College Chess Club Arms—Needs More Critiques

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 09:57
 

Would one of you check my blazon for and emblazonment of the set of arms in my YahooPhotos Heraldry album?

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/trentm3/albums

 

Arms: Per bend sinister Azure and Chequy Argent and Sable, in dexter chief an open book within a laurel wreath fructed, all Argent.

 

Crest: On a torse Azure and Argent, a gryphon’s head erased Azure, beaked Or, langued Gules, and eared Argent.

 

 

Question: How do I determine whether this particular chequy is Argent and Sable or Sable and Argent?  What part of the chequy field or square on the field do I look at to make that determination?

 

In the same album is the wide laurel wreath I want to use in the final version.  It does not have the fruit and it’s a simple silhouette.  Because it is wider I will be able to make the book charge bigger.

 

 

Man, got on this yahoo photo sharing site and I still can’t figure out how to get the images in the posts.  It’s driving me nuts.

 
Patrick Williams
 
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Patrick Williams
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23 December 2006 11:57
 

Hey, Trent, they’re looking good. The blazon seems okay to me, there are those who will argue that the second argent is tautology.

As to getting your pics up here: USE PHOTOBUCKET or one of the other free picture sharing sites. They’re free! They work! Both very good things!

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 15:14
 

Thanks Patrick,

Sorry about the repetition of Argent.  I’m trying to find a happy balance between the pros and cons of the Victorian style of blazon grammar and the Medieval.  I tend to lean toward the Medieval style.  Which repetition of Argent were you referring to by the way?

 

 

I checked out Photobucket when you mentioned it the other day.  It is free, but you do have to give up some personal information.  So since I already use a lot of Yahoo products and they have my information, I thought I’d just stick with them.  They are free as well, but maybe I will cave in and go to Photobucket.

 
PBlanton
 
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PBlanton
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23 December 2006 16:13
 

Trent,

First, let me say "nice arms"! :D

 

As to the matter of which tincture should be described first, imagine the entire shield as chequy without the azure "overlay". Then determine which tincture would fall in the dexter chief corner. That tincture would be stated first. So for the picture you have displayed, it would be chequy Sable and Argent.

 

If you want to use the other laurel wreath (sans fruit) then drop the "fructed" from your blazon. Also, that term is generally used if the fruit is to be of a different tincture. It is normally omitted whether the fruit is shown or not as long as it is of the same tincture as the plant.

 

As far as images are concerned, follow Patrick’s advice and use Photobucket.com. It takes alot of the guess work out of it.

 

Take care,

 
 
loaba
 
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loaba
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23 December 2006 16:19
 

I like the way you divided the field. This question may have already been asked (if so, sorry), but what are your school colors? Are they azure and argent?

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 16:50
 

Phil,

Thanks for the blazon help.

 

I put one of the first versions up around the house and looked at it for a few days, and that’s when I realized what was odd about the design.  In the original, the blue field touched black squares.

 

From a distance and at small scale those two colors bleed and the distinction between the two fields gets lost.  So I changed things last night so that the blue touches white squares only (color next to metal), making the partition more distinct because of the high contrast.

 

All of this is why it’s important for me to get the blazon correct.  I don’t want the blue to touch dark squares.  So again thanks for getting me straight on that.

 

 

 

Johnathan,

 

Yes, the college colors are blue and white.

 
loaba
 
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loaba
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23 December 2006 16:55
 

Trent wrote:

Yes, the college colors are blue and white.

That’s make me wonder how the shield might look if you incorporated different colors for your club, and then paired them with uni’s colors. It might be a good way to experiment with quartering.

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 16:59
 

Would you like to show me what you have in mind?

 
loaba
 
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loaba
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23 December 2006 17:03
 

Sure. Does your uni have a logo? And which colors would you want to use for your chess club? I think I like the idea of a black and white cheque with a red knight for the club, then your blue and white for the uni.

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 17:43
 

It’s not a university, it’s a community college.

The current logo is just the school name with a red circle thingy through it, but red is not one of the school colors.

 

The college does not have any arms.  There is a seal, but the college does not use it anymore.  I find that it is too busy.  It’s a scene of a river, canoes, log cabins—a kind of colonial settlement/camp.  Not that inspiring.

 

I want to stay away from chess charges (rooks, pawns, queens, knights, etc.) because they are so derivative.  So many chess clubs use those charges in their logos.  Not many have a nice set of well designed arms, which I hope these are.  And those clubs that do have arms have arms that have charges that aren’t innovative, or they use the arms of their schools.

 

The "logo" on the flyer that the chess club has been using for the last five years is a basic chess board set to play.  Not innovative at all, but it is the reason I chose the chequy field.  The chequy field says chess without using chess pieces as logos.  And the words "chess club" will be part of the final design in a heading or in a seal.

 
loaba
 
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loaba
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23 December 2006 17:50
 

I’ve been playing with chequey quaters, just placed a red knight. Ugh, doesn’t look good at all. That’s good that you don’t want it after all, ‘cause I don’t know how you’d make it work. On the subject of chess-related charges, don’t you want something that will be easily identifiable? The chequey is nice, but perhaps too subtle.

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 18:26
 

Johnathan,

I tried most of the other charges and had the same experience you had pretty much.  Either they just don’t work or the design ends up looking like the logos of other chess clubs and organizations.

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 18:59
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 19:07
 

I finally figured out how to get the images in the posts.  I used Imageshack, but if anyone knows how to do it using Yahoo Photos, please let me know.  Photobucket wanted my DOB, zip code, cell phone number, first born, and an arm and a leg.  That was just asking a little too much.  All Imageshack needed was an email address.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3816/chessarms7wy7.jpg

 

Arms: Per bend sinister Azure and chequy Argent & Sable, in dexter chief an open book within a laurel wreath all Argent

 

Crest: On a torse of the colors, a gryphon’s head erased Azure, beaked Or, langued Gules, eared Argent

 

Motto: Study and Practice

 
loaba
 
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loaba
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23 December 2006 19:19
 

The disembodied head is nice. :D

I got bored…

 
Trent
 
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Trent
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23 December 2006 19:48
 

Johnathan,

You work fast and well.  I have that up as my avatar for now trying to get used to it.  I’ll keep it up until I complete research on my family background, which could take forever.

 

I’ve been working with Illustrator on the Mac, I don’t know it well.  I just started hanging out in the graphics lab getting people to show me what little I needed to know to get what I wanted done.  But I used Serif Draw Plus 4 to do these latest chess club arms and the clipart from AG.  Serif is much easier to use than Illustrator so far.  I plan to take a few graphic arts classes starting next fall, using Adobe Creative Suite stuff in the graphic arts Mac lab.

 

How would I get the text onto the scroll below the chess club arms?  Text that would conform to the shape of the scroll?