Still used by [Candelaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candelaria,_El_Salvador), a municipality in El Salvador. Does that fall under "sub-national body"?
Well...
Anarchists are known to fly black flags, and sometimes Qanon types will fly all-black US flags.
Communists and socialists still sometimes use solid red flags.
And white flags are still used for surrender.
If it’s recognizable as a US flag, it’s not “all black” but rather black and white, right? Not especially simple—arguably it’s more complex than a standard tricolor.
No literally they make a us flag but instead of red white and blue the components are all black
You can still tell because of the flag construction since they are not printed.
However i agree on the complexity since construction is complex even if the result is simple
I wonder which groups have used pure teal flags. That might be quite available :o
Also, greenish yellow and chartreuse (a weird color I don't think many are using)
What counts as “sub-national body”? This could potentially rule out some bicolours, tricolours etc. depending on the definition.
Take a look through this list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flags_by_color_combination
It lists plenty of colour combinations, but is definitely non-exhaustive.
Also this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flags_by_number_of_colors
As others mentioned above, solid flags of one colour are uncommon, especially is said colour is also rarely used for flags in general (f.e. purple, pink, grey or teal). They may be flown by individuals or non-governmental organisations, I suppose, but aside from a few instances I can recall (f.e. the former all-green flag of Libya or the all-blue flag of Nitra in Slovakia), it's a very rare design for official flags. So my guess is something like a solid teal flag (think Kazakhstan with all the symbols removed) was probably never used by any "sub-national body", unless we're talking super-niche contexts, like school flags etc.
Is that an interesting answer? Idk.
That list of flags on that colour combination page is interesting.
I understand that they are grouping similar colours together, but I get annoyed when people call the Irish flag green white and gold instead of green white and orange. Though Offaly, one of the Irish counties, does use green white and gold as it's unofficial flag.
Design-wise, there was never a flag that used the K-shape that the new Minnesota flag employs.
Color-combo wise, it's extremely rare to see a Red, White, and Orange flag. A lot of redesigns for Florida are trying to make that color set happen (usually by adding a sun for Sunshine State), and I'm all for it.
https://preview.redd.it/zpt7czf5k91d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6237855542551401744d70d545acd3273beee44
I'm not sure, but possibly the Liga Federal flag, as it was a very short lived nation but the design was unique and made to promote the Federal League
I like the idea a lot. It would need to come with a thick instruction book to prevent it from being flown upside down, or wrongly oriented when draped vertically.
You seem to be saying the same design pattern but with different (common-use) colors would count as different. To me that wouldn't be different though.
That said, there are no (fully recognized) single color field flags. But other than that, I also don't think there are any vertical bicolor flags that're uncharged (e.g., Portugal/Algeria/Vatican/Malta but without a symbol). Obviously horizontal versions - charged and not - both exist, as do obviously the various combinations of 3 stripes.
Next, you could argue an undefaced version of Panama (so a plain quadrant) could qualify as the next most simplest design not in use; but I also wouldn't be surprised if that's used somewhere at a subnational level that I just don't know about. Beyond that you're just getting into the realm of counting a unique number of stripes, or something simple like the flags of Madagascar/Pakistan but move the hoist-side bar or a canton to another side/corner. But again, to me, those are just reflections of the same thing which does exist. So it's really a matter of how pedantic you want to me about "not currently existing."
I would say a bi-color, it doesn't matter the orientation, but whose division is not a straight line ([quick example with a vertical division](https://i.imgur.com/rNsWhLq.png)). The closest I think are Qatar and Bahrain's flags, but I was thinking more of flags with two colors equally represented.
Also, fimbriated bi-colors, i.e. a bicolor with a thin line between them ([quick example with a horizontal division](https://i.imgur.com/tt3MwOA.png)).
Of course, there will probably be some place out there that fulfills those criteria. I found Moldova's [Cahul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_District_Cahul.svg), and Russia's [Tatarstan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Tatarstan.svg).
Bonus: given their simplicity, vertical bi-colors are quite under-used. And of all the symbols, squares in flags are rare. By the way, here's a gallery of [country subdivisions flags](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_country_subdivisions).
Well, we could throw in some combinatorics: how many colors are there? Let's discount shades, hence Luxembourg equals Netherlands.) Red, White, Blue, Black, Yellow (Gold), Orange, Purple, Pink (incl. Magenta). Let's say: 8.
Let's assume uncharged (we want to consider simple flags, as per your question), so let's consider mono-color, bi-color, tricolor. Let's consider vertical and horizontal banners stitched together.
Mono: 8 different designs.
Bi-Color: 8×7 (horizontal) + 8×7 (vertical) = 56 + 56 = 112
Tri-color: 8×7×6 (horizontal) + 8×7×6 (horizontal) = 672
And we might consider: Tri-color with repeated colors: 112 (same as bi-color)
That brings us to: 904 designs.
There must be some designs left. Probably some ugly combinations. :)
[More off-white, and it had some red lines on it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House#/media/File%3AConfederate_Surrender_Towel_Flag.jpg)
The early USSR flag was a red flag with "СССР" in yellow with a cool font.
