Vexilolligy - The Various Flags of Stolzonia

Scan of the Hand-Drawn
Double Headed Eagle

This last week I spent primarily working on the design of the Imperial Flag of Stolzonia. After nearly giving up, an idea came to mind of how to properly design the Double Headed Eagle within Illustrator. I started with hand drawing the Eagle, and then scanning it onto the computer to trace it in illustrator, simply using the pencil tool so it would have a more 'natural' look to it, rather than being perfectly round and artificial looking. I eventually ended up completely re-designing the eagle in the centre of the flag, giving it a look heavily inspired by the double headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire.  I was highly satisfied with the end result, and also learned a few new tricks about Illustrator along the way as well.

Original Pixel Flag of the Empire of Stolzonia

Holy Roman Empire Eagle

New Version of the Imperial Stolzonian Flag
PNG created from Vector export in Illustrator

I also decided to re-create the flag of the Church of Stolzonia, which has a rather simple design, but wanted to make it into a Vector version as well. I also created several alternate colored versions of the Stolzonian Flag that represent the Five Branches of the Stolzonian Military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Homeland Defense, Logistics).

Civil Flag of Stolzonia

Flag of the Church of Stolzonia

Flag of the Imperial Army

Flag of the Imperial Navy

Flag of the Imperial Air Force

Flag of the Imperial Homeland Defense

Flag of Imperial Logistics

Vexillology - Research

I took this last week to do more in-depth research into flags, and what makes a "good" flag. Of all the nations in the world, there are only two instances in which multiple countries have identical flags, meaning that there are, in modern day, over 200 unique flags to represent the independent nations of the world. Add to that the number of flags that exist for sub-divisions, states, provinces, cities, counties, and the number skyrockets. However, when you go into these sub-divisions of nations the likelihood for a set of identical or very similar flags increases. Look at the US State Flags for instance:

Source: Wikipedia

Over half of these flags are simply a single colour background with the specific State's Seal on it, and maybe the name of the state under it, and most of those are also on a dark blue background as well, making the similarity even more. Many of these flags you probably cannot differentiate from the others without looking closely at them - to read the name off of the flag.

So, what makes a good flag then? Well its rather simple really. The best flags are unique, and also very easy to identify from a distance. A flag should pop out, you should be able to look at a flag and say "Ah yes, that is [country]," without having to sit and think if it is another country. Unfortunately that already is a common issue on the international level as well. A good example of several nations that have very similar flags would be the countries of Central America. To be specific: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua all have very similar flags: two blue stripes and one white stripe with some symbol in the middle. Obviously, a trained eye would be able to spot out the differences easily, but from a far distance and to an untrained eye they all appear very similar. These common flags are often a result of the nations all having a common cultural group, or common origin, like those central american nations previously listed.

That's about all for today. Progress on the Imperial Stolzonian flag has been halted indefinitely, as drawing a double-headed eagle has turned out to be much more complex than I had originally thought. In the meanwhile I decided to make a "coat-of-arms" style version of the Stolzonian Flag.

Vexillology - The Study of Flags - The Flag of Stolzonia

It's time for our final project, anything of our choosing that we are particularly interested in. For me? Vexillology and Vexillography, the study and design of flags. For a long time I have had a deep interest in the subject of flag design and finally have the opportunity to explore deeper into the subject. I will use this project not only to research and study existent flags, but also to create and design my own flags and logos for fictional countries and organizations, primarily using Adobe Illustrator.

The Flag of Stolzonia

The Kingdom Stolzonia is a fictional country that I created about a year ago. The country has a very strong Germanic influence and is lead by a Monarch who holds executive power and an elected legislative Council similar to the US Congress. I had originally created the flag using MS Paint, so it looked very pixelated and blocky even seeing it from a distance. The design however I liked very much, and decided that I wanted to create a vector graphic version of the same flag.

Original png of the Stolzonian Flag

Most of the design of the flag was simple shapes, rectangles and one circle. The Cross in the centre soon brought up difficulties however. It took some time for me to figure out the issue and after searching around online I discovered an explanation of how exactly to get what I needed. Using the pen tool and it's ability to make curves I was able to make the nice, smooth and geometric curve that I needed to make the desired shape. The flag ended up coming out perfectly and I am highly satisfied with the result.

New Enhanced, Vector-Based Flag

What's Next?

Later on in the history of Stolzonia, the government became an Imperial government, with a much more complicated flag. I hope to create a smooth vector graphic version of this flag next, with the much more complicated symbol of the Double Headed Eagle in the centre.

Original of the Imperial Flag