Mohammed the Persian

Surely there must be a profession or something !

I mean, could we expect monarchs to have come up with flags themselves ?

For example (inspired by the recent English flag thread), what was the flag of England before St. George ? How was it selected ? Who selected it ?

This could vary from culture to culture but I'd like to know, who's the guy who chooses what's on their flag !

Nyneve

The White Dragon of Wessex was used by the English monarchs as their standard before 1066. St George's cross was later adopted during the Crusades.

Baldtastic

I think flags are just 'imposed' by the rulers at a particular time. Im sure every flag has a story though.

Although not quite what you asked, in the UK there is the College of Arms and its their job to design and catalogue all the various Coat of Arms.

halomanuk

Aaah you beat me to it re the Crusades.
She is a clever girl is our Nyneve !!

Nyneve

Chookie

Not quite - this another of those anomalies where Scotland works differently.

Thegn Ansgar

I know there used to be a profession, since my mom used to make and design flags. Generally it involved making existing flags for clients, but occasionally there would be commissions to create original flags based on some certain design features (colours, things wanted on the flag by the client, etc.)

I don't remember all the details of it, since this is where she worked when I was really young. All I know is the company was somewhat large.

infestør

sometimes they are a result of design contests, such as the flag of the republic of cyprus.
most of the times, they are the revert back of the older flags. we see this nowadays with libya, syria, russia, georgia etc.

Pedro

Vexillography is the art of designing flags.
A Vexillographer is a designer of flags.

radomu

There are certain things that you should understand about national flags in general, and that they were generally representative of the dynasty that ruled the country before the rise of nationalism. In that sense, they weren't flags as we understand it now, even if a few of them survived out of the periods of feudalism into modern times: a lot of the two-colored flags of Europe, like the Scandinavian states, England, Scotland, and so on, are those that survived from pre-national times.

As for the rest of the world outside of Europe, most of them didn't have flags representing sovereign states. China or Japan didn't have one of any significance until the mid-19th century. Only those which had contact with Europe from an early stage, like the Turks, had something representative of the country.

As for the question of who designs them, I don't know.