Cool Flags to Consider, and Ugly Ones to Try and Forget About

I have a lot of opinions about flags. I can identify flags of the world a little too easily. This impresses some, but in reality it only ever comes in handy during trivia. I never even attempted to learn all these flags, I just have all this knowledge that I don’t know where it came from or what to do with. I will now take you on a journey where I discuss my opinions on world flags, the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Belarus

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Ah Belarus, the North Korea of Europe. While Belarus is an incredibly oppressive country that commits a wide variety of human rights abuses, they do have a pretty cool flag. Honestly, Belarus has my favorite flag because it looks like a christmas sweater and makes me feel festive no matter what time of year it is. 

Turkmenistan

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Ah Turkmenistan, the North Korea of Central Asia. Why is it that all the crazy and oppressive dictatorships have such cool flags? One downside to this flag is certainly the poor Turkmen children probably have a really tough time drawing it at school. It’s elaborateness matches that of the capital city of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat. 

River Gee County, Liberia

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After two beautiful flags it’s time for one that is just simply horrific. This flag (and many of the other county flags in Liberia) look like they were designed by a 9-year-old on Microsoft paint. This flag is as they would say in Swedish, fulsöt, a word that means so ugly it’s cute. Could this be the cabbage patch doll of flags? 

Azerbaijan 

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I’ve always been a fan of Azerbaijan’s flag. There’s nothing that complex about it, but the colors are pleasant and it’s not just a boring tri-color like many countries. I think the shade of blue they use is very calming. 10/10 good job Azerbaijan. 

Chad and Romania 

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That’s right. It’s the SAME FREAKING FLAG!!! You would think that one of these countries would be somewhat bothered by this and change it. This is the problem we run into when countries get super lazy and think that 3 stripes of various colors suffices for flag design. At least put a cool seal on it or something??? 

Andorra and Moldova

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Ok I have to give them props for adding a seal, but SERIOUSLY??? I’ll give Moldova a bit of a pass since it has such a close relationship with Romania, but four countries having basically the same flag is a bit much. It’d be one thing if these countries all had some sort of common tie and did this intentionally (i.e. the pan-Arab, pan-African and pan-Slavic flags) but they really don’t. The only thing Andorra and Moldova have in common is that they’re small and everyone forgets about them (ok and they’re both in Europe and speak romance languages but still). 

Nepal

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Nepal is cool because they really disregarded the memo literally everyone else sent out saying that flags were going to be square. This is the type of creativity I’d really like to start seeing from the aforementioned countries. Imagine how much more fun the world would be if people stopped giving up on their flags after picking three generic colors. 

Kyrgyzstan

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Ok … I gotta say it … I stan the -stan countries. They’re really killing the flag game. Flags that are just a plain backdrop with a shape in the middle can be a bit boring (I’m looking at you Somalia, Japan, Palau, Bangladesh and Vietnam) but this is such a cool shape! A sun that looks like a yurt in the middle??? Way cooler than just a circle or a star. 

Indonesia and Monaco

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Ok … What’s worse than a tri-color … a freaking BI-COLOR!!! What’s worse than a bi-color? A bi-color that isn’t even original!!! Ukraine also has a bi-color but they’re off the hook this time because at least they don’t have the same boring bi-color as someone else. 

Poland

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Poland also has a boring red and white bi-color. At least it isn’t the exact same flag as another country, but they’re on thin ice and it’s bad enough to be included here. I have a significant amount of Polish ancestry, so even as a proud Polish-American I am willing to admit that my Polish brethren have really screwed this one up. Poland has a cool seal too—adding it would be enough to get they’re flag off this list! 

Bhutan

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Bhutan’s flag literally has a dragon on it—need I say more about what makes it cool? The flag of Wales also has a dragon, but the Welsh flag has less original colors. Hot take: orange is an incredibly underutilized color on world flags. Pretty much all flags only have red, white, green, blue and yellow. They’re super generic shades of all those colors at that. 

Libya (1977-2011) 

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Ok, I know I’ve already complained about tri-colors and bi-colors, but this one is far worse. FOR 34 YEARS THE FLAG OF LIBYA WAS JUST GREEN. GREEN. THAT. IS. IT. THAT ISN’T EVEN A DESIGN!!! I digress … I also commend Libya for coming to their senses in 2011 and redesigning the flag to something a bit more exciting.  

Sri Lanka 

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Sri Lanka really has it going on. We got fun colors. We got a lion. We got a sword. What else could one want??? I really don’t know what else to say about this one! 

Mozambique 

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I don’t know how to feel about this one. I can’t say I love it, but at least it’s not boring. There’s a triangle with a star, a book over it and then a gun and a garden hoe? Like it’s certainly kind of a mess but they clearly put some thought into it. I appreciate their effort and creativity. 

Dominica 

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There is a lot of colors going on with this flag. The small island nation has included purple in its flag though which is what makes it so great in my book. I said earlier that orange was underutilized. Purple is REALLY underutilized because this is the only flag with purple in it. Hot take: more flags should include purple. It’s a great color. 

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how much you enjoyed reading this, I could probably do a part two to this article just with other flag opinions I have off the top of my head. With a bit of research on more regional flags I could certainly produce a part three or even part four. 

Thank you for listening to my opinions on flags. 

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