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Flag Creation


Cirrus

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Here is a flag that breaks a few rules.

800px-Canadian_Red_Ensign.svg.png

That is the Canadian Red Ensign. Though it was never officially Canada's flag, it was flown above the parliament buildings for many years and was used to represent our military over seas. I personally believe it is truly beautiful even if it does break many of the rules outlined in the OP.

The color red in the background of the flag symbolizes life and blood -- blood shed in the settlement of this country and in wars to preserve basic freedoms. The Union Jack is rather self explanatory. Canada was founded with strong ties to Great Britain. I won't get into the explanation of the Union Jack. Needless to say, it has tons of symbolism. All of which was translated into this flag as well.

The Canadian coat of arms is on the right side of the flag. This is the element of the flag which breaks the rules seeing as it is so detailed. It speaks greatly to Canadian history. The crest contains three maples leaves with stems joined. The three leaves represent the component peoples of Canada: the natives, the French and English original settlers, and the others, mostly European, who came later. The veins of the leaves are gold, symbolizing wealth -- wealth created through unity and passion for this land and hard work. The Maple Leaf, of course, also represents the forests of Canada -- a most important contributor to the nation's wealth.

The emblems within the crest reflect the origins of our founding peoples. the couchant lion (upper left), emblem of William of Normandy, has been used by the British monarchs since 1066. It represents both the British and French settlers. The red lion rampant (upper right) was the emblem of the Scottish monarchs. From Cape Breton to Glengarry County, Ontario, Scots, many refugees from the Highland clearances, were important early settlers and leaders (like Sir John A. Macdonald) in Canada. The harp (lower left) is a symbol of Ireland -- another important source of our founding people. The fleur de lis symbolizes the early French settlers of Canada, who brought this as an emblem of a royalist not a republican France.

I didn't intend for this explanation to get so long. As you can see the flag holds more symbolism that most. Being a Canadian, it means the world to me. Just goes to show you that even if a flag doesn't follow the rules, it can still hold just as much (if not more) meaning to those who reside under it.

Edited by KillerTomato
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The question, KillerTomato, is what the purpose of the flag is supposed to be. Being meaningful is good, but ultimately the point of a flag is to easily identify your group. Look at all the flags using exactly the same pattern of a red field with a Union Jack in the canton and a shield-shaped crest to the right. How are casual observers supposed to tell the difference?

120px-Civil_Ensign_of_Fiji.svg.png

Fiji Merchant Ensign

120px-Flag_of_Manitoba.svg.png

Manitoba

120px-Flag_of_Bermuda.svg.png

Bermuda

120px-Flag_of_Ontario.svg.png

Ontario

120px-South_Africa_Red_Ensign.png

South Africa (1910-1928)

Check out how many similar flags there are in the world. It's pretty amazing.

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The question, KillerTomato, is what the purpose of the flag is supposed to be. Being meaningful is good, but ultimately the point of a flag is to easily identify your group. Look at all the flags using exactly the same pattern of a red field with a Union Jack in the canton and a shield-shaped crest to the right. How are casual observers supposed to tell the difference?

120px-Civil_Ensign_of_Fiji.svg.png

Fiji Merchant Ensign

120px-Flag_of_Manitoba.svg.png

Manitoba

120px-Flag_of_Bermuda.svg.png

Bermuda

120px-Flag_of_Ontario.svg.png

Ontario

120px-South_Africa_Red_Ensign.png

South Africa (1910-1928)

Check out how many similar flags there are in the world. It's pretty amazing.

Their similarity speaks to their purpose though. Nearly all the nations or territories/provinces using the ensign design (red ensign, blue ensign, white ensign, etc.) are historically British colonies or members of the British military.

Just as the New Polar Order's flag is very similar to that of the New Pacific Order. The design similarity of the flag speaks to it's roots and those who had a major hand in founding it.

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In which program did all of you made their flags? Paint?

If you have the time to learn Adobe Illustrator, it's the best program to design a flag in. It's all completely vector art (don't ask me to explain that one here, it would be far better to look it up); so you should end up with smooth lines and complete control of how large you would like it to be every time. It's used to create logos (so they can be resized later), and is generally a good test for a flag's design. If you can't recreate it in Illustrator (heavy photo effects and the like), it generally couldn't be mass-produced, and thus wouldn't be an effective flag. [OOC, all of that is generally irrelevant in a web-based game of course, but I suppose I'm a bit of a purist.]

Edited by Graphix
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The ORIGINAL German Empire actually wasn't all that bad, it was WWII Germany that was pure evil. The orignal German Empire tried to make a Navy and support their allies, and they got their arses handed to them for doing so.

