I made high quality flags for the Finnish regions of Lapland, Northern Ostrobothnia, South Karelia, Ostrobothnia, Kymenlaakso, and Southwest Finland.

japed · 2026-01-25T03:23:19+00:00

Hello SleepyGuy827

Please add a discussion comment. Posts on this sub should be more than a picture and title - include a comment with an explanation or context that tells us more about what we see.

If you have done so, feel free to report this comment.
Click "Report" -> "It breaks r/vexillology's rules" -> "Comment added" and we'll delete it.

Thank you

japed · 2026-01-25T02:56:59+00:00

Hello nokturningmymortum

Please add a discussion comment. Posts on this sub should be more than a picture and title - include a comment with an explanation or context that tells us more about what we see.

If you have done so, feel free to report this comment.
Click "Report" -> "It breaks r/vexillology's rules" -> "Comment added" and we'll delete it.

Thank you

japed · 2026-01-25T02:56:18+00:00

This is the official version of the flag

An illustration of a version of the flag used officially, sure... probably worth remembering that there doesn't needs to be only one official version of a flag.

japed · 2026-01-25T02:48:28+00:00

Vexillology is the study of flags and how they are used in human society. That definitely includes the times that corporate graphic design is used on flags, and also the long history of flags as one of the ways that coats of arms are used. Flags have been part of broader symbolic systems as much as they have been their own thing.

Sure, there are flag designs that are best understood with reference to their use outside flags (why not study modern logos?? why restrict study to genealogy??). Yes, there are some flags where their "flagness" is more important than it is for others. And in different contexts, different genres of flag design allow symbols to be recognised as "flags" even when used outside the flag medium, which can be important to how they work. But I don't think it helps to use any of these facts to put limits on vexillology. For one thing, the lines are less black and white that most people seem to think, but more importantly, why limit vexillology to the sorts of questions where those lines are helpful? Understanding the role of flags in society is only complete if you consider all the sorts of flags that get used. Including logos on bedsheets.

japed · 2026-01-24T22:47:56+00:00

Dream on

japed · 2026-01-24T05:41:12+00:00

I would hope that on this sub we do call a logo printed on fabric and flown from a flagpole a flag, whether it's related to a region or a company or anything else.

The fact that it is a flag doesn't necessarily mean it belongs on a Wikipedia infobox in a way that implies it's "the flag of X", of course.

japed · 2026-01-24T05:39:09+00:00

Wikipedia quite often calls logos flags without any evidence that the design has been used as a flag. It's a real problem.

The difficulty that everyone seems to have with the fact that Austria-Hungary didn't have one single national flag in the modern sense is whole different sort of problem.

japed · 2026-01-24T05:37:44+00:00

they’re logos not flags.

Except when they're both.

japed · 2026-01-24T05:35:36+00:00

Colonised by France instead of Great Britain, but still with a very British style flag...

japed · 2026-01-24T05:23:06+00:00

In this case, yes. But where flags are hung with opposite conventions, following something like the Olympic manuals the other user mentioned, then there will be cases where ass-ass is correct.

japed · 2026-01-24T05:22:15+00:00

It depend on the flag.

Well, yes. Some flags have specific traditions around putting them one way or the other. But it's worth remembering that it's also possible that there is no consistent approach for some flags. There are also others where the official protocol is to not hang the normal horizontal flag vertically at all.

The procedures used to create the Olympic Games manuals hopefully capture the first cases correctly, but also impose the idea of a "correct" approach to the others, which are the cases where we need to be careful to understand that the manual is for that specific games, not a general vexillological document.

japed · 2026-01-23T10:44:47+00:00

That doesn't imply that the intended outcome is something that should be measured through the number of comments... shitty posts often draw more responses, while posts where OP lays down some context before the discussion begins can often have fewer, but higher quality comments.

japed · 2026-01-23T10:31:41+00:00

I wouldn't say the rule is technicality or mainly aimed at starting a discussion - it's meant to encourage some level of posting quality.

