theoldwolf | Coat of Arms - Order of the Couch

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Coat of Arms - Order of the Couch

Much back-and-forth over at The Confusion Couch about a coat of arms, a motto, something that will represent our camaraderie and flights of fancy.

Bmonk has given us a crest to work with; his description: "Black shield with a white couch, and a jagged green border. Above the couch a gold star. Green = Pibgorn’s color for her world. Jagged border (“dancetty”) for the dance of the fairies, but also to indicate confusion. Black for the darkness of the confused surrounding the couch, and also for the faithfulness of the couch crew despite being in the dark. The gold star for the “favorites”, but also for the enlightenment that eventually comes to us."

I took the liberty of gussying it up a bit, with a cauldron for a helm, signifying all the good recipes we share, and Pib and Dru rampant, because I like to look at them. So there. No other reason. Motto: Omnes me confundit - "Everything confuses me".

Here's a place to gather together any and all suggestions. No sign-in is required to post a comment. No idea will be considered foolish, or too loony. Comments will be screened, however, and may take until the next morning to become visible if they are posted late in the evening.

Once we have something that everyone is either pleased with or can live with, I'm going to see what can be done about formalizing it.

Ready? Go!

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The microphones exist only because that was the image I had to work with. They should be supporting or embracing the shield with their other hands in the final version...

lincolnhyde here - that last shield looks loverly - I especially like the enhanced contrast with the white brownie plate. An Escher-esque star was suggested at one point; not sure how much detail would be visible.

I like what you've got here:
a) Fixed the shape of the shield
b) Re-incorporated bmonk's original, elegant design, reducing the size of the border by about 1/4
c) Repaired the proportions.

I don't care for this... it looks too contrived. Particularly the pot it looks like a photograph, needs to blend with the other art style.
d) Provided an option with a covered cauldron as the helm with a fedora as the crest.

The more devices I try to work in, the more cluttered it looks. II'm thinking at this point, keep it simple. I agree on this too, Why do we have the star? I cannot remember what it has to do with OTC.
I do have a thought about Pib and Dru... Pib has short hair and short plummage while Dru's is all long... it looks unbalanced to me, I'd like to see Pibs hair longer and Dru's plummage shorter.
I'm not crazy about the hat maybe because it is so big perhaps if it were smaller? I like the thought of it being on the cover cookpot possibly... cocked to one side? or in stead of a star... and then again I'm inclined to the chefs hat since we have some incredible cooks....
We must have a couch but how to draw it. Dang Escher for not being a memeber!

I always envisioned the fedora cocked back or to the side over a bubbling cauldron, then at a glance the bubbling would look like hair under the hat.

Can't you find and orthogonal or 45 degree view of a section "L" couch. That would be somewhat more discernible as a couch.

My $.02, I'm not fond of the hat or any other headwear as they seem to match just certain story lines whereas we are always confused no matter what story line we are in. Concerning the cauldron I agree with another that it looks to "witchy". How about a red fondue pot that were so popular in the '70's. It used to be the way we would have parties and invite our friends over where everyone would bring a food item and that seems to be what you were trying to represent with the cauldron. I do like the rest of the design and would like to thank you for taking the time to do it.

Crossed question marks in place of the star ? I concur. The cauldron should clearly show food or at least a strong evidence thereof. Otherwise it looks like a nondescript container. The previous cartoony looking cauldron looked best. If not a cauldron, like some suggest, maybe a microwave.. I know, starting to sound corny. **bmonk's** original, slightly reduced border looks great.

The comment with the microwave reference was from Gweedo.

Excellent comments all.

At this point I'm turning it loose to the OTC... you guys come to a consensus and let me know. I'll do a mockup and see about getting an official one done.

I post as kaylisdragon at the pibgorn list....

Thanks, friend. I love the idea...

From KalahariNight:
For whatever it's worth, I really, really like the version that pops up when you go to this comment page - The one with only the couch and the star within the shield, green and red dancetty border, and with the fedora above, and the cartoon pot with bubbling green food above that. Simple, clean, and contains all needed elements but nothing more - poifect, IMHO.

Noted, thanks Kal!

I noticed a bit of confusion (what else?) about the star. In my mind it served two purposes: as the "favorite" icon, and as the illumination that comes to the couch -- eventually. Bmonk, instigator.

Voicing my support of the suggestion of coffee cup instead of cauldron. Would it fit to have one complete with saucer underneath?

From Baslim:

I have not read all of the suggestions but I have one for the motto which will need some translation to latin.

In Confusion, Good Company

The Fedora is nice but,
A book perhaps? (Borgia Cantata comes to mind)
A plasma bolt? perhaps crossed with a dandelion seed?

Skulker here:

I just finished a couple of sketches/rough drafts of two Escher Couches for your consideration: One is a regular straight couch and the other a semi-circular curved couch. There is room "under" either couch to add some squirrels. The perspective and scaling are a bit off but they clearly show the concept.

I must say that I am a bit pleased with myself: I thought it was possible to draw an Escher couch and I was right (for once!). Since they are simple line drawing they still show the Escher/Penrose/Reutersvald "impossibility" aspect, even when scaled down. A good artist could take this concept and make a nice symbol for the COA.

Click on the Escher couch names to view and tell me what you think:

http://www.box.net/shared/q7onf5ee0e

I also uploaded a number of other possibilities and ideas for consideration for symbols for the COA:

Although I was able to create an Escher couch, that doesn't symbolize the infinite expandability. One concept that might is to take Escher's Moebius strip and replace the ants with squirrels.

Another idea is to take Escher's waterfall and expand it for the OTC pool. Maybe even having a water slide instead of a downspout.;-)

The impossible triangle made from blocks also shows a star in the center (albeit six pointed), which would show up nicely if colored.

The open frame star might still show enough detail to work at a smaller scale. It definitely would with color coded sides but that would probably violate some color rules for COAs although only need two different colors or shades.

Drawing squirrels running around the tall impossible columns could symbolize three things: our confusion, the squirrels and Brooke himself.

BTW, I see no need to rush to a final decision on the COA. It has been a number of months since the idea was first proposed. A bit more time for other ideas to generate won't hurt. Just my 2 ¢

I have been doing a bit of research and found a couple of very large "Impossible" drawing galleries and some interesting Escher sites:

   http://impossible-world.blogspot.com/
   http://imp-world.narod.ru/english/index.html
   http://members.lycos.nl/amazingart/E/42.html
   http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gershon/EscherForReal/

Putting the cauldron on the shield just doesn't look right. I agree with the "contrived" statement. I think it really works atop the fedora, but having something a bit more appetizing than boiling lime jello might be cool.

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Coat of Arms - Order of the Couch

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mor observations from mfcoace

couch arms

COUCH CREST

COUCH CREST

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That is excellent

Re: That is excellent

I'd say keep this one

Re: I'd say keep this one

Re: the star

Re: Suggestion from Mfcoace follow up

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Escher Couches

Heraldic Phuddy-duddy (I'm not creating an account here, sorry)