That isn't what he meant, he is just a sour White Supremest we caught in The Empire and Ejected him. And The German Empire didn't get their arses handed to them, they fought very well, just with US Aid and such they lost.

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That isn't what he meant, he is just a sour White Supremest we caught in The Empire and Ejected him. And The German Empire didn't get their arses handed to them, they fought very well, just with US Aid and such they lost.

Oh the baseless accusations sting!

Don't clutter up the thread with your tactless assault against my person.

Edited by KillerTomato
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The ORIGINAL German Empire actually wasn't all that bad, it was WWII Germany that was pure evil. The orignal German Empire tried to make a Navy and support their allies, and they got their arses handed to them for doing so.

I was not referring to to the German empire in the real world.

I am very aware of their noble existance.

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Their similarity speaks to their purpose though. Nearly all the nations or territories/provinces using the ensign design (red ensign, blue ensign, white ensign, etc.) are historically British colonies or members of the British military.

Just as the New Polar Order's flag is very similar to that of the New Pacific Order. The design similarity of the flag speaks to it's roots and those who had a major hand in founding it.

The base shape design of the NPO and NpO flags are the same, thats it, the colours are different, the centre is different and they are more than distinguishable at a distance.

All of the British ensign flags look pretty much exactly the same.

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Their similarity speaks to their purpose
And there is something to be said for that. But ultimately they need to be distinguishable from one another. Ideally they should all replace the shields with a simple, clear icon of some sort.

Here are some examples. (with the blue field instead of the red, but they could all just as easily be red)

Kenyaoflag.gif

120px-Ensign_of_the_British_Commissioners_of_Northern_Lighthouses.svg.png

120px-Flag_of_Western_Australia.svg.png

These flags all retain their British heritage and are all clearly intended to be related to each other, but unlike the flags I posted earlier, anybody can tell these apart from one another.

Edited by Cirrus
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It seems to me that the use of shields on flags is somewhat, well, redundant. Many of the rules for flag design are shared by heraldry, but heraldy has the added difficulty of creating increasingly complex designs to denote heratige. I just don't understand the desire to add "heratige" to "nationality" as they're generally linked in the first place. Plus, putting a "cluttered" image onto a largely "uncluttered" flag draws unwanted attention to it.

I made that for a RP, I think it fits well. It has 3 Alchemic Symbols that represent words, the Green banner to reprsent farming, a major part of the nation, it's outlined in gold, showing Royalty or superiority. It's purple because I wanted it to be purple.

I feel very unscholarly now, as I consider myself to have an above-average knowlege of alchemy. I recognize gold and fire, but not the middle symbol. Is it salt?

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I'm proud enough of my work to want to show here the AHEAD flag, as a good example of a CN flag:

AAfv4174.png

  1. It's simple enough, with a few elements that can be easily remembered: the four quadrants, the shield, the dove.
  2. The flag symbols and colours are meaningful: Orange because AHEAD is "primarily" an Orange Alliance, and White because other colours are allowed (and widely used); White also because it represents Peace. The four Quadrants were chosen to recall a GPA flag that is used on a site of theirs, and part of the idea of AHEAD was inspired by looking at the GPA; the Shield is for Protection, the Dove is for Peace.
  3. Orange and White have an excellent contrast.
  4. No lettering on our flag (ok).
  5. The flag is distinctive and unlike anything else (in CN or RL).
  6. Despite the dove and the curved lines, the flag is still realistic: it could be reproduced in large quantities without being too expensive.

Also, the Dove is in canton, because Peace is the primary value of AHEAD.

Edited by jerdge
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I'm proud enough of my work to want to show here the AHEAD flag, as a good example of a CN flag:

AAfv4174.png

It's nice aside from the fact that the dove is somewhat hard to spot at first.

What's your opinion on CSN's flag?

30401414545.jpg

I looks nice; the colors mix well, and it's not too complicated either.

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That isn't what he meant, he is just a sour White Supremest we caught in The Empire and Ejected him. And The German Empire didn't get their arses handed to them, they fought very well, just with US Aid and such they lost.

Well yes, they did fight well, but you know a war is going badly when they are tearing pipes out of the streets to make bullets, and that was BEFORE the USA entered. Germans fought hard, but they just wern't ready for the war, nobody was.

Back to flags:

Opinion on this?

YghataiFlag.png

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I'm afraid those stars are very hard to make out. The knife could be simplified rather than looking like a pencil drawing. Perhaps a white dagger outline on a brown background without a white stripe at all?

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