Let’s take a closer look at the current Los Angeles flag.

The five basic design principles of a good flag, as outlined by Ted Kaye, esteemed vexillologist and author of Good Flag, Bad Flag, are as follows:

Keep it simple. Use meaningful symbolism. Use two to three basic colors. No lettering or seals. Be distinctive or be relative.

At best, one could maintain that the Los Angeles flag breaks three of these five basic rules. We’d argue, however, that it violates all five principles:

1. Keep it simple

“The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.”

The municipal seal prominently featured in the center of the flag is complicated, intricate, and anything but but simple. More on this later...

Otherwise, sure, one could argue that, without the seal, the flag is rather simple: three bars of color separated by two jagged lines. A kid could draw it.