Kroemer Family Crest
Family crests or coats of arms were used commonly during the medieval era. They were mostly by nobility such as the Loyola Family in Basque Country Spain. Crests contained icons or symbols that tried to represent a value or key characteristic of the family. They were found in castles, on shields, and on flags. They lost popularity after the middle ages, but family crests have made a resurgence in the 21st Century. The goal of this project is to create a family crest for the Kroemer family.
The first step is to outline the main points that should be addressed by the icons in the coat of arms. For simplicity and continuity, I selected to only do the immediate family. I narrowed down the responses to five main topics:
1.) Common Values: While their interests vary, they all share common values such as empathy and compassion. The father has worked at Make-a-Wish and American Red Cross, the mother is often part of solidarity movements for others, and the son has done service in the Boy Scouts of America and in Perú.
2.) Politics/Law/Justice: The family is very focused on politics, and they are more active than most others. The father almost went to law school, but served on the City Counsel in Bowie, Maryland. He also runs a blog called the Politics and Policy Project. The son is also currently in High School Mock Trial.
3.) Globalism/Environmentalism: The Kroemer family is not only focused on world peace and community, but also keeping it healthy and safe.
4.) Dogs: Somewhat out of place in the list thus far, dogs are one of the most common interests between all family members. Both parents showed dogs professionally and were nationally known. In addition, the family currently owns a poodle.
5.) Health: The family values eating well and exercise very highly. The mother uses a low-carb, ketogenic diet while the father and son are both very active in road bicycle racing and cross country respectively.
The second task was to gather inspiration for other modern day crests from Behance. The most notable references are listed here: https://www.behance.net/collection/146518193/Coat-of-Arms#
Next, the sketching phase was less about generating good designs and more about collecting ideas for good icons, symbols, and shield types. Some of the inspiration phase material and final design features can be found in these preliminary stages.
The next phase was about taking some of the best design features from the first sketches to create usable roughs. These are much closer to the final result than the sketches above. They also combine some of the best qualities of the sketches.
Next, everything was moved onto the computer. Everything was put together in one of four zones. The macro view is visible below and I will go into detail about each area further down. The first zone (in the bottom right) is for shield formation. The second zone (in the upper left) is for creating icons and symbols. The third zone (in the bottom left) is for compiling the elements from the previous two areas. The final zone (in the top right) is for placing the two final comps and the final design in black & white and color.
The first zone was used for creating the shields. The first shield was a simple design with a rectangle on top and another down the middle with two triangles on each side. They were combined using the Unite Function in the Pathfinder Tool. Next, the "Interstate" Shield was made with a rectangle and using the Subtract Function in the Pathfinder tool to crop the rectangle. As one can see, there are several shapes of different types to create the half shield. To make the full shield, the half was copied, reflected,a nd combined using the Unite Function in the Pathfinder Tool.
The second of the four zones was used for creating the icons that would fit into the coat of arms. They all had some type of relevance to the five main topics above*
1.) Common Values: A Heart and a Laurel (noted below) for Love and Peace respectively. The heart was made with two circles and an upside down triangle combined with the Unite function in the Pathfinder tool
2.) Politics/Law/Justice: A gavel and a traditional "justice" scale. These two were made from a similar template and the spacing between shapes it as similar as possible. The gavel was simply four rectangles while the scale was made with a triangle as the base, a rectangle and two triangles (and some Unite function magic with the Pathfinder tool) create the beam, and two more rectangles and a triangle with a line down the middle to form the places themselves.
3.) Globalism/Environmentalism: A Globe of Earth. This was the most difficult design as it required the Pen tool to fill in the continents inside a circle shape.
4.) Dogs: A Pawprint. The pawprint looks complicated, but it is simply an elipse with a circle on top that were combine with the Unite function on Pathfinder. Then, there are four circles that are aligned around the print.
5.) Health: A healthy heart which works for both #1 and #5.
*The last design that looks like a star in a circle is a compass. A sixth main topic was scouting. The mother was a girl scout when she was little. The son is currently working on his Eagle Scout project. The father is an Assistant Scoutmaster for his son's troop. This design just became too large and too complicated to be entered into the final. For simplicity's sake, it has been ommitted from the presentation itself.
The third zone is where everything gets compiled. By copying and pasting the elements from the first two zones, a nice "dashboard" where data could be combined worked very well. This includes the laurel and banner which did not appear before. The laural was made by taking the center of a two-circle venn diagram and tilting it to make a leave. Reflected and copied several times, the leaves create a long branch. Them, the laurel is curved by the warp tool's arc function. The banner was the most difficult part of the design. It was made with not only the warp tool, but the pathfinder. The typeface used, Rockwell, is a good design feature that is not overly simple, but also not complicated.
The final zone was used for placing the two comps and the final draft. Below, one can see the two comps on the left and their combination to the final draft on the right. The final draft was next copied and colors were added to make the final.
The final design incorperates part from both of the comps. For example, while the obvious "interstate sign" shield is used, the "banner below the shield" from the simple shield is placed under the final shield. The difference is that the banner was reflected and the text underwent many Warp Tool changes. This opened up space for the scale to be used above the shield in the final. With that one change, a whole new area opened up for a new icon. Above is a black & white version and below is the full color version. The emphasis is placed on green and blue, which are not only the general favorite colors in my family, they also hold some meaning. The green represents life and the blue represents truth and calmness.
