I’ve been making an attempt to try and design myself a coat of arms.  My starting point is the shield.  I spent several hours going over just how I wanted to divide the shield.  Then I was trying to decided what I wanted on the shield.  This is my first draft of this so be nice.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m144/KenrakenOkwaho/SCoatOfArms.gif

Here it is again with a little bit altered color pattern.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m144/KenrakenOkwaho/Coat.png

I have a pair of wolves facing eachother due to my belief in a strong family, commitment to one partner, as well as persistance.  Above it is a cross due to my Christian faith.  The cross is in the fleury style to cry and mimic the fleur-de-lys style for my French heritage…and, I thought it looked good haha.  At the top is a symetric divide in attempt to mimic the silhouette of mountains to try and signify my home and where my heart is…in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.

Since my last name means "Carpenter" I tried to work in something to show that…with very little success.  I had an axe at the very bottom at one point, but it just looked dumb to me.  At the bottom was an attempt to mimic a carpenter square using a chevron.  I took out the lines on the chevron that made it look more like a carpenter square because I felt is was getting to detailed and it didn’t really appeal to me.

So, honest opinions please…don’t hold back.

AILD;51832 wrote:

This is my first draft of this so be nice.

...So, honest opinions please…don’t hold back.

Make up your mind- do you want us to be nice, or to not hold back?

It strikes me as very cluttered- I’d have no idea how to properly blazon the chief, for example.  I think it needs a good distillation- keep the bits you really want (possibly making them do double or triple duty as symbols), and throw the rest out.

^You can be honest and not hold back, but still be nice.

And which would you suggest be thrown out?  The trick was trying to actually make it look unique and not like other things I’ve seen before.  When you’re keeping things very simple, it’s almost impossible not to copy other people.

Sorry, but I have to agree—this is way, way too much.  There are lots of designs that would be original but not so complex.  You could put together "wolf" and "carpenter" in a way that preserved the Polish heritage and is still probably unique, or close to it.  Perhaps a combination of a saw fesswise and a couple of running wolves, or a fess indented and three wolves all running in the same direction, suggesting a pack.

Try to find a way to make the same charges do double-duty for symbolism, not one of each for everything, but also avoid trying to symbolize too much.  The wolves can represent the Cascades just as well as depicting them; so can a fess indented or dancetty.

Avoid lots of fimbriation (the little narrow lines dividing colors).  Lots of fimbriation is a cheap way of avoiding tincture violations, but it defeats the point, which is to enhance contrast and thus visibility.

Finally, a reminder (to everyone) that the open forum is not, according to the rules, a place for working through designs in detail.  That is supposed to be reserved for the members-only part of the forums.  It’s OK in the open area to discuss design principles, etc., but (speaking as a moderator) please watch out for the invisible line.

How is this -

I’ve kept the three colours you preferred.

Argent above three couple-closes interlaced sable two wolves rampant respectant azure (grasping a cross fleury sable - if you insist).

The base of the shield might be as in the following illustration (except black and using only the bottom half of the shield

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16273/16273-h/images/0099-couple-close.jpg

standing for carpenter’s squares, cascade mountains, and the Holy Trinity and above it the two wolves standing for family.

In chief perhaps eagle wings argent for your Polish roots charged with fleur de lys azure and between them a seven pointed star (for your Cherokee roots). If you replace the wolves with heraldic lions (but not in a combattant pose) you would have a reference to England and if you altered the colour scheme to green from sable and blue you would have an allusion to teh Emerald Isle.

So my own suggestion might be (altering your colours)

Shield: Argent above three couple-closes interlaced vert two lion passant respectant azure

Crest: a seven pointed star between two eagle wings displayed argent each ensigned with a fleur-de-lys azure

This needs to be moved to the member’s section.  Exceeds basic advice.