[hookem]

I know the article says the current flag is basically a "crest on a sheet", and violates many standards of flag design... but hey, it's a city flag. People don't memorize city flags -- if there isn't something that stands out and says "hey, this is Austin"... people would have no idea what that flag represents. The crest and words "City of Austin" make it pretty clear. A new flag design like the one presented may have better design principles, but no one will know what it represents. Unless we spent millions promoting it to get some brand awareness.

Just about the only thing that would make a flag easily identifiable as "Austin" (that isn't something "relatively" short term in our history like a guitar or bat) would be the image of the Capitol building. The San Antonio flag has the Alamo, which serves the same purpose without the actual words "San Antonio" on it. So something like that could work, but otherwise, I'd say leave it the way it is. Or just add some color and leave the crest and "City of Austin".