10. Belize: This flag isn't as gaudy as the ones you'll see below, but it's the only country in the world whose flag's most prominent feature is a seal. A giant seal on a blue background. Yeah, there are some little red stripes on top and bottom, but if I were Belizean, this would still generate about zero patriotism.
9. Dominica: It's as if they searched the rainbow for the ugliest shade of green possible, then combined it with a spectrum of more unappealing colors to conjure a vomitous flag. And what's the role of the red and purple that only appear on the extra-dull seal in the middle? Purple on red on green = bad design. There's too much going on here, and none of it is attractive.
8. Mauritius: It's like the gay pride flag if the gay pride flag sucked--a rainbow with only four colors. And the gay pride flag isn't, you know, the flag of an entire nation to be used by heads of state. What color do Mauritians wear when they want to represent their country? There's no consistent image with this flag; no icon, no memorable design, just a bunch of colors. And they couldn't even get "a bunch of colors" right.
7. Burundi: This is almost a well-designed flag. The unique-yet-simple design is there, the national symbol is there... but then they had to choose the colors. This particular shade of green is almost neon green, and it ruins the whole flag. It's like a technicolor Christmas! With three Stars of David! The coat of arms of Burundi is well-designed and features a fearsome roaring lion. Why didn't this carry over to the flag?
6. Belarus: Again, we've got the unattractive red, white, and green combination. The shade of green isn't quite as offensive as in the Burundi flag, but red on green with no white buffer looks repulsive. At the hoist side we've got this overly complex diamond design. To put it bluntly, it looks like a rug. And who flies a rug as a flag? When a little Belarusian kid draws his country's flag, what is he going to do with the left side?
5. Turkmenistan: Talk about rug designs! This doesn't just look like a rug--it is a rug. Among the official flag descriptors such as "hoist," "field," and "mullets" is the sentence "A vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs) stacked above two crossed olive branches." Turkmenistan literally has a rug for a flag.
4. The Comoros: Small countries seem to have a thing for too many colors. Colors aside, this is a decent design, but the rainbow palette is puke-perfect. On top of that, the shade of blue used on the bottom stripe is one of the least powerful blues in the history of color. It's like the Comoros took a cue from jeans companies, and pre-faded the bottom part of their flag.
3. Central African Republic: Going with this rainbow flag motif, we come to the flag of the CAR. I'd like to envision the thought process of the individual tasked with creating this monstrosity. "Hmm... I like colors. But what to do with colors? I know! A random stripe down the middle! And... and, I've got it! A star in the corner! And let's make the whole thing a bit too square!" Awesome. 
2. Libya: Libya's official description consist of the following exhaustive explanation: "It's green." Hey, at least I can't complain it's too colorful again. But what happened? They've gone to the effort of manufacturing thousands of flags without paying anyone to design one? And what happens if someone takes a grayscale photo of the flag? No one would be able to distinguish it from any other flag.
1. Cyprus: It's Cyprus. With some olive branches. I guess you could do a seeing-shapes-in-the-clouds exercise with it and try to figure out what it looks like. A dragon's head! A unicorn! Maybe in the negative space, it's a guy's mouth yelling! Many of you may wonder why I've rated this flag worse than Libya's virtual non-flag. At least Libya has a color, and its starkness makes it stand out. This looks like something I designed for my middle-school report on Cyprus. And how would a kid draw it? This flag is essentially an underlined orange blob on a blank page.
the too-many-colored flags didn't bother me nearly as much as the freaking rug flags. so tacky.
ReplyDeletei also noticed a typo in this post, but i won't tell you where ;]