Texans love their flags. From the Six Flags of Texas to the battle flags of the Texas War for Independence. As a Texan and a graphic designer, I particularly have a fondness for flags. In fact, I have a flag crush on the city of Chicago’s and District of Columbia’s. I honestly thought I could hide my shame of my adopted hometown of Austin’s flag, but it’s awful. To make matters worse, it got called to the carpet by Roman Mars in his TED talk “Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed” as an example of one of the worst city flags in the country. If we are on the way to being a true international city, it’s time that we graduate from provincial flag to international flag status.

Why is the Austin flag so bad? Roman Mars referred to it as an “SOS” or a “Shield on a Sheet” and that is just the start. The North American Vexilogical Association has laid out guidelines for what makes a good flag, and Austin violates almost all of them.

NAVA Five Basic Principles of Flag Design

Mr. Mars gave a great example of how a city burdened with a seal on a sheet can update their flag. Amsterdam has a great flag based on their Coat of Arms. They simply took the crest, stripped it of its heraldry and put it on a flag — an idea, among many, I thought was worth exploring.

Following Amsterdam’s lead and rotating our shield, we see a shape that is in conflict with NAVA’s 5th principle (Be distinctive). With respect to Puerto Rico, more exploration is needed.

Turning focus away from the entire shield to just the red and white stripes, again we impede on Principle 5. Again, out of respect to the Austrian flag, Austin’s flag will have to be something else.

Continuing to explore shapes within the flag, the inverted triangle looks interesting. It might have been a good flag twenty years ago, today it is just the Gmail logo.

Zooming into the to the right-hand corner we find a great shape. An added bonus, it starts to look like a cousin the to Texas flag. This is the right form for Austin.

The rest of the city’s crest is still under-represented on the new flag. I think the remaining elements can be sprinkled in to add some true distinction and get rid of the hodgepodge that our flag suffers from.

The Lamp of Knowledge that represents our city’s outstanding educational history and the Capitol to represent us as the state’s seat of power are both good symbols of the city. The elements from Stephen F. Austin’s family crest are important, but can get really fussy — maybe we can represent him in a better way and simplify the flag in the process.

If it where up to a cartographer to symbolize a Capitol on a map they would almost always go with a star. (Good enough for cartography, good enough for Austin’s flag.) Out with the silhouette of the Capitol, in with its own Lone Star.

Though The Lamp of Knowledge is a bit turn of the century, it’s still a great concept. I think we can stylize it some and fold the flame into our star. This will bring a unique quality to our Austin flag’s star apart from the Texas flag’s Lone Star.

The cross and wings from Mr. Austin’s family crest are a nice thought, but ultimately adds clutter. I propose we borrow the official blue of Mr. Austin’s familial homeland flag of Scotland and borrow a little white from the St. Andrew’s cross that adorns the same flag. I think this nods to Mr. Austin and his family crest nicely, and cleans up our flag.

Lastly, combining our new Flame of Knowledge with the star and Mr. Austin’s hints of his Scotish homeland all on a field of the Texas flag red, we have a new city flag.

How will it measure up? I think it scores pretty well according to the International Flag Design Guidelines. Let me know what you think. Is it time for this new Austin flag?

Finally, how will it look around town?