I like the Swiss flag. Bonus: It’s square!
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I’m not sure if they’re used on flags or not, but I think some of these Japanese town logos are pretty cool. They sort of violate the “no writing” rule though.
Very appropriate for Sicily! It looks like someone who was a little late with the protection payment after Paul Walnuts got through with him. 
The Welshflag is awesome!
I agree with the design rule that a child should be able to draw it from memory
Being unfamiliar with Canadian Provincial flags, I hied off to Wikipedia. it was there that I found a flag that not even an adult could draw from memory, and that could only have been created on an Etch-A-Sketch
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
The flag of Tibet is kind of cool: http://schreiwire.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tibet-flag.jpg
Hitler’s Standard was more ornate than the national flag: http://www.infognito.net/images/adolf-hitlers-standard1.jpg
India’s Azad Hind flag: http://www.psywarrior.com/AzadHindFlag.jpg
Note on symmetries: Paraguay’s flag has on either side distinctly the obverse or reverse of the seal in the middle.
BTW the Maritime Self Defense Force has kept it as its ensign.
I think all flags look rather garish.
I’ve never really understood this comment. There’s a huge star on the Australian flag that’s not on the New Zealand one. They’re quite simple to distinguish. Much more so than all of the ‘three coloured stripe’ permutations that various other countries sport.
W…T… F?!! Did someone forget to colour in the little squares? Were they painting stripes from both top and bottom at the same time, and someone messed up the math? Did the designer really like the US flag, but couldn’t figure out how to give a respectful nod to its design in a new context (hint: see Malaysia, Liberia, Greece, and Togo?
On the other hand, the flag of the University of Lethbridge is pretty good.
Posters who admire the Imperial Japanese Naval Ensign ought to know that this is really just the Japanese Naval Ensign - it is very much still in use.
This is a shot of a Japanese destroyer pulling into Pearl Harbor sometime in the last few years.
I will agree that, design wise, it is a nifty flag.
I’ll need to check further and revert, but it is my belief that the “back” of the Australian flag is mirror imaged.
Yeah, but I always had to think about it. There’s an extra star in the Southern Cross on the Aussie flag, too, which confused me about whether the NZ should have it or not. There was a flagpole at my school, which was occasionally used (though my second school used its own school flag instead of the country flag), but on the whole, I don’t think much emphasis is placed on flags in NZ. Certainly nothing like the fanaticism I see from America.
If it had been dropped on the ground, I seriously doubt the school would have thought to burn it.
I guess I just never paid much attention to it, as a kid. It’s not a very interesting flag.
As mentioned above, here are the criteria from Josh Parson’s web site:
I think he has a point regarding the the tri-colors, and as for stars, do you really think anyone cares how many stars are on your flag, let alone is going to count them? One star is enough, already.
And weapons really are quite gauche, no matter how hard you had to fight for neo-colonial independence.
You’re free to like what you like, of course, and I’m sure you’re a very nice person in many respects, but these flags violate just about every principle of good flag design mentioned or linked to in this thread.
The Tibet flag is absolutely hideous. It’s way, way too busy, with ornate detailed white-on-white lions (I think) supporting a yin-yang symbol and something that looks like a torch. And what’s with the narrow yellow border around *three *sides?
The less said about Hitler’s standard the better.
The Azad Hind flag has writing (a general flag no-no), a bad tricolor (yellow on white?!?), and a cheesy picture of a tiger that is not stylized enough to be a proper flag symbol and not good enough to be artistically interesting. It has an unusual shape, but doesn’t make good use of it.
guizot: Thanks for finding that site. It’s the one I was thinking of that ruled against weapons.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who feels this way. I’ve always felt like I was missing something, as I always read glowing descriptions of it… [link broken by Moderator] website starts “The Maryland flag has been described as the perfect state flag — bold colors, interesting patterns, and correct heraldry…” for instance. Heraldry, schmeraldry, it looks like it’s some kind of hideously garish optical illusion. “Stare at this flag for 30 seconds, then look at a page of text, and the text will look multicolored and wavy!”
I also don’t get the love for the New Mexico flag, though it’s definitely far less garish than Maryland’s. New Mexico’s is really plain, and the Zia symbol is tiny and overwhelmed on both left and right by the yellow field. Either the Zia should be larger, or the flag should be square.
No accounting for taste! 
The Japanese one is so simple and elegant—red circle on white…and so recognizable as so many countries have stripes.
Italy, Ireland and Mexico annoy me as they are all variants of one another.
Yes, it’s mirror imaged. The only problem really is the position of Epsilon Crucis, so I don’t anyone sees it as a big issue.
The flag of Papua New Guinea has the same problem.
[post=12427433]Nobody ever notices me![/post] 
You assume those people portray themselves as the aggressor. 
That flag could be saying, “Damn, we suck!”