Flags: Beginners' Guide

A flag is a graphical interpretation of a country; as in, what is the purpose/influence of different countries around the world for their population or for other countries. A flag can take various symbols and graphics to interpret different types of qualities about a country, like its religion, environment, politics, etc., and is compiled in a neat way with a general sense of abstraction.

There are some regions that don't take the abstraction part seriously; most being states of cities of different countries. Sometimes, instead of using graphics and symbols, many countries use lettering and numerals (as well). This ruinthe purpose of a flag, and thus, may not be appealing enough.

Another purpose of the flag is to crisp, compact, and smooth, and not dense or heavily portraited. Most countries and unsurprisingly states as well disobey this rule and use their coat-of-arms, or seals, which, do are a graphic, but are still too much compact and dense in just a particular part of a flag.

For a country, a flag, along with their name, is their key ingredient for worldwide recognition. A country cannot exist without a flag or a name. Therefore, all countries at least have a flag that can be used in different showcase like political meetings, Olympics, etc.

## Historical Usages

While, the origin of flags as a whole is unknown, like royal arms, or banners, and others, flag-like symbols have been described as far back as 11th century BC China and have been used by other ancient civilisations such as Egypt and Rome.

## Terminology

Flags are in quite different opinions for now; some are terrible and ugly, while others are just too perfect. Since flags are so important, there have been some terminology associated with them during their creation for it to be an actual perfect flag.

* **Flagpole**: A flagpole is a special type of pole that is used to wave and hang the flag on its upper portion.
* **Truck/Cap**: A truck or a cap is the part that fits on the top of your in-ground flagpole and covers the top, holds the finial in place and includes the pulley that your halyard is attached to.
* **Ornament/Finial**: An ornament or a finial is an ornamental that is attached on the top of the truck. Generally, metal balls are used for the finials.
* **Header**: The header is a double-fold material placed along the hoist (pole side) of the flag.
* **Snap Hook**: A snap hook is a hook that is used to hold the flag to the flagpole.
* **Halyard**: The string that runs downs the lower snap hook to the bottom of the flagpole (where it is attached there) is termed as a "halyard".

* **Observe (or Front)**: The front is the front of the flag.
* **Reverse (or Back)**: The reverse is the back of the flag.
* **Ratio**: Ratio is the mathematical means of how long and wide a flag is in proportion.

* **Field/Ground**: The field is basically the area the flag occupies as a whole.
* **Canton**: The canton is (generally) the 1/4th of the total area on the upper left region (on the front; it's in the upper right in the reverse).
* **Hoist**: Hoist, seldom called lower hoist, is the region beneath the canton.
* **Fly**: The rest of the flag area is called the fly
* **Device/Charge**: This is the figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag.****

### Elements

*See also: Wikipedia:List of Flag Elements*

Elements are the shapes, objects, graphics, etc. that make up a flag. They are actually shapes like stars, triangles, circles, and stripes and also other geometric shapes like crescents (Brunei), pentagrams (Morocco), hexagrams (Israel), octagrams (Azerbaijan).

### Shapes

Flags tend to be rectangular with ratios between 2:3, and 1:2. That said, other flag-like forms do exist, like the ones below:

However, these other flag shapes should only be chosen if it invokes any meaning that is symbolized as the shape.

*For example*, the flag of Nepal, which is used as a double-pennant. The shape here works as it invokes the Himalayan Mountains, something Nepal is quite famously known for.

There is a downside of using other shapes: cost, and maintenance. Nepal's flag, for example, according the case has a fragility weak point at the points in the right, which have a higher risk of fraying.

## N.A.V.A.

NAVA, short for the North American Vexillological Association, published "Good Flag, Bad Flag: How to Design a Great Flag" in 2006. This book is a primary source for vexillology, as it sets out the 5 basic principles of flag design. The principles are ideally for the flags of an organization, a city, a tribal group, a company, family, neighborhood, or even a country. These principles are:

## References

[1]

Read More? Check out "Good Flag, bad Flag!"