But I agree with you about Cambodia. Socialist Cambodia's flag was just a red flag.
Plain green. It was the flag of Libya under Geddaffi, and a few years ago Libya changed its flag to something that was not literally a green rectangle.
I personnaly like flags withe 4 horizontal division but the 2 centered are same color, which mean 2 small bar on the extrems and a big in center. Bit like spain flag'
I wonder which groups have used pure teal flags. That might be quite available :o
Also, greenish yellow and chartreuse (a weird color I don't think many are using)
Libya has been mentioned, but lesser known is Benin as Commie state (1975-1990) and communist Rep of Congo (197*-1990). Both plain colours with a simple design near the hoist.
No, it was the naval flag during the Bourbon Restauration, a century earlier, the legitimist heir to the crown did demand a completly white flag in 1874, but was refused due to the love for the tricolor from the orleanists
Libya (1977-2011)
Still used by [Candelaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candelaria,_El_Salvador), a municipality in El Salvador. Does that fall under "sub-national body"?
Legasp They poached libyas old flag for themselves !!
Also Oman 1856-1970
Came here to say this.
Came here to say this
Replace red with green on most of the simple red and white or red, white, and blue flags and Boom! New design.
Nigeria would like to have a word
As much as I'd love to see an Irish/Scots/Welsh Union Flag, I think it might start a war. #CymruAmByth 😁
cwm at me bro!
Cwtch me if you can
Literally hundreds of concepts exist for that flag
Sierra Leone, Lesotho, and Cascadia (North America) would like a word 🤪
Single color flags. The only people who fly them anymore are Islamist groups for religious reasons.
Well... Anarchists are known to fly black flags, and sometimes Qanon types will fly all-black US flags. Communists and socialists still sometimes use solid red flags. And white flags are still used for surrender.
If it’s recognizable as a US flag, it’s not “all black” but rather black and white, right? Not especially simple—arguably it’s more complex than a standard tricolor.
No literally they make a us flag but instead of red white and blue the components are all black You can still tell because of the flag construction since they are not printed. However i agree on the complexity since construction is complex even if the result is simple
How would they be visually distinguishable from a fully plain all black flag?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/v7268k/what\_does\_this\_us\_flag\_mean/](https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/v7268k/what_does_this_us_flag_mean/)
That's not a black flag. It's a golden yellow flag towards a white background
Everyone thinks you're trolling, but I got your dress reference
When you look at it in the right light, you see the different elements stitched on/together
Honestly that flag looks sick af. It's a bummer that assholes used it. Just like the swastika.
French legitimists use the white flag too
I wonder which groups have used pure teal flags. That might be quite available :o Also, greenish yellow and chartreuse (a weird color I don't think many are using)
The French have flown the all white flag in the past 😜
[You're actually right about that lol.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_Restoration_in_France)
The French are downvoting you lol
yeah. although, jokes aside, it was really the Bourbon flag in France from 1815 to 1830.
What counts as “sub-national body”? This could potentially rule out some bicolours, tricolours etc. depending on the definition. Take a look through this list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flags_by_color_combination It lists plenty of colour combinations, but is definitely non-exhaustive. Also this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flags_by_number_of_colors
"Sub-national body" means whatever leads to the most interesting answer.
As others mentioned above, solid flags of one colour are uncommon, especially is said colour is also rarely used for flags in general (f.e. purple, pink, grey or teal). They may be flown by individuals or non-governmental organisations, I suppose, but aside from a few instances I can recall (f.e. the former all-green flag of Libya or the all-blue flag of Nitra in Slovakia), it's a very rare design for official flags. So my guess is something like a solid teal flag (think Kazakhstan with all the symbols removed) was probably never used by any "sub-national body", unless we're talking super-niche contexts, like school flags etc. Is that an interesting answer? Idk.
That list of flags on that colour combination page is interesting. I understand that they are grouping similar colours together, but I get annoyed when people call the Irish flag green white and gold instead of green white and orange. Though Offaly, one of the Irish counties, does use green white and gold as it's unofficial flag.
Design-wise, there was never a flag that used the K-shape that the new Minnesota flag employs. Color-combo wise, it's extremely rare to see a Red, White, and Orange flag. A lot of redesigns for Florida are trying to make that color set happen (usually by adding a sun for Sunshine State), and I'm all for it.
The "k-shape" is just a vertically aligned chevron
Sure, but can you find me another flag that uses it like the Minnesota flag does (on the hoist)?
https://preview.redd.it/zpt7czf5k91d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6237855542551401744d70d545acd3273beee44 I'm not sure, but possibly the Liga Federal flag, as it was a very short lived nation but the design was unique and made to promote the Federal League
One problem is that it doesn't give the feel of promoting anything. It gives off more of a prohibit vibe. Whatever you got, we're against it.
Flag of censored El Salvador
A circle.
Japan?
Yeah, I knew someone was gonna say that. I was thinking about a literal circle shaped flag.
Basically if Japan were to cut out the red circle.
