Making Fictional Flags
- Thread starter amadeus
- Start date
People's Republic of Iraq
Backstory:
In 1973, negotiations between Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Iraqi Communist Party leader Aziz Muhammad fall through. With Soviet backing, on August 6th, 1973, the ICP stages a coup and ousts the Ba'athist Party.
The black and green colors are taken from Iraq's 1959 republican flag, but I rearranged them because I thought this looked neater.
Backstory:
In 1973, negotiations between Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Iraqi Communist Party leader Aziz Muhammad fall through. With Soviet backing, on August 6th, 1973, the ICP stages a coup and ousts the Ba'athist Party.
The black and green colors are taken from Iraq's 1959 republican flag, but I rearranged them because I thought this looked neater.
Republic of Nyasaland
Backstory:
Not much of a backstory on this one other than the name; Hastings Banda saw the name Malawi printed on an old French map and that's why the country's name was changed from Nyasaland to Malawi on independence in 1964.
The design elements were taken from this Nyasaland flag supposedly used from 1925. Flags of the World shows a slightly different color scheme and date. I actually happen to like the FOTW color scheme better and I may redo this one as the green-white-blue colors come close to looking like Sierra Leone.
Credit to Fry1989 on Wikipedia for the high-quality image.
Backstory:
Not much of a backstory on this one other than the name; Hastings Banda saw the name Malawi printed on an old French map and that's why the country's name was changed from Nyasaland to Malawi on independence in 1964.
The design elements were taken from this Nyasaland flag supposedly used from 1925. Flags of the World shows a slightly different color scheme and date. I actually happen to like the FOTW color scheme better and I may redo this one as the green-white-blue colors come close to looking like Sierra Leone.
Credit to Fry1989 on Wikipedia for the high-quality image.
Third Spanish Republic (in exile)
Backstory:
After the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) remains loyal to the Republican government and the Republicans hold the territory until the end of the war.
From 1939 on, the Republicans flee to the territory in the hopes of one day returning to the Fatherland. Franco wants to reclaim the territory, but also is happy to see the most fierce opponents of his regime thousands of miles away. Also, the Republicans remain armed on the island and committed to its defense. Franco loses even more interest in the colony after 1945, when his government is trying to court the Western Allies against the growing threat of Soviet communism in Europe. The "questionable" loyalty of any Republican government in Spain in fighting communism gives Franco a diplomatic boost among the newly-formed NATO alliance.
By 1949, the idea of Republicans returning to Spain to fight Franco is all but laughable; Franco is close to NATO though not an official member and the Francoist economy is back on the mend. With this in mind, President Barrio declares in Bata the birth of the Third Spanish Republic. This is marked by a change in official policy by where the government would no longer support a military attempt to retake Spain proper.
While Western powers are somewhat sympathetic to the holdout Republicans, the immediate concerns of the Cold War (commies!) mean that the Barrio Republic is given an equally cold shoulder. Despite suspicions from some in the West, the country is decidedly not governed by communists or anarchists, most of who have long since left on a voluntary basis to the Soviet Union or Mexico.
By 1955, the Third Spanish Republic is a functioning but poor country that is only recognized officially by Mexico and Yugoslavia. The 1949 Constitution also granted Africans the right to vote, though tensions remain high between the relatively well-off Spanish exiles and the indigenous Africans.
Design: I took elements from the flag of the Second Spanish Republic and the coat of arms from Spanish Guinea. Credit to Wikipedia user Heralder for high-quality images.
Backstory:
After the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) remains loyal to the Republican government and the Republicans hold the territory until the end of the war.
From 1939 on, the Republicans flee to the territory in the hopes of one day returning to the Fatherland. Franco wants to reclaim the territory, but also is happy to see the most fierce opponents of his regime thousands of miles away. Also, the Republicans remain armed on the island and committed to its defense. Franco loses even more interest in the colony after 1945, when his government is trying to court the Western Allies against the growing threat of Soviet communism in Europe. The "questionable" loyalty of any Republican government in Spain in fighting communism gives Franco a diplomatic boost among the newly-formed NATO alliance.
By 1949, the idea of Republicans returning to Spain to fight Franco is all but laughable; Franco is close to NATO though not an official member and the Francoist economy is back on the mend. With this in mind, President Barrio declares in Bata the birth of the Third Spanish Republic. This is marked by a change in official policy by where the government would no longer support a military attempt to retake Spain proper.
While Western powers are somewhat sympathetic to the holdout Republicans, the immediate concerns of the Cold War (commies!) mean that the Barrio Republic is given an equally cold shoulder. Despite suspicions from some in the West, the country is decidedly not governed by communists or anarchists, most of who have long since left on a voluntary basis to the Soviet Union or Mexico.
By 1955, the Third Spanish Republic is a functioning but poor country that is only recognized officially by Mexico and Yugoslavia. The 1949 Constitution also granted Africans the right to vote, though tensions remain high between the relatively well-off Spanish exiles and the indigenous Africans.
Design: I took elements from the flag of the Second Spanish Republic and the coat of arms from Spanish Guinea. Credit to Wikipedia user Heralder for high-quality images.
United States of Mexico
Backstory:
After occupying Mexico City, President James K. Polk issues a directive to dissolve the entire Mexican government and replace it with one similar to that of the United States.
