Designing my own Coat of Arms

 
Linusboarder
 
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Linusboarder
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10 April 2007 12:02
 

Charles Mosteller;43486 wrote:

Sorry, but I just don’t like this design, at all.

Charles Mosteller;43486 wrote:

I like that one much better than your previous suggestion, Linusboarder, but the sun is too small, and I don’t think that I care much for the edgework on the blue "X," whatever it might be called. It’s not an ugly design, mind you. It just doesn’t click with me.


Charles,

 

I have read through the posts and looked at all the designs that various members have suggested and helped with. While you have been able to easily say what you like and what you don’t like, you haven’t really done a good job of helping people refine designs you may like, with a few minor changes, or all out reject. For example the arms mohammed put forth, with the torteau in the middle of the blue and white gyronny, and the blue charged with the white stars. You mentioned you liked that design, except the torteau. But you didn’t give much suggestion on exactly how you might change that. Should we try a different color? maybe a bezant instead of a torteau? The one-eyed sun instead of a torteau? Or is it "It’s a nice design, but I’m not sure I want it for my arms." You also mentioned you liked Phillip’s sun surrounded by bezants design, but your not sure you like bezants… maybe there’s another charge we could replace the bezants with? maybe we could put an annulet around the sun (to represent a wedding band, i.e your wife)?

 

Ultimately these are your arms, and your design. May I suggest maybe looking at some different arms in different armorials to kind of see what designs you like and don’t like, so we at least have a little more of a base to work with. Also looking through different charges, and seeing what you might want to represent your son and wife, if that’s the way you want to go. You have mentioned a sun, and red, white, and blue. Well there’s a ton of original designs out there that can use these elements, but they need to be narrowed down into things you like and don’t like.

 

I guess i feel like we’re throwing out designs, and your disapproving, sometimes with more emphasis than others, but i think you could at least provide some more direction. I guess I’m a little frustrated because we’re 14 pages in, and we have no clue what you want yet. If you have no clue what you want, then others don’t have a chance of figuring it out wink

 

I would suggest looking through our AHS armorial, and also the design here at the Heraldry society of Canada

 

Also there’s a very good pictorial of charges on this heradry clip art site.

 

You may also want to look through the threads in the foreign arms part of the page so maybe you can get an idea of the style of arms you like a little more. Some people like spanish style, and some English much more than others.

 

Here’s some good examples of Spanish style arms

 

Some people don’t liek them as much because they have a lot of charges and borders, but I tend to like many of these arms.

 
PBlanton
 
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PBlanton
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10 April 2007 13:44
 

Ok, so the bezants don’t strike your fancy, but you think the design is interesting…What if we replaced the bezants with estoiles? Like this:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e221/pblanton/Mosteller2-1.jpg

 

Take care,

 
 
MohamedHossam
 
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MohamedHossam
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10 April 2007 15:09
 

Interesting, to me they look attributed arms to a classical deity such as Zeus..

Very mystical/alchemist-ic style, IMHO. But it is a nice design….We should elaborate more on this…

 
Linusboarder
 
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Linusboarder
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10 April 2007 15:14
 

Phillip,

I like it too. Very simple and straightforward

 
James Dempster
 
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James Dempster
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10 April 2007 17:20
 

PBlanton;43503 wrote:

Ok, so the bezants don’t strike your fancy, but you think the design is interesting…What if we replaced the bezants with estoiles? Like this:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e221/pblanton/Mosteller2-1.jpg

 


You get very close to the arms of the Baillies in Scotland. The nearest is

 

Sable the sun in his glory betwixt nine stars 3, 2, 3 and 1 Argent

 

3rd quarter in the arms of John Baillie-Hamilton, 13th Earl of Haddington (for Baillie of Jerviswood).

 

Fortunately the Baillies (Carnbrae, Jerviswood, Manorhall) who use the sun as a charge all use a Sable field and Argent stars (though I wonder if the sun in his splendour is automatically Or). The number of stars varies.

 

The Baillies who use Azure and Or tend just to bear

 

Azure nine stars 3,3,2,1 Or  (sometimes Argent) within some form of bordure.

 

One branch also replaced the sun with "the moon in her complement".

 

I have no problem with the design - though personally I’d make the number of estoiles (or other charge) eight as a number that works better on both shield and banner shapes. However, I did immediately think Baillie when I saw it until I checked their blazons.

 

James

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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04 May 2007 16:00
 

I haven’t read all 14 pages of this thread, so apologies if someone else has already suggested it—

I rather like the saltire raguly but agree that the sun at the juncture of the arms of the saltire is a bit too small.  How about a saltire raguly and nowy (a saltire nowy the arms raguly?) charged with a sun? —essentially the same as a blue disk at the center of the saltire to afford a bit more space for a larger sun.  Also try making the face (disk) of the sun a bit larger & the rays a bit shorter.  You’d have to play with the relative sizes of the arms, tghe central "nowy" part & the sun, to find a pleasing proportion.

 

For clip-art purposes, you could likely plagiarize the logo of the Smithsonian Institution which is a gold sun on a blue roundel.