Vexillogy

Scott Alexander takes on what he calls "reddit vexillogy" in his Three Model Organisms For Taste. 

 If you’re like me, you learned the following code of good flags:

1. They should be so simple that a child could draw them.

2. No images, no “busy” areas, and - for God’s sake - no text

3. The rule of tincture: “never put metal on metal, or color on color”. In medieval heraldry, “metals” were yellow and white (sometimes implemented with literal gold and silver) and “colors” were every other color (except black, which is a “fur” and has its own rules). A good flag shouldn’t have a metal touch another metal, or a color touch another color. So the French tricolor (blue then white then red) is okay, but a hypothetical (blue then red then white) tricolor wouldn’t be okay, because blue would be touching red, which would be “color on color”.

Good old Indonesia, they know how to follow the rules.

He dismantles all three with examples of beloved flags which break each rule. The entire discussion on taste, including a previous post of his is worth reading, and all the heraldry discussion is a fine introduction to the topic. But you could head over just for the flags and be happy. Wait until you see the US flag in the style of Venice. We should have those somewhere ceremonial, like every state capitol building, or the Washington Monument.