The Vexil guide

What Vexil is

Most flag tools are a blank canvas: they let you drop any photo, gradient, logo or block of text onto a rectangle, which is exactly how the internet ends up full of cluttered, unreadable flags. Vexil is the opposite. It is a rules engine built around the NAVA “Good Flag, Bad Flag” principles — the five design rules real vexillologists judge flags by. Because those rules are enforced in code rather than left to taste, every flag you generate comes out simple, legible and drawable from memory. The other half of the product is the meaning-key: a decoded legend beside the flag that captions the field division, each colour and the charge, and maps them back to the choices you made. That is what turns a nice graphic into an identity object a stranger can actually read.

How to make your flag

It takes about fifteen seconds. First, type a name or house — this rides on the caption, never on the flag itself, because good flags carry no lettering. Next, pick three things you stand for from the curated word set; these become the symbolic backbone of the design and every one of them shows up later in the meaning-key. Then choose one charge — a single clean, abstract symbol from a safe library — and a palette family, which pairs a colour with a metal so the contrast between adjacent parts is guaranteed to pass. When all four are set, press Raise my flag. The flag runs up the mast and unfurls, then hands you the finished ensign next to its decoded meaning-key. From there you can Reroll for a fresh composition of the same inputs, Share a link that previews your exact flag, Download the card, or Make another from scratch. Every shared link opens on the flag it points to, with a prominent prompt to make your own.

Choosing your charge

The charge is the single symbol at the heart of the flag, and it is the choice people agonise over longest, so it is worth knowing what is on the shelf. The library is deliberately small and deliberately abstract — sixteen original shapes, each one flat, symmetrical enough to sit centred in its field, and simple enough to redraw from memory. Roughly, they fall into four moods. Sky and bearing: the mullet (a five-pointed star), the sun, the compass rose and the crescent — for pointing somewhere, or for patience. Land and growth: the mountain, the tree and the wave. Making and holding: the anvil, the key, the annulet (a plain unbroken ring) and the anchor. Going and gathering: the bird, the sail, the bridge, the flame and the chevron. None of them is a real country’s emblem, a badge or a logo; they are drawn for this tool, which is why your flag can be shared without a licence worry. Whichever you pick, the meaning-key captions it in plain language, so the charge does not have to be self-explanatory — it only has to feel like yours.

Six honest tips

1. Pick values you’d actually explain. The meaning-key reads them back to a stranger, so “protect / build / wander” makes a better story than three near-synonyms.
2. Let the palette do the contrast. The families pair a colour with a metal on purpose; you don’t need to fight for legibility, so choose the mood you like and trust the guard.
3. Reroll before you rewrite. Same inputs, different layout — a couple of rerolls often lands a stronger composition without touching your choices.
4. One charge is the whole point. Resist wanting more symbols; the single clean charge is what keeps the flag readable at a glance and drawable from memory.
5. Read the key out loud. If the decoded legend sounds like you, you’ve got a keeper; if it doesn’t, swap one value and raise again.
6. Share the link, not a screenshot. The link previews the real flag and lets whoever sees it make their own — that’s the fun, and the flag stays crisp.