There used to be a questionaire that circulated on the forum to aid folks in the design of their arms. My search of the forum is coming up empty. Anyone have a copy of that that they could repost?
Thanks.
Dave
This was discussed earlier in this section of the forum.
http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4426
Thank you… i guess my search criteria was a bit off because i couldn’t find it.
Dave
IMO the best way to get someone to think about real heraldry is to show them LOTS of different designs, and tell them to narrow it down to 4-5 arms that are appealing. But I guess I tend to see things first and foremost graphically and only secondarily as symbolic.
John-
I tend to do that as well, but it really comes down to the fact that, if you use extremely crappy graphics…even on a well designed arms, it’s still going to look bad.
AILD;71886 wrote:
John-
I tend to do that as well, but it really comes down to the fact that, if you use extremely crappy graphics…even on a well designed arms, it’s still going to look bad.
I’m not so sure. . . . I’d say that once a person can look past a particular emblazonment to see the heraldic design, they will have a good appreciation of heraldry. One of my favorite books is Fosters’ dictionary of Heraldry - it’s a collection of early English arms. The graphics are, to put it kindly, primitive. But it’s still a fantastic book.
Probably true to a certain extent…especially if you did an arms like Kenneth has, which has pretty basic shapes that’d make it hard to mess up haha. But to a certain extent, doing an arms with poor graphics is still going to make it lose quite an edge.
I agree that a great artist can make even the most mundane shield look stunning but, even a poorly sketched, black & white coat of arms can be appreciated by a heraldic enthusiast.
It’s kind of like pizza, even if it’s cold or not great, you still enjoy it.
kimon;71896 wrote:
I agree that a great artist can make even the most mundane shield look stunning but, even a poorly sketched, black & white coat of arms can be appreciated by a heraldic enthusiast.
It’s kind of like pizza, even if it’s cold or not great, you still enjoy it.
I definately think seeing different examples of arms is helpful. I also have recommended that people check out the U.S. Heraldic Registry to read the design rationales. It allows people to connect the images with meaning and understand how heraldry is a different take on story telling.
DRShorey;71899 wrote:
I definately think seeing different examples of arms is helpful. I also have recommended that people check out the U.S. Heraldic Registry to read the design rationales. It allows people to connect the images with meaning and understand how heraldry is a different take on story telling.
Part of what helped me was looking through the roll of early American arms here on the site…and I also looked at a couple bucket sites that just had pages and pages of arms. Getting ideas is about all those sites are good for 
I agree about the pizza analogy though, very nice :cool:
John Mck;71898 wrote:
Pizza: even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good :D