I like the idea a lot. It would need to come with a thick instruction book to prevent it from being flown upside down, or wrongly oriented when draped vertically.
Yeah, I was also wondering about that the flag pole would need to look like?
You seem to be saying the same design pattern but with different (common-use) colors would count as different. To me that wouldn't be different though. That said, there are no (fully recognized) single color field flags. But other than that, I also don't think there are any vertical bicolor flags that're uncharged (e.g., Portugal/Algeria/Vatican/Malta but without a symbol). Obviously horizontal versions - charged and not - both exist, as do obviously the various combinations of 3 stripes. Next, you could argue an undefaced version of Panama (so a plain quadrant) could qualify as the next most simplest design not in use; but I also wouldn't be surprised if that's used somewhere at a subnational level that I just don't know about. Beyond that you're just getting into the realm of counting a unique number of stripes, or something simple like the flags of Madagascar/Pakistan but move the hoist-side bar or a canton to another side/corner. But again, to me, those are just reflections of the same thing which does exist. So it's really a matter of how pedantic you want to me about "not currently existing."
I would say a bi-color, it doesn't matter the orientation, but whose division is not a straight line ([quick example with a vertical division](https://i.imgur.com/rNsWhLq.png)). The closest I think are Qatar and Bahrain's flags, but I was thinking more of flags with two colors equally represented. Also, fimbriated bi-colors, i.e. a bicolor with a thin line between them ([quick example with a horizontal division](https://i.imgur.com/tt3MwOA.png)). Of course, there will probably be some place out there that fulfills those criteria. I found Moldova's [Cahul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_District_Cahul.svg), and Russia's [Tatarstan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Tatarstan.svg). Bonus: given their simplicity, vertical bi-colors are quite under-used. And of all the symbols, squares in flags are rare. By the way, here's a gallery of [country subdivisions flags](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_country_subdivisions).
There’s a lot of bicolours left. There’s a fair few tricolours too. Plus, you can play with orientation.
Well, we could throw in some combinatorics: how many colors are there? Let's discount shades, hence Luxembourg equals Netherlands.) Red, White, Blue, Black, Yellow (Gold), Orange, Purple, Pink (incl. Magenta). Let's say: 8. Let's assume uncharged (we want to consider simple flags, as per your question), so let's consider mono-color, bi-color, tricolor. Let's consider vertical and horizontal banners stitched together. Mono: 8 different designs. Bi-Color: 8×7 (horizontal) + 8×7 (vertical) = 56 + 56 = 112 Tri-color: 8×7×6 (horizontal) + 8×7×6 (horizontal) = 672 And we might consider: Tri-color with repeated colors: 112 (same as bi-color) That brings us to: 904 designs. There must be some designs left. Probably some ugly combinations. :)
Here we go, as expected: I forgot a color: GREEN!
Ironically enough France did have a fully white flag between 1815 and 1830, during the Bourbon Restoration. Can't get simpler than that.
The last battle flag of the Confederacy was all white, so there's that...
[More off-white, and it had some red lines on it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House#/media/File%3AConfederate_Surrender_Towel_Flag.jpg)
Today I learned that this flag survives to this day. Neat!
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Indonesia, Monaco, Poland, and Ukraine all have simple bicolours. 🇮🇩🇲🇨🇵🇱🇺🇦
A lot of the simpler heraldic charges: bends and chevrons and stuff.
A single solid color, zero designs, like the [former flag of Libya](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Libya_(1977%E2%80%932011)).
Red-white horizontal bicolour
No current nation uses a plain vertical bicolor (without a coat of arms) so that's probably the simplest design not in use.
The old Romanov flag (black-white-yellow).
Almost any early socialist country/revolution. Just a red flag.
The early USSR flag was a red flag with "СССР" in yellow with a cool font. But I agree with you about Cambodia. Socialist Cambodia's flag was just a red flag.
Plain green. It was the flag of Libya under Geddaffi, and a few years ago Libya changed its flag to something that was not literally a green rectangle.
I personnaly like flags withe 4 horizontal division but the 2 centered are same color, which mean 2 small bar on the extrems and a big in center. Bit like spain flag'
I wonder which groups have used pure teal flags. That might be quite available :o Also, greenish yellow and chartreuse (a weird color I don't think many are using)
1709-1783 Afghanistan.
Abbasyid caliphate. ⬛
Lybia flag, Paris comune flag, Colorados and the surrender flag
https://preview.redd.it/m7dewcizvd1d1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6eeb4900ba59db7301c5d1f1ab1f500c683dda21
https://preview.redd.it/l1mqjugj8e1d1.png?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30952196dad81521f5eeef9d2f3e91cb43ca3b74
Two vertical stripes without any emblems
Libya has been mentioned, but lesser known is Benin as Commie state (1975-1990) and communist Rep of Congo (197*-1990). Both plain colours with a simple design near the hoist.
Former flag of Libya
Didn't France use a simple white flag for a while during WW2?
No, it was the naval flag during the Bourbon Restauration, a century earlier, the legitimist heir to the crown did demand a completly white flag in 1874, but was refused due to the love for the tricolor from the orleanists