Boston’s flag is good, but not great. It placed pretty badly in the North American Vexillological Association’s ranking of city flags, but I don’t think it is all that bad (it seems NAVA doesn’t have the survey on their site any more, a pity). The sky blue, gold and white are iconic, becoming especially connected with the city after the Marathon bombings, as they are the same colors that the BAA uses, and that so many Boston Strong buttons used.
But it violates all sorts of vexillological rules. Don’t use a seal that is designed to be read up close. Don’t use writing. Don’t use complicated drawings.
So I got to playing around with the Boston flag. I used the one above as a base, and for simplicity’s sake used the colors there. NAVA recently put out a guide to best practice, and I think it is a good start, and I more or less played along. I went through a lot of variations, some of my favorite follow. I’m not sure which I like the best, please let me know what you think! Continue reading