Vexillography

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Vexillography ( ) is the art and practice of designing flags; a person who designs flags is a vexillographer. Vexillography is allied with vexillology, the scholarly study of flags, but is not synonymous with that discipline.

Background of flag design
Flag designs exhibit a number of regularities, arising from a variety of practical concerns, historical circumstances, and cultural prescriptions that have shaped and continue to shape their evolution.

Vexillographers face the necessity for the design to be manufactured (and often mass-produced) into or onto a piece of cloth, which will subsequently be hoisted aloft in the outdoors to represent an organization, individual, idea, or group. In this respect, flag design departs considerably from logo design: logos are predominantly still images suitable for reading off a page, screen, or billboard; while flags are alternately draped and fluttering images - visible from a variety of distances and angles (including the reverse). The prevalence of simple bold colors and shapes in flag design attests to these practical issues.

Flag design has a history, and new designs often refer back to previous designs, effectively quoting, elaborating, or commenting upon them. Families of current flags may derive from a few common ancestors - as in the cases of the Pan-African colours, the Pan-Arab colors, the Pan-Slavic colors, the Nordic Cross flag and the Ottoman flag.

Certain cultures prescribe the proper design of their own flags, through heraldic or other authoritative systems. Prescription may be based on religious principles: see, for example, Islamic flags. Vexillographers have begun to articulate design principles, such as those jointly published by the North American Vexillological Association and the Flag Institute in their Guiding Principles of Flag Design.

Principles of design
In 2006, the North American Vexillological Association published a booklet titled “Good” Flag, “Bad” Flag to aid those wishing to design or re-design a flag. Taking a minimalist approach, the booklet lists five basic flag design principles which have become a standard reference in the vexillographer community. In 2014, the North American Vexillological Association, alongside the Flag Institute created an updated booklet titled The Commission's Report on the Guiding Principles of Flag Design, which addresses issues present in “Good” Flag, “Bad” Flag, and goes more in-depth on the ideas laid forth in the aforementioned booklet. The guidelines in this booklet can be summarized as follows:

Basics
Keep in mind the physics of a flag in flight when designing a flag
Simple designs are more easily remembered while complex ones are harder to recall and recreate
Flags should have distinctive designs that separate them from others
Designs and trends should be avoided if there is a possibility that they can date quickly

Color
Using fewer colors keeps designs simple and bold
Contrast is important; use light on dark and dark on light
Modern printing techniques have made more shades of color available than previously, and this can be used advantageously
Designs should make the edge of a flag be well-defined so as to not get visually lost in the background of where it is flying
Gradient on flags make it look too computer generated, and make it difficult to sew/draw. Try to avoid gradients.

Structure
Charges are best placed in the canton, hoist, or center of a design as these are the most visually prominent areas
Flag designs are usually longer than they are tall
Having different designs on the obverse and reverse of a flag undermines recognition and increase cost of production

Devices
A single device should be used in a prominent position to ensure that people can recognize the flag whether it is in flight or at rest
When multiple devices are included, different background colors can be used to "anchor" the devices into the overall design
Devices should be stylized graphical representations as opposed to realistic drawings, so the flag can easily be recreated and recognized by anyone.
Avoid text on flags; it is difficult to read while the flag is in flight and will appear backwards on the flag's reverse
Charges with directionality traditionally face towards the hoist, or flagpole
Seals, coats of arms, or logos are usually too complex to be used effectively on a flag, although exceptions exist

Symbolism
Symbols should be both distinct and representative
A flag should represent the totality of any given community as opposed to its individual parts
A flag should emphasize its own identity over higher-level groupings, otherwise distinctiveness is lost
Symbolism relating to other entities should only be used if there is a clear, direct relevance
Designers should avoid representing any particular reference in multiple ways, and instead try to make a single definitive reference

Prominent vexillographers
Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, designer of the flag of Portugal
Luis and Sabino Arana, designers of the Ikurriña (the flag of the Basque Country)
Graham Bartram, designer of the flag of Tristan da Cunha and others
Manuel Belgrano, designer of the flag of Argentina
Frederick 'Fred' Brownell, designer of the flags of South Africa and Namibia
Ron Cobb, designer of the American Ecology Flag
John Eisenmann, designer of the flag of the U.S. state of Ohio
Mohamed Hamzah, designer of the flag of Malaya
Quamrul Hassan, designer of the flag of Bangladesh
Cederic Herbert, designer of the flag of the short-lived Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Francis Hopkinson, generally acknowledged designer of the American flag
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, designer of a koru flag, among others
Susan K. Huhume, designer of the flag of Papua New Guinea
Sharif Hussein, designer of the flag of the Arab Revolt
James I of England, designer of the first flag of Great Britain
Syed Amir-uddin Kedwaii, designer of the flag of Pakistan
Lu Haodong, designer of the Blue Sky with a White Sun flag of the Republic of China
Nicola Marschall, designer of the "Stars and Bars", the First National Flag of the Confederate States of America
John McConnell, designer of a flag of the Earth
Fredrik Meltzer, designer of the flag of Norway
Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, designer of the flag of Brazil
William Porcher Miles, designer of the battle flag of the Confederate States of America
Francisco de Miranda, designer of the flag of Venezuela, upon which the present flags of Colombia and Ecuador are based.
Theodosia Okoh, designer of the flag of Ghana
Christopher Pratt, designer of the flag of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Orren Randolph Smith, citizen of North Carolina who is co-credited as being the father of the "Stars and Bars" flag, along with Nicola Marschall.
Whitney Smith, designer of the flag of Guyana and other flags
George Stanley, designer of the flag of Canada
Joaquín Suárez, designer of the flag of Uruguay
Pingali Venkayya, designer of the flag of India
Robert Watt, designer of the flag of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Oliver Wolcott Jr., designer of the flag of the United States Customs Service
Zeng Liansong, designer of the flag of the People's Republic of China
İsmet Güney, designer of the flag of Cyprus
Nguyen Huu Tien, designer of the flag of Vietnam
Gilbert Baker, designer of the rainbow flag symbol of the LGBT Movement
Alexander Baretich, designer of the Cascadian bioregional flag AKA Doug Flag
Ralph Eugene Diffendorfer, co-designer of the Christian Flag
Christopher Gadsden, designer of the Gadsden flag
Monica Helms, designer of the Transgender flag
Catherine Rebecca Murphy Winborne - the "Betsy Ross of the Confederacy" - also co-credited as the designer of the "Stars and Bars" flag
Adolf Hitler, designer of the flag of Nazi Germany, the Reichskriegsflagge and his personal standard
Betsy Ross, designer, according to legend, of the American flag during the American Revolution
Theodore Sizer, designed of the flag of St. Louis
Gerard Slevin, former Chief Herald of Ireland reputed to have helped design the flag of Europe.
Emilio Aguinaldo, 1st president of the Republic of the Philippines, along with the designer of the countries' flag.

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