Loving Kindness

It’s a horrible flag. It’s been annoying me for years.

1. The North American Vexillogical Association graded 150 city flags in 2004. Baton Rouge got 3.95 out of 10. I’ve asked multiple graphic designers who’ve told me Baton Rouge’s flag is bad. It ignores basic design principles. It’s objectively horrible.

2. A flag is made up of symbols. For most good flags, you can draw them from memory (Ex. American, New Mexico, Chicago). Baton Rouge’s flag looks like a grade schooler’s PowerPoint slide. It’s slapped together. There’s too much going on and the layout is dumb.

3. It’s not a flag it’s a sign! When you put words on a flag, it’s not a flag anymore. It’s a sign. A flag should use symbols to represent a place. If a flag has to use letters to spell out the place it’s trying to represent, it’s a failure.

4. The crest is fine, except what is it doing on the flag? The crest probably looks good on the mayor’s letterhead, but it looks out of place on the flag. If you’re going to use the same symbols as the crest, they need to be tailored to the new format.

LSUTigersVCURams - You’re wrong. It’s not an exaggeration to say you’re unqualified to comment on anything related to design, style or aesthetics.

willymeaux - Thank you for raising this important issue.