FAVORITE FLAGS BY SCORE: Originality

Here are the flags of the world's 196 nations ranked on their originality, by this blog's scoring system.

Afghanistan: 4

Albania: 6

Algeria: 5

Andorra: -1

Angola: 8

Antigua and Barbuda: 10

Argentina: 2

Armenia: 4

Australia: 4

Austria: 2

Azerbaijan: 6

Bahamas: 6

Bahrain: 6

Bangladesh: 5

Barbados: 8

Belarus: 6

Belgium: 4

Belize: 2

Benin: 4

Bhutan: 8

Bolivia: 2

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 6

Botswana: 6

Brazil: 6

Brunei: 8

Bulgaria: 2

Burkina Faso: 2

Burundi: 8

Cambodia: 2

Cameroon: 2

Canada: 8

Cape Verde: 6

Central African Republic: 6

Chad: -1

Chile: 2

China: 2

Colombia: 6

Comoros: 10

Congo-Brazzaville: 6

Congo-Kinshasa: 4

Costa Rica: 2

Côte d'Ivoire: 4

Croatia: -5

Cuba: 2

Cyprus: 4

Czech Republic: 4

Denmark: 6

Djibouti: 6

Dominica: 6

Dominican Republic: 4

Ecuador: 4

Egypt: -3

El Salvador: 2

Equatorial Guinea: 6

Eritrea: 8

Estonia: 4

Ethiopia: 6

Fiji: 6

Finland: 6

France: 2

Gabon: 2

Gambia: 6

Georgia: 8

Germany: 2

Ghana: 0

Greece: 8

Grenada: 4

Guatemala: 4

Guinea: 4

Guinea-Bissau: 2

Guyana: 6

Haiti: 4

Honduras: 0

Hungary: 2

Iceland: 4

India: 2

Indonesia: 4

Iran: 2

Iraq: -3

Ireland: 4

Israel: 6

Italy: 4

Jamaica: 8

Japan: 4

Jordan: 6

Kazakhstan: 6

Kenya: 6

Kiribati: 8

Kosovo: 4

Kuwait: 6

Kyrgyzstan: -1

Laos: 2

Latvia: 8

Lebanon: 4

Lesotho: 6

Liberia: 2

Libya: 5

Liechtenstein: 6

Lithuania: 2

Luxembourg: -5

Macedonia: 8

Madagascar: 4

Malawi: 2

Malaysia: 8

Maldives: 8

Mali: 4

Malta: 4

Marshall Islands: 10

Mauritania: 7

Mauritius: 8

Mexico: 4

Micronesia: -3

Moldova: -1

Monaco: 4

Mongolia: 6

Montenegro: 8

Morocco: 1

Mozambique: 6

Myanmar: 2

Namibia: 10

Nauru: 10

Nepal: 16

Netherlands: -5

New Zealand: 0

Nicaragua: 2

Niger: 3

Nigeria: 4

North Korea: 2

Norway: 4

Oman: 6

Pakistan: 7

Palau: 0

Panama: 2

Papua New Guinea: 6

Paraguay: -5

Peru: 4

Philippines: 2

Poland: 4

Portugal: 6

Qatar: 8

Romania: -1

Russia: 0

Rwanda: 10

Saint Kitts and Nevis: 6

Saint Lucia: 1

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: 8

Samoa: 0

San Marino: 4

São Tomé and Príncipe: 2

Saudi Arabia: 4

Senegal: 2

Serbia: 0

Seychelles: 8

Sierra Leone: 4

Singapore: 2

Slovakia: 2

Slovenia: 0

Solomon Islands: 4

Somalia: -3

South Africa: 8

South Korea: 8

South Sudan: 6

Spain: 4

Sri Lanka: 8

Sudan: 4

Suriname: 4

Swaziland: 4

Sweden: 6

Switzerland: 1

Syria: -5

Taiwan: 4

Tajikistan: 4

Tanzania: 8

Thailand: 2

Timor-Leste: 4

Togo: 6

Tonga: 6

Trinidad and Tobago: 6

Tunisia: 0

Turkey: 0

Turkmenistan: 6

Tuvalu: 4

Uganda: 7

Ukraine: 4

United Arab Emirates: 6

United Kingdom: 4

United States: 2

Uruguay: 6

Uzbekistan: 4

Vanuatu: 6

Vatican City: 8

Venezuela: 0

Vietnam: -3

Yemen: -3

Zambia: 8

Zimbabwe: 6

FAVORITE FLAGS BY SCORE: Simplicity

Here are the flags of the world's 196 nations ranked on their simplicity, by this blog's scoring system.

