![]() Roses are a recurring motif throughout, with the opposing Red Rose of Lancaster and White Rose of Yorkshire featuring on logos from their respective areas, but warring historical houses notwithstanding, its Hampshire that boasts the united Tudor Rose. Spelthorne arguably presents the grandest tree – they also mean business, whilst Crawley’s is the most colourful. But even urban councils like Ealing focus on the trusty tree. As you’d guess, nature tends to feature more in rural council logos, with leaves, hills and crops adorning quite a few of these. Nature is a big theme with water and trees found in 15% of all logos. Mythical creatures are in abundance – Boston has mermaids, Trafford has unicorns, Liverpool has the Liver Bird and Enfield, well, has the Enfield.Īnd a round of applause for whoever created this brilliant map for Welsh council logos, interesting to note that only those in the south feature dragons. ![]() Lesser spotted animals include the very friendly looking badger on Broxbourne’s logo, and the crowing rooster atop of South Northamptonshire’s logo. But with the more modern depictions of council logos, the deer seems to be the most popular standalone animal, with the one from Cannock Chase looking particularly graceful, and I think I can spot a rat on the back of the deer in Hartlepool too. There are plenty of heraldic beasts to be found on council coats of arms – lions and eagles were to be expected really. Worcester must be given a special mention for the only display of lime green, and Salford makes a statement with shocking pink. Unsurprisingly, brown is the least represented main colour. The usual suspects follow with blue and then red coming in next. Green takes top spot for being the most popular main colour on council logos, and I wonder if this is an attempt to avoid any overt political association (Green party aside). I might also compile all of the Latin mottos and their various translations – if anyone is fluent, get in touch. One aspect worth investigating further is if the coat of arms is more likely to be found in provincial councils or those with strong traditionalist leanings. Whilst many coats of arms appear as they would have done centuries ago, some logos have taken on a hybrid form with Dacorum, Watford and Horsham recontextualising the historical element and providing a contemporary take on the coat of arms. The coat of arms must be distinct from all others on record, and according to the College of Arms “there is a long tradition of puns in heraldry, some of them obvious, others less so.” These visual puns, known as canting, can be seen on several council coat of arms, take Elmbridge for example, there’s an elm tree on a bridge. Under heraldic law in England a coat of arms is granted to a corporate body (even Tesco has one) instead of the place that it governs. I won’t dwell on all of the detail – because there is a lot, but the shields and crests that once formed the bedrock of civic identity remain to this day in a quarter of all council logos. Most are adorned with Latin inscriptions, armour, crowns and creatures, and many are quite militaristic. But I ended up ditching that procedure in favour of just delving into the ones that looked cool – and despite my scattergun approach eventually some themes emerged.ĭating back to medieval times the coat of arms is the logo of a bygone era, with each separate element signifying an aspect of the local historical background or noble ancestry. My methodical process initially entailed scrutinising the contents of each logo, in order to identify the presence of various design components in hope of producing a typology. In part oneI kicked off with a brief introduction to the world of council logos, this part sets out what I’ve learnt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |