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Colors and Flags

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The first tribands follow the dark-light-dark pattern - could it possibly be a matter of convention? The first tricolours - those of the Netherlands and France - follow this pattern, and the remainder could simply have found the symbolism and pattern attractive and followed suit?

There were good reasons for the earlier exceptions. The tricolour of Russia (on which of course, the flags of Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia etc are taken) was based on that of the Netherlands, but was made deliberately different (blue-white-red having been tried but found insufficiently distinctive). While the Miranda tricolour now used by Columbia, Ecuador and Venezuela was based on a symbolism which demanded the yellow-red-blue.

The order of colours in the black. red and gold of Germany, if we accept that it was based on the Freicorps uniform, was based of the importance of its elements. The majority of the greatcoat was black, with red facings and gilt buttons.

If it helps, visually speaking dark colours advance and light colours recede so that if two identical objects were set at the same distance from the viewer, the light-coloured object would appear larger than the dark. Or if you prefer, a room painted white looks larger than one painted in dark red.
Christopher Southworth, 6 September 2003

Regardless of the background, a white stripe seems "open", to me, and a dark one "closed". On a lighter background a light colour appears to flow out; on a darker background the background seems to flow in. Curiously, this is not true in reverse for a dark coloured edge; they more or less "bounce" against the background.

Following that impression, I'd say even a flag with one light stripe on the outside does feel l