National flags with red, white and black
Trinidad and Tobago
A black diagonal band cuts across a red field, running from the upper hoist to the lower fly. Thin white borders separate the black from the red. This island country lies in the Caribbean Sea. Its flag uses the same three colors as Yemen’s, but the diagonal makes the two easy to tell apart.
Yemen
Yemen uses three equal horizontal bands: red at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom. There is no central emblem on the national flag. The Yemeni embassy’s flag description confirms that color order.
City, state and regional flags
Amsterdam
Three white X-shaped crosses sit across a black middle band. Red bands run above and below it. These are St Andrew’s crosses, the familiar symbols also used in Amsterdam’s arms.
Berlin
A black bear stands in a broad white middle band, between narrower red bands. Its red tongue and claws repeat the color at the edges. The bear is slightly toward the hoist, rather than perfectly centered.
Berlin is both Germany’s capital and a city-state. Its state flag is different from Germany’s national tricolor, shown farther down.
La Masó
La Masó is a municipality in Alt Camp, Catalonia. Its flag places a red cross with flared arms on white. A small black building, called a domus in the heraldic description, occupies the upper hoist corner. The cross reaches the edges, while the building stays within one white quarter.
Limousin
Black ermine motifs repeat across a white field inside a red border. This is the heraldic banner associated with Limousin, a historic region of France. Limousin’s former administrative region is now part of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Minas Gerais
The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais uses a red triangle on white. Black letters around the triangle spell Libertas quae sera tamen, usually translated as freedom, even if late. The triangle and lettering leave most of the white field open. The present design was established in 1963. It is a state flag, not Brazil’s national flag.
Puigpelat
Puigpelat, another municipality in Alt Camp, arranges its colors in five horizontal bands. From top to bottom:
- A narrow white band
- A black band
- A broad red middle band with a white Maltese cross
- A second black band
- A narrow white band
The bands have different widths. The municipal flag resolution gives the red middle section the most space.
Sardinia
Sardinia’s Four Moors flag has a red cross on white, with a black head in each quarter. On the current regional flag, the four heads face away from the hoist and wear white bands across their foreheads. White remains visible both behind the heads and in the small forehead bands, as shown in the regional flag description.
Udmurtia
Read the flag of Udmurtia, a republic within Russia, from the hoist: black, white, then red. These are three equal vertical bands. An eight-pointed red solar symbol sits in the white middle band without touching either neighboring color. The flag law calls the central emblem a solar sign. Its red shape stands apart from the broad red band beside it.
Germany and Georgia: current colors and historical context
Germany’s historical tricolor belongs to this palette. Its current flag and Georgia’s five-cross flag use different color combinations.
Germany
Today, Germany uses black, red and gold, from top to bottom. That is the flag pictured here. The bottom band is gold, not white.
Black, white and red belong to a different period: Imperial Germany used that historical tricolor. The Bundestag’s flag history separates it from the current federal flag.
Georgia
Georgia’s current national flag has one large red cross and four smaller red crosses on white. There is no black in this design. The national flag law describes the five-cross arrangement. For more examples using that two-color combination, see our red and white flag guide.
Compare the layout, not just the colors
For a quick match, look at the direction of the bands first. Then check for a cross, an animal or lettering. Yemen’s plain horizontal tricolor is very different from Udmurtia’s vertical bands and solar sign, even though the palette is the same.
For your own flag sketch, you can arrange shapes in canva. Keep white borders wide enough to remain visible when the drawing is small.
Related articles: Blue and White Flag, Red, White And Blue Flags.