This flag breaks with Norwegian municipal vexillological tradition by being a shield-on-a-bedsheet as opposed to a banner of arms. The selection of the coat of arms was highly controversial due to its style, the lack of transparency and democracy in its selection, and the cost of its development. Some remarked about how the placement of the boats implied retreat, due to the heraldic significance of dexter and sinister.
Three years after the formation of Lillestrøm municipality, I'd say the design has grown on me. I really like the symbolism of referencing the Sørum boat, the oldest boat in Norway, which was uncovered here. The triple repetition of the boat symbolizes the three former municipalities of Skedsmo, Sørum, and Fet traveling together towards a common future.
A wimpel is a type of pennant most often found in the Nordic countries. Wimpels are flown in place of a proper flag essentially to avoid needing to follow flag code. Seeing a Ukrainian wimpel was pretty surprising for me since Ukraine obviously isn't a country where wimpels see much use, so this is essentially an adaptation of a foreign flag to local flag traditions, simply because city hall doesn't want to raise and lower the flag every day.
Incidentally, one variant of the Swedish wimpel that I've often seen when on the road to Charlottenberg looks a lot like this: blue stripe over yellow, only a lot longer and thinner.
I had seen Quasar's Progress flag last year at a Pride event in Aurskog-Høland. It struck me when seeing both that flag and the Vecchietti flag how un-busy the Progress Pride flags look in real life. Speaking from experience moderating /r/vexillology on Reddit, the Progress Pride flags are highly controversial among flag enthusiasts. My own verdict, especially now that I've seen the flag IRL, is that I'm fond of Vecchietti's Progress flag. But I'm just as glad to commemorate Pride with my plain six-stripe rainbow flag.
How do we feel about numbers or text on flags? In my opinion it gets a bad rap because a lot of people never think about it any deeper than the basic principles of vexillology, and yet even most people who are otherwise anti-text agree that Colorado's flag is among the best of the best.
I once came up with five basic questions to ask oneself before putting text on a flag. Here's how Colorado's flag holds up to these standards:
Is the text symbolic? The "C" is a "conduit" of sorts for the color symbolism of the red and yellow, so yes.
Can the symbolism be conveyed better through other means? I would argue that the "C" makes the flag more distinctive and memorable.
Does the text need to be legible for the flag to be recognizable? The Colorado flag remains recognizable at rest.
If necessary, is the text legible in various conditions? The "C" is recognizable at a distance, in reverse, and when displayed vertically.
Is the text stylish? In my own opinion: yes, definitely, absolutely.
It's pretty cool to see that the rainbow flag is now such an entrenched symbol in Norway that they make variants of it adapted to Norwegian flag traditions. It reminds me of how you'll actually see square rainbow flags in Switzerland, just because it looks nicer next to the national and regional flags.
Pictured: square rainbow flag next to the flag of Winterthur, Zürich Canton. Photo by Marc Dahinden.
Edit: A bit disappointing that this post got a downvote almost immediately. Is it because it's a rainbow flag? Sigh.
According to the county's official website, the golden/yellow color represents the wealth of the county and the richness of its fields, while the blue wavy bands represent Deer Creek, Bynum Run, and Winters Run. Atop the shield is a two-handed forearm, the one holding a quill to symbolize the signing of the Bush Declaration, and the other holding a sword to symbolize Aberdeen Proving Ground.
The county motto, "At the Risque of Our Lives and Fortunes", are the final words of the Bush Declaration.
This flag has some great symbolism, and the coat of arms by itself is great. I just wish that this flag incorporated these elements in a way that was more readily visible at a distance.
The flag is a banner of arms. The flag and coat of arms were both adopted on February 14th, 2018. The flag and coat of arms were primarily created by Tikhoretsk-based heraldist Vladimir Nagaevsky, with his wife Natalia co-writing the official description of the flag's symbolism. The main ideas of the flag are attributed to the local Valentina Paisyeva.
From my understanding of the Geraldika page as an intermediate-level Russian speaker, the green trees rather plainly represent the taiga, while the white stripe just above represents in particular the Belika river after which Belyaki and Belyakinsky Selsoviet were named. The two bears represent not only the local wildlife, but also enumerate the two settlements of the selsoviet. And the windmill and solar panels obviously just represent the fact that the selsoviet has a lot of, well, solar and wind energy.
While there isn't necessarily much uniquely Belyaki about the flag, I still find it very charming. I almost wish more flags represented their hometowns' windmills and solar panels. If anybody's familiar with any other flags that represent their referents' environmental bents, please let me know!
The yellow symbolizes goldenrod, Kentucky's state flower. The green, which has a slight blue tint, represents Kentucky being the Bluegrass State.
I wanted to symbolize "United We Stand" without just putting the motto on there, and I settled on a simple saltire. I view the two crossing lines as evoking unity. Even if it's quite the stretch, I think it looks great.
The checkered pattern comes from the checkered "finish" flag and represents the Kentucky Derby.
Indeed! Here in Norway we have a flag with "split and tongue" used as the state and war flag and ensign, but our civil flag is rectangular.
Nepal's flag is a thing of beauty. While the shape of the flag is ultimately based on a historical double-pennant, the shape is nowadays taken as representing a pagoda, or the shape of the Himalayas... I think this is a very clever form of symbolism, to utilize the shape of the flag itself to convey meaning. More flags should do that!
The motto of the Isle of Man is "Quocunque Jeceris Stabit", meaning "Wherever you throw it, it will stand". While the Manx triskelion well predates this motto, the motto is still a very nice piece of retroactive symbolism for what could be described as a very unique and striking flag, to say the least.
This flag uses a pall to represent the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the city, similarly to how the flag of Tuva represents the confluence of the Bii-Khem and Kaa-Khem into the Yenisei River, in their capital, Kyzyl. It's things like this that make some flag design experts recommend that flags shouldn't represent local bodies of water: it is very common for cities to be founded on confluences or forks.
Nevertheless, the flag of St. Louis is very distinctive and attractive, and I'd easily consider it to be among the best city flags of the Americas!
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