San Antonio's official city seal: ugly

As far as municipal flags go, San Antonio has one that actually looks pretty cool (you can check it out at Flags of the World, or on the top banner on the city's Web site). But the same cannot be said about the city seal.


Witness this screen capture I got from a Defenders story on KSAT's Web site (it is taken from the video story titled "Some Upset With City's New Garbage Cans"):



















That is the most garish, gaudy, overdone, tasteless, uninspired, and just plain loud official seal I have ever seen. It's a little embarrassing, and I think the city needs a new seal.

There is a brief and somewhat charming history of how the current seal came about here, but I don't think an interesting background is justification for keeping such an eyesore. To be fair, the original designer apparently did not assign the colors for this seal (he carved it out of wood), but the current incarnation is downright ugly, and it should go.

Let's hope some inspired council member on some future council floats the idea of updating the city seal.