What's in a flag?

There's an interesting and fun article this week's Economist magazine on vexillology, the science of flag design. It's not something I've ever thought much about, except idly wonder why so many flags feature the colours red, white and blue. But flags can be powerful, and their design is important, and they can be an important rallying point for a country's people. Think of Canada's red maple leaf, or Ukraine's iconic sky-blue and wheat-yellow banner.

The article starts by noting that several American states are currently in the process of redesigning their flags, mainly because their old ones are badly design, overly busy, or just ill-advised. It then goes on to enumerate some basic principles of good flag design. Firstly, keep it simple - can a child draw it from memory? Keep its symbolism meaningful (think of Israel's Star of David, or Americas 50 stars and 13 stripes)? Avoid politics (think of Mozambique's AK-47 gun). Limit the palette to a few basic colours (South Africa is one of the few to boast six colours in its flag, two or three are much more common, and Jamaica, amazingly, is the only country that does not include the colour red in its flag). Be distinctive (e.g. Nepal's jagged double pennon is the only national flag that is not regular, and Switzerland and the Vatican are the only countries that have a square, not rectangular flag). And finally, don't just copy another country's flag, to avoid the situations of Indonesia and Monaco, and Romania and Chad, who share identical flags.