How I Took Inspiration From Our 600+ Year Old Family Crest
In this article I’ll show you how I took inspiration from our 600-year old family crest. As we all know, inspiration comes from many different sources and an old wooden painted plaque was one of them. See how I turned an old family crest into a more modern personal design by using traditional and digital media. Continue to read the article!
About a year ago I came across this dusty-old wooden plaque, my mother informed me it was our family crest, commissioned by my grandfather about 50 years ago. I sort of liked it but personally I would have chosen another design.
Below is an image of our family crest, it was rather dusty and yellow from sunlight when I found it in the attic.
A LITTLE BACKSTORY
The descriptions of this crest are on the back of this plaque, it reads that in 1875 our family crest was registered in the Armorial Général published by Johannes Rietstap, the crest is actually as old as the 15th Century. The Armorial Général is an encyclopedia for family crests. My mother’s last name is Pieters while my father’s last name is Poppenburg. Without going in too much detail, I’ve decided to part ways with my father and his family and stand behind my mother.
MEANING
As with every family crest, things like colours, shapes, objects and figures all have a special meaning. The ‘tournament’ shield is covered in black, the colour of sadness but also helpfullnes while the beam of gold stands for stability, support and strength of character. The gold star, also known as a Maria symbol represents luck and prosperity. The crest’s gold is the primary color in heraldy and stands for excellence, reason, prestige, virtue and eminence. The tarpaulin in black and gold (the floural looking things on the side) stand for persistence. Is there any truth to these meanings and do they reflect on my personal life? Mostly, they do.
A NEW DESIGN
The reason why I wanted a new design is because this crest looks a bit outdated for modern use. Gold (and any other metal) is obviously hard, if not impossible to pull off realistically in Photoshop and personally I think it looks a little tacky. I wanted to get rid of a few things such as the Maria star, the name banner and the tarpaulin because I felt the meanings of those elements didn’t reflect on me or my family.
SHAPE
I started sketching a new shield shape which in total were about twenty different shapes, please excuse my toddler-like doodles below as they’re only sketches. As you can see, in each sketch there is an element that ended up in the final design. I did have trouble selecting the final elements as this was a personal project with a deeper meaning behind it.
ELEMENTS
Things I wanted to keep or redo in the new design:
- The beam of gold : The gold was going to be replaced with a orange/yellow colour.
- The shield: I wanted to keep the shield in the new design in any shape or form.
- The tarpaulin: This was going to be replaced by flourals, to have a less chaotic crest.
COLOURS & TEXT
I wanted to keep the original colours but wanted to play with different shades, multiple versions came and went including the grunge version posted below. As a replacement for the name banner in the old crest, I wanted to add my full name but that would take up to much space. So I ended up using my initials; Paul Poppenburg/Pieters to keep it personal. This came close to being finished at the time but I wasn’t satisfied; it looked dull, flat, old and vintage. Something I wanted to avoid.
REDESIGN OF A DESIGN
With not being satisfied, I had decided to create a more modern, colourful and sleeker design. With the help of Bittbox.com’s free vectors I added the flourals in the back of the beam to give it a more friendly and illustrative look. The shield also got an update, I wanted it to be more bold and rounded so I applied a bevel & emboss effect on the shield. I also got rid of the stars as they cheapened the look I wanted to achieve.
The final design was created almost a year ago and unfortunately, I can’t remember where I got the background pattern from. If you’re the author of the file please send me a message and I will certainly credit you.
WHAT TO CALL IT?
I want you to name this graphic I’ve designed; is it a logo, is it a family crest redesign or is it an emblem or something else entirely? I’ll let you be the judge! For future use, I may change the design even more. I’d appreciate if you could give me your opinion so please leave a comment!
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