For a while, I have been very interested in designing flags. My first designs were... um... not great (I don't think there was a single vexillology [study of flags] rule that I DIDN'T break). However, I continued to work on designs. For a future project, I worked on designing three flags for entities in a fictional universe. This universe would be a science fantasy space opera. 

While I started work on the designs of these flags several years ago, I began more focused work several months ago. I first started with a short description of each of the entities including a short bit of lore, characteristics, and planned color scheme. I also read about vexillology in order to comply with the rules and make sure the design worked.

After coming up with a handful of thumbnail sketches, I moved my work into Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. In Photoshop, I began to work out the colors I wanted the flags to be.

In Illustrator, I began to refine some of the thumbnail sketches that I created. I tested different color schemes and made small adjustments to each design to see what worked.

Eventually, I choose the best designs and exported the finalized designs.

This is the flag of the Coalition. In universe, they were a military alliance made up of three worlds. The stars represent each of the founding worlds. The regular 5-point star is to be avoided when designing  flags as it is considered over used. However, I feel this use of the ordinary stars works since the Coalition was created in haste. Also, the added detail of the black shapes, similar to that of a compass design, gives enough of a difference. The light blue background was chosen to remind the viewer of the color of the United Nations flag. However, I made the color off as a lighter blue to reflect the cowardliness of the Coalition.

The Federation was formed after the collapse of the Coalition. Similarly to the light blue in the Coalition flag, the blue in the Federation flag is based off of a real world flag. In this case, that flag is that of NATO. Again, I use a different shade in order to create a "familiar yet different" feel. The three spheres in the right hand corner represent the three worlds of the former Coalition. The larger sphere (former from the crescent and dark grey space taken from the diagonal) represents the dying world the Federation would attempt to rescue.

The villainous Imperial Legion flag takes heavy inspiration from the flag of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. The "star" in the center represents the designated home world of humanity. While the original red coloration of the real world flag is bold, it is to well known and it may be too jarring. I felt a more dull red representing blood would differentiate the flag.

After exporting the designs, I took the flags into the 3D software Blender to see how the flags work in a cloth and wind simulation as a final test. This was in order to make sure the flags remained recognizable while waving in the wind. Using an online tutorial to quickly get the simulation working, I came up with this:

I feel I have come a long way since my first flag designs. While I do wonder if the colors in the Federation flag are too close in shade, I am proud of the final designs. I finished off by uploading the designs to my personal art page.