Do any of you have a protocol you follow when someone asks you to design arms—an interview, in effect, to establish what kinds of symbols might best represent them?
I’ve searched for a questionnaire type of form that would cover this but, couldn’t find anything.
The questions I would ask are:
* tell me about yourself and your family
* do you know if anyone in your family ever had a coat of arms?
* have ever served in the military and was it an important part of your life?
* what is your profession?
* what are your hobbies, likes and dislikes?
* what is your ancestry?
* do you have siblings?
* do you have children or plan to have any?
I would also point the prospective armiger to the various online galleries of shields so that he can see what’s out there and perhaps find one whose "look & feel" he likes.
There are no such questions on the IAAH Design Assistance Request Form, but they may send a follow-up after someone submits it.
We need to hear from Sandy Turnbull, Fr. Dohrman, Fr. Guy, and, Michael Swanson. Come on, fellas. Give us the straight dope.
I believe that some heralds at IAAH use a questionaire but exactly how many and who I don’t know.
Since most of my work is for family, friends and their collegues, I don’t use a questionaire personally. I usually get the basics of what they are looking for in a design, such as colour, charges or symbolism and work from there.
Since Kenneth asked for the full dope, the arms of my brother-in-law designed in 1998 (my very first).
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk245/lemeaddem/Symes.jpg
Those arms remind me of my college days! LOL
Michael Swanson;61704 wrote:
From USHR:
This looks perfect, but thanks to all for the input.
Sandy Turnbull;61705 wrote:
Since Kenneth asked for the full dope, the arms of my brother-in-law designed in 1998 (my very first).
This is a riot!!!
Sandy Turnbull;61705 wrote:
Since Kenneth asked for the full dope, the arms of my brother-in-law designed in 1998 (my very first).
And I can’t help but notice, Sandy, that you’ve done arms for a good number of churches and clergymen since then to make up for it.
May the Lord bless ye and keep ye and all that jazz. :pope:
i always asked someone to describe their family history in less than one hundred words. otherwise some might ramble on about a divorce or something else that is irrelevant to making an arms.
also i ask if there are any professions that run in the family, policemen, military et cetera.
i tell them various ways to part a shield, and the main colours, and ask for preferences; i do make sure to tell them that preferences may not always be adhered to because of design flaws or because of basic heraldry rules.
allegory is my favourite way to describe an event. they make an arms look rather nice, yet still show meaning, yet only to the armiger is the true meaning known.
I’ve done likely fewer designs for others than the other responders, and in a more limited context, but FWIW:
first, what is their family origin, proven or traditional?
*if Scottish or Irish, I’ll likely start with whatever arms or design themes are associated with the surname.
*For others, I’ll look for possible cants in their language of origin. The local library has a wealth of foreign-language dictionaries.
Using the results as a starting point, I’ll then look for ways to make the arms unique. In the case of Scottish or Irish origins, this means at a minimum, sufficient variation to avoid implying cadency or otherwise implying an actual family (blood) relationship to the chiefly or other stem arms, when there is none or at least its not proven. Essentially a "what would Lyon do?" approach, doing my best to avoid duplicating already-existing indeterminate cadency. For other origins, this would include as thorough a search as my time & resources will allow, of other families with same/similar surnames, to avoid a design too close to existing arms canting off the same name. If the name is e.g. Behr (this is a hypothetical) there will be any number of Behr or similar arms with all varieties, colors and positioning of one or more bears, bear heads, bear paws, etc., & I’ll need to find some new variation.
If more is needed, I may look for minor charges, perhaps cants on the given name of the earliest known common ancestor; or of some more recent ancestor; or even of the immediate armorial wannabe. And/or charges based on profession and/or geographic origins or current residence. And/or charges referring in some way to a maternal descent, especially in the earliest known generation. (This focus on earliest known ancestors reflects my personal focus on arms as tokens of kinship and belonging to an extended lineage, as being at least as important as purely personal identification—but to each his own…) For more recent ancestors or self, I would try for minor charges that could be discarded or substituted by cousins etc whose connection is earlier in the lineage—in essence, striving to create "stem arms" for the lineage which later generations can use "as is" or with hopefully few minor additions if they want to identify their branch of the family.
Then prune heavily…and try to check again to ensure the design is unique, at least within my resources to check.
As noted this reflects my personal view of what arms "ought to mean" which other may not share—to each his own views, if not his own absolutely personal non-familial arms!
I’m in the "fridge test" phase of design of my own arms as we speak. Geoff Kingman-Sugars has been a huge help and he DID send me a series of questions in the beginning, although I can’t really remember them off the top of my head. I’ll dig around in old e-mails and see if I can give you an idea of what he asked me.
These are the questions as best I can tell:
For Personal Arms
1. Favourite Tinctures (5*);
2. Favourite animals (3);
3. Favourite birds (3);
4. Favourite (mythical) Beast/s (3);
5. Last (Family) name;
6. Country of Origin of that name;
7. Married surname (if different to one above);
8. List any children in order from eldest to youngest (M, F, F, M, F etc.);
9. Parent’s country of birth;
10. Current area of Residence (home);
11. Profession/Trade;
12. Current/past occupation/s;
13. Any religious or other affiliations, hobbies or passions;
14. Military or civilian service;
15. Any interesting family traditions, etc.;
and
16. Any further relevant comments/suggestions.
* With the choice of 5 tinctures, at least one should be one of the metals and at least one should be one of the furs and the remaining three from the colours/stains.
