is that in heraldry there are two sets of colours. "Colours" (blue, red, purple, black, green) and "metals" (gold/yellow and silver/white/grey). Colours aren't supposed to touch colours, and metals aren't supposed to touch metals. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are two examples here of why that doesn't work. The designs look muddy. They need a gold or white to break things up.

[Magnus]

Puerto Rico v. 2

[Magnus]

Dominican Republic v. 2

[Magnus]

Minor changes to the Thai elephant. I hope he looks a little more like an animal now, rather than an orange with a straw.

[BigRed618]

For Slovenia, the green and black look good, but I'm not keen on the dragon. Yes, it symboloizes an old kingdom that took up that territory long ago, but is that really relevant to the Slovenia of today?

For Czech Republic, I'm sure there's much more about that place besides beer. Also, polka dots for polka music? Is this what you think of the Czechs? Beer and polka music?

You done goofed with Croatia. You changed the middle bar to yellow for no reason, and you made their shield red and black "so that it looks like a real checkerboard?" What? The red and white checks is an important Croatian symbol that dates back hundreds of years. You can't just recolor it because you think it's "red, white, and boring."

Being imaginitive is good, but don't use it as an excuse for sloppy and lazy design and crapping on history and culture. Those flags look the way they do for a reason, and you're gonna have to try a little harder to make designs that could replace them.

[BBTV]

Minor changes to the Thai elephant. I hope he looks a little more like an animal now, rather than an orange with a straw.

It looks like a fruit with a leaf hanging from a stem with a wormhole in it.

If you're going to go with an elephant, go all fierce angry aggressive elephant - not sissy dumbo eating circus peanuts elephant.

[Magnus]

For Slovenia, the green and black look good, but I'm not keen on the dragon. Yes, it symboloizes an old kingdom that took up that territory long ago, but is that really relevant to the Slovenia of today?

For Czech Republic, I'm sure there's much more about that place besides beer. Also, polka dots for polka music? Is this what you think of the Czechs? Beer and polka music?

You done goofed with Croatia. You changed the middle bar to yellow for no reason, and you made their shield red and black "so that it looks like a real checkerboard?" What? The red and white checks is an important Croatian symbol that dates back hundreds of years. You can't just recolor it because you think it's "red, white, and boring."

Being imaginitive is good, but don't use it as an excuse for sloppy and lazy design and crapping on history and culture. Those flags look the way they do for a reason, and you're gonna have to try a little harder to make designs that could replace them.

Ehh, I never imagined any of my flags would actually stand a chance of replacing emblems that millions of people look to every day. As one of the first commentors said, "they're just concepts". So yes, I CAN just recolor it because it's boring. My ideas aren't likely going anywhere.

I'll keep working on Dumbo.

With regard to the Czech Republic - Canada has a leaf on its flag, but not everyone here is surrounded by trees or is a lumberjack, so I don't necessarily think that having hops on your flag is going to imply that everyone there drinks beer or polkas from dawn til dusk either.

If it were grapes, and the country was known for producing wine, would grapes on a flag imply that everyone there has a winery and gets sloshed every night? I mean, seriously...

One more thing: I understand the constructive criticism, but where are the comments on things that people actually like? Not all of these ideas are horrible monstrosities...