The design should be suited to a wide range of applications, including lapel pins, printed uses and decorations, but above all it should work as the traditional fabric and mobile object that a flag is. 2.2 Design issues 2.2.1 Australia's flag should be clearly identifiable and easily distinguishable from others, and entrants should refer to a chart of the world's flags. It should not be cluttered or abstruse in design. The flag should still be readily identifiable when in movement, at rest, draped from a pole with the design partly enfolded, floodlit, partly obscured. The design should not be compromised when the flag is in motion, for an effective flag is more than a flat graphic.
Flags can change in their impact dramatically when transposed from paper to cloth.
Most flags today are screen printed. Flags depend on the conventions of heraldry for clarity, and these conventions generally preclude complicated and amorphous devices such as maps which appear incorrectly on the reverse. Devices such as animals or birds should face the flagpole to be consistent with display in march past and processions. The design should be readily identifiable to the unaided eye from a reasonable distance. The design should be distinct from corporate logos.