I don't know anything about the history of the Mexican-American war and the political dealings behind it, so don't let the possible lack of plausibility deter from what was my intent to make a fictional flag.
Design elements are taken from the U.S. flag; the 32 stars represent Mexico's 32 states. The 11 stripes are for the 11 years of the Mexican war of independence. The eagle on the flag is modified from the real Mexican coat of arms. Colors taken from the current Mexican flag.
Backstory:
After occupying Mexico City, President James K. Polk issues a directive to dissolve the entire Mexican government and replace it with one similar to that of the United States.
I don't know anything about the history of the Mexican-American war and the political dealings behind it, so don't let the possible lack of plausibility deter from what was my intent to make a fictional flag.
Design elements are taken from the U.S. flag; the 32 stars represent Mexico's 32 states. The 11 stripes are for the 11 years of the Mexican war of independence. The eagle on the flag is modified from the real Mexican coat of arms. Colors taken from the current Mexican flag.
...which is funny cos they're already really similar. Federal system, strong-presidency republic, judiciary nominated by the president and approved by the senate, and it's even already called los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
@Arwon, I did look that up and technically the name “United Mexican States” is not the same as the “United States of Mexico.” 
The “background” section is not meant to be judged on its plausibility, though I try to keep it within reasonable limits. Some people write alt-histories of Nazis escaping to Brazil and making it the Fourth Reich, etc. and all of that is just a little too much for me. I’d rather keep it in the scope of “something like this could have happened.”
19th century imperialism and Cold War coups and insurgency movements, those are fair game. Sometimes the real history is more bizarre than fiction.
I’ve got a few concepts I’m doing light research on, and I’ll have those coming tonight (Japan time!)
The “background” section is not meant to be judged on its plausibility, though I try to keep it within reasonable limits. Some people write alt-histories of Nazis escaping to Brazil and making it the Fourth Reich, etc. and all of that is just a little too much for me. I’d rather keep it in the scope of “something like this could have happened.”
19th century imperialism and Cold War coups and insurgency movements, those are fair game. Sometimes the real history is more bizarre than fiction.
I’ve got a few concepts I’m doing light research on, and I’ll have those coming tonight (Japan time!)
Lusotropical Republic of Mozambique
Backstory:
It's two in the morning here and I'm tired.
Mozambique becomes independent and voila they're pro-West, pro-Portugal for some reason. Blue color comes from the flag of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerilla group and political party. Red-black-green from a set of pan-African colors. The symbol is a combination of a modified Portuguese armillary sphere and the coat of arms of Portuguese Mozambique. I was going to make the blue semi-circle a triangle, but I thought it would too closely resemble South Africa.
Backstory:
It's two in the morning here and I'm tired.
Mozambique becomes independent and voila they're pro-West, pro-Portugal for some reason. Blue color comes from the flag of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerilla group and political party. Red-black-green from a set of pan-African colors. The symbol is a combination of a modified Portuguese armillary sphere and the coat of arms of Portuguese Mozambique. I was going to make the blue semi-circle a triangle, but I thought it would too closely resemble South Africa.
Timsup2nothin
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H4run
Deity
Come on Tim! Your avatar already look kind a flaggy, it's similar to Japanese Imperial Flag but in a cheerful hippie way, but the cop over-there ruined the good mood, like every cop. Judging by that alone I think you can draw a nice flag.
Timsup2nothin
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Trump United States of Trump America
Backstory:
President Trump redesigns the flag of the United States after rebranding it. There are 45 T's because he's the 45th President and he puts T on everything. Everything is gold and platinum because it's Donald Trump. There are also eight stripes, one for each year of his time in office.
I'm assuming people have seen this? It's 18 minutes of your life. I've spread it around my friend circles, because I'm so glad I watched it. And they all agreed. I had pretty deep buy-in, and everyone agreed it was worth 18 minutes
Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed | Roman Mars
Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed | Roman Mars
Timsup2nothin
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Cities have flags? My city doesn't have a flag. Are we being cheated?
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
My city doesn't have one either, but it's too small. A larger city nearby (50,000+) has one, which they thankfully redesigned two years ago. Previouslly it was just the city seal on a blue background. I'd rather have no flag than that awful thing.
Now if only they could change the state flag....
Let's try...
Flag of the German Federation.
What if we didn't have a federal republic, but a federation?
Flag is quite obviously based on the EU flag, but it has 16 stars, for the 16 states.
The colours are also obviously the traditional German colours black, red and yellow. More traditional is black, red, white, but you know, wrong associations there. I also considered making a sphere around the stars, but same issue, especially if you make the background red.
Initially I had the stars yellow (duh), and the background black and red, but this somehow gives a very communist vibe. And didn't want to make the stars red.
This somehow looks more like South American banana republic, but hey, whatever.
Flag of the German Federation.
What if we didn't have a federal republic, but a federation?
Flag is quite obviously based on the EU flag, but it has 16 stars, for the 16 states.
The colours are also obviously the traditional German colours black, red and yellow. More traditional is black, red, white, but you know, wrong associations there. I also considered making a sphere around the stars, but same issue, especially if you make the background red.
Initially I had the stars yellow (duh), and the background black and red, but this somehow gives a very communist vibe. And didn't want to make the stars red.
This somehow looks more like South American banana republic, but hey, whatever.
H4run
Deity
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