Italian and Mexican flags

It is a common design mistake to create a Mexican Flag placing the Mexican Coat of Arms in the center of the white stripe of an Italian Flag. Most people think that this is the only difference between the two flags as both are a rectangular design divided by three rectangles, from left to right: green, white and red. But, why is this a mistake? Well, there is a subtle difference between these two flags, its size and proportion are not equal!

First of all, Sofia and I got a couple of Italian flags, but we decided to keep one in original state and convert the other one into a Mexican flag.

So, both of this flags began as Italian flags, but for our surprise both were ‘Made in China’.

Ok, so this is the Italian flag. From left to right you can see the only thing missing here to make a Mexican flag is a Mexican Coat of Arms.

I have placed a Mexican Coat of Arms digitally on this picture. If you know the Mexican flag as I do, you can immediately say that something is wrong… something is out of order.

Now, take a look at the next picture. Is the same flag as before but with some drastic changes, I ripped off some extra fabric from below and …

Now take a look to the ‘new’ flag with the Mexican Coat of Arms. Can you tell the difference between this flag and the last one with the same Coat of Arms?

Well as you can see the difference is more than a Coat of Arms. The Italian Flag has a size proportion of 3/2, this means that for every 3 cms. you take to the right you MUST take other 2 to the bottom. Mexican flag instead has a size proportion of 7/4, this means that for every 7 cms. you take to the right you MUST take 4 to the bottom.

So, the Italian flag looks a little bit ‘taller’ next to the Mexican flag only if BOTH share the same width just like in the next picture. On the contrary, if both flags share the same height, Mexican flag will look larger than the Italian flag.

The next is an animation that shows graphically the size differences between the Mexican and Italian flag.

Another topic of differences among the two flags are colors. Italian flag uses lighter shades of green and red on it’s flag. As of 2010 the original shades of both flags according to Wikipedia are:

Mexican flag

Italian flag

As you can see there are more subtle differences than you thought of.