Afghanistan: -41

Albania: 6

Algeria: 10

Andorra: -12

Angola: 10

Antigua and Barbuda: 10

Argentina: 6

Armenia: 10

Australia: 10

Austria: 10

Azerbaijan: 10

Bahamas: 10

Bahrain: 10

Bangladesh: 10

Barbados: 10

Belarus: 6

Belgium: 10

Belize: -8

Benin: 10

Bhutan: 6

Bolivia: -1

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 10

Botswana: 10

Brazil: -9

Brunei: -38

Bulgaria: 10

Burkina Faso: 10

Burundi: 10

Cambodia: 6

Cameroon: 10

Canada: 10

Cape Verde: 10

Central African Republic: 10

Chad: 10

Chile: 10

China: 10

Colombia: 10

Comoros: 10

Congo-Brazzaville: 10

Congo-Kinshasa: 10

Costa Rica: -28 (10 without emblem)

Côte d'Ivoire: 10

Croatia: 6

Cuba: 10

Cyprus: 6

Czech Republic: 10

Denmark: 10

Djibouti: 10

Dominica: -5

Dominican Republic: -31

Ecuador: 6

Egypt: -11

El Salvador: -63

Equatorial Guinea: -11

Eritrea: 6

Estonia: 10

Ethiopia: 10

Fiji: 6

Finland: 10

France: 10

Gabon: 10

Gambia: 10

Georgia: 10

Germany: 10

Ghana: 10

Greece: 7

Grenada: 10

Guatemala: -22

Guinea: 10

Guinea-Bissau: 10

Guyana: 10

Haiti: -11

Honduras: 10

Hungary: 10

Iceland: 10

India: 6

Indonesia: 10

Iran: -178

Iraq: -2

Ireland: 10

Israel: 10

Italy: 10

Jamaica: 10

Japan: 10

Jordan: 10

Kazakhstan: 2

Kenya: 10

Kiribati: 5

Kosovo: 10

Kuwait: 10

Kyrgyzstan: 6

Laos: 10

Latvia: 10

Lebanon: 6

Lesotho: 6

Liberia: 4

Libya: 10

Liechtenstein: 6

Lithuania: 10

Luxembourg: 10

Macedonia: 7

Madagascar: 10

Malawi: 6

Malaysia: 1

Maldives: 10

Mali: 10

Malta: -14

Marshall Islands: 10

Mauritania: 10

Mauritius: 10

Mexico: 6

Micronesia: 10

Moldova: 6

Monaco: 10

Mongolia: 10

Montenegro: 6

Morocco: 10

Mozambique: 6

Myanmar: 10

Namibia: 10

Nauru: 10

Nepal: 6

Netherlands: 10

New Zealand: 10

Nicaragua: -28

Niger: 10

Nigeria: 10

North Korea: 10

Norway: 10

Oman: 6

Pakistan: 10

Palau: 10

Panama: 10

Papua New Guinea: 6

Paraguay: -14 (-31 including reverse)

Peru: 10 (6 with emblem)

Philippines: 6

Poland: 10

Portugal: 6

Qatar: 10

Romania: 10

Russia: 10

Rwanda: 6

Saint Kitts and Nevis: 10

Saint Lucia: 10

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: 10

Samoa: 10

San Marino: -2

São Tomé and Príncipe: 10

Saudi Arabia: -19

Senegal: 10

Serbia: 6

Seychelles: 10

Sierra Leone: 10

Singapore: 10

Slovakia: 10

Slovenia: 6

Solomon Islands: 10

Somalia: 10

South Africa: 9

South Korea: 10

South Sudan: 10

Spain: -3

Sri Lanka: 6

Sudan: 10

Suriname: 10

Swaziland: 6

Sweden: 10

Switzerland: 10

Syria: 10

Taiwan: 10

Tajikistan: 6

Tanzania: 10

Thailand: 10

Timor-Leste: 10

Togo: 10

Tonga: 10

Trinidad and Tobago: 10

Tunisia: 10

Turkey: 10

Turkmenistan: 2

Tuvalu: 10

Uganda: 3

Ukraine: 10

United Arab Emirates: 10

United Kingdom: 10

United States: -4

Uruguay: 2

Uzbekistan: 6

Vanuatu: 6

Vatican City: 6

Venezuela: 10

Vietnam: 10

Yemen: 10

Zambia: 6

Zimbabwe: 4

FAVORITE FLAGS BY SCORE

Hey readers (if there are any of you left from the past two-plus years I haven't posted on this blog)! Lately I haven't been actively flag-designing for existing political entities, but who knows; sooner or later I may start that again. Anyway, before I continue, let me say that I have gotten a little more knowledgeable of certain things in the time that's passed since the early days of this blog. One of the things I've learned is that criticism is often best when it is thought out. By reading some of my past posts, you can tell that I didn't always think that. I overused words like "stupid", "ugly", "worst", and "bad". Many of the flag designs I've criticized are indeed stupid and ugly, but hearing that after so many times gets annoying, even to myself, the author, now. So sorry to those of you I annoyed. I was also a very pesky member of the vexillological community some years ago, so if any of you NAVA members happen to stumble across this, sorry about that.