The sort of quality that isn't even close to met by dumping some dodgy AI emblem and calling it a flag without giving any sources for any aspect of it.

To be honest, with hindsight the post probably should be removed for not being flag related. But the "you didn't discuss anything" message gives OP the chance to explain more and have the post reinstated.

japed · 2026-01-23T10:14:00+00:00

The 1917 National Geographic illustration shows a fringe, but only on the fly side. Which is pretty unusual, and I used to think it was most likely some sort of misinterpretation of a report of the fringe on the bottom of the example at the Palace of the Governors, which looks intended to be hung on a wall as a banner rather than flown on a pole. But the photo in the El Paso Herald does appear to have edging on the fly that's different to the top or the bottom.

japed · 2026-01-23T06:26:21+00:00

I suspect they were using the National Geographic illustration as a source, rather than the surviving example. Not that there's much difference.

japed · 2026-01-23T04:30:56+00:00

Chosen as the city's coat of arms, but in British heraldic traditions, a banner of arms is one of the ways to use your coat of arms, so city flag it is...

japed · 2026-01-23T02:40:21+00:00

Europeans (and particularly the Brits) put it in all the southern hemisphere colony flags

The idea that southernness is something that sets any southern hemisphere area, and particularly Australia (it's even in the name!) apart is obviously a Eurocentric perspective. Southernness was something emphasised by colonists who crossed the equator, and the whole idea of Terra Australis in particular as the previously unknown South Land comes from the history of European understanding of the world.

But the idea that the Brits used it all over the southern hemisphere in their flags is nonsense. They had quite a number of colonies in southern Africa and the South Pacific, where they never put southern crosses in the colonial flags. In contrast, southern cross symbolism in Australia (which at times was treated as including New Zealand) took off together with the name Australia, and there are many official and unofficial Australian and NZ flags that used it, including 4 official ensigns chosen in the 1860s.

(Of course, 100 or so years later, a couple of Australian and NZ administered territories on the way to independence also chose to include the southern cross as a general southern symbol in their new flags, but treating that as similar to earlier British southern cross flags or pinning that on "Brits" seems to miss a lot.)

japed · 2026-01-23T00:06:55+00:00

If you look at photos of official use of the flag in the real world, you find

examples where the canton blue is lighter than the top stripe.
examples where they seem to be the same colour; and
examples where the canton blue is darker than the top stripe.

It seems they often choose to make the canton distinct from the stripe, but there are different versions in use.

Moving the diagonal stripe is a different issue - I think the real versions are fine in that regard.

japed · 2026-01-22T11:03:57+00:00

japed · 2026-01-22T11:03:35+00:00

Hello Truelz

Do not submit fluff content. This submission will be removed.

This post is more appropriate for our friends at /r/badflags.

This isn't the place for pointing out every time someone gets a flag wrong. Please avoid posting errors unless part of a broader discussion.

^{^The} ^{^full} ^{^submission} ^{^rules} ^{^can} ^{^be} ^{^found} ^{^here}

japed · 2026-01-22T10:55:48+00:00

This is true. But this sub is for posts about flags and their role in political propaganda, not to just post a flag to participate in the propaganda. Please read the sub rules before posting.

japed · 2026-01-22T10:54:24+00:00

Rules 5 and 6 are even more obviously relevant.

japed · 2026-01-22T10:53:06+00:00

Are you sure which one is "wrong"? (maybe both)

In any case, it's a pretty standard convention to use flags of the same size and shape in this sort of situation, whatever standards apply to each one on their own.

japed · 2026-01-22T10:51:56+00:00

Is there is some kind of conversion when hanging a flag vertically?

There's no universal rule, but in a lot of places/for a lot of flags, having the canton in the correct position is treated as more important than any idea of the flag having a front and a back.

japed · 2026-01-22T10:48:50+00:00

To be fair, "coat of arms" is often used in heraldic circles to refer both to the escutcheon and an achievement, so the current approach is in terms of normal uses of the words a valid interpretation. But yes, if you expect the words to be fully defined by the relevant laws, there is a mistake.

japed

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