Now, on to my idea:

I was looking through some of this unflavored commentary of my past self earlier today, and even though I was ashamed of my youthful insanity, I did get an idea about of the pain. I could improve my reviews of the world's flag designs. Some of the designs have changed over time, and even my opinions of the more constant ones have changed. So I thought I'd create a Yahtzee-inspired scoring system upon which to rate the world's flags, and from the scoring results, I could explain my opinions in a much more constructive manner.

So here's my draft scoring system, inspired by the Yahtzee method, at the moment intended for national flags (possibly others):

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Flags can score points in the following categories: simplicity, originality, and style. The first two categories can be measured and scored. The style category is based on my opinion.

A. Simplicity

Start with 10 points.

Division amount: lose 1 point for every design layout division that adds to the flag's total number of layout divisions above six

Complex elements*: lose 4 points for contiguous elements with details too small to make out

Written characters: lose 2 points for each letter

*Complex elements are tested by resizing the flag design (from 200x300p) to 20% of its width and height (e.g. 40x60p), then resizing it back. If some of the element's details are lost, then that elements counts for this category.

B. Originality

Layout: 4 points for a design layout used by only 2 or fewer other nations (2 points if 3 to 20; no points if 21 to 40; lose 2 points if more than 40)

Main colors: 4 points if main color list is used by only 2 or fewer other nations (2 points if 3 to 20); no points if 21 to 40; lose 2 points if more than 40)

Symbolic elements: 2 points if design features a non-complex symbolic element used by only 2 or fewer other nations (1 point if 3 to 20)

Foreign similarity: lose 5 points if flag is similar in main colors and division layout to more than 2 other national flags

Common elements: lose 4 points if a design element is used on more than 40 national flags (lose 2 points for 20-40)

*Shape: 8 points for a significantly non-rectangular shape.

C. Style

Style is measured by by opinion, on a scale of 0 to 10.

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So there's my scoring system for now. It might change if things turn out to be seriously flawed. Hope you all are still enjoying this blog.

YouTube

This flag design for the extremely popular video-sharing website YouTube is a pile design, which means that there is a triangle on the hoist of the flag. On this flag, I used a pile to resemble the "play" button of YouTube videos, and added two vertical bars in the fly to resemble the "pause" button. The colors red, white, and black, are the main colors of the YouTube logo.

Hungary

The current flag of Hungary is simple and symbolic. There would be no problem with it if there weren't tens of other nations in Europe with tricolours! So, I simply rearranged the colours into a unique design, but it's still simple.

Canadian Thanksgiving Day

If the United States has a Thanksgiving Day, Canada should have one, too. And if I design a flag for the United States Thanksgiving Day, I should design one for Canadian Thanksgiving Day.

The flag's proportions are 1:2, the most common flag proportions in Canada. The colours of the flag are the Canadian colours, red and white. The partial cross represents separation from England, and is in the shape of a T, for thanksgiving. A representation of the constellation Orion appears on the hoist side of the flag, symbolising harvest time. The constellation on this flag is made of thirteen stars, representing the thriteen Canadian provinces and major territories.

Anchorage, Alaska

This Anchorage, Alaska, flag design consists of a hoist-facing yellow pentagon on a blue background, with a blue anchor in the center of the flag. The blue and yellow represent Alaska and the anchor is a symbol of the city. The arrangement of the yellow shape is similar to the geographic layout of the peninsula which Anchorage sits on.

The current flag of Anchorage is yellow with the city's seal on it, and of course, the word "ANCHORAGE" on it, in all caps. Although it's unique, it needs a much simpler format. My design keeps the uniqueness, but retains all symbolism, and looks as good at the current flag, possibly even better.

Ontario

You must admit, the current Onatrio flag is quite complex, along with that super-complex Union Jack. And since Canada is independent from the United Kingdom, their provinces could help display that fact by removing the Union Jack from their flags.

In this design, I a red background with a white cross. The red and white are the colors of Canada, and the cross hints at the United Kingdom, but doesn't scream it like the real flag. I took the green shield with leaves and transformed it into a canton for this design, and the result looks as Ontarioan as anything.
A masterpiece, if I do say so myself.

Serbia

I bet you've heard of the recent split of Yugoslavia into Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo. Kosovo's new flag is easily much better than the other two nations'. Montenegro's is complicated, ugly, and just plain weird, and Serbia's is not only complicated and just plain weird, but it adds to the European tricolor confusion, but it doesn't seem that they'll adopt a flag without a tricolor, so I designed this flag.

I kept the Serbian tricolor of red, blue, and white, and instead of the coat of arms, I placed a Serbian cross in the canton area of the flag. It's golden because Serbia is looking forward to a "golden" future.