Designing a Coat of Arms for the Pod of Oceania

[malinghi]

To help with designing a coat of arms and mascot and official colors, I just wanted to share some of the ideas I had for a coat of arms for this pod:

http://oi56.tinypic.com/sorcpg.jpg

There was some discussion about this in this in another thread. Can we continue the discussion here? Also, I have since become aware that Oceania has an "i" in it.

[happyguava]

Hehe, it does have an 'i' in it, so at the very least that would be good to have on the coat of arms! My favourite thing on your design there, malinghi, is the sea dragons either side of the shield - so cute!!!

[malinghi]

One of the hard parts of making these coats of arms is finding imagery and symbols that are relevant to the pod and relate to where they're from. I don't want them to be generic and interchangeable, I want them to actually relate to the place they're for. It just occured to me that the constellation Crux, which appears on the flags of Australia and New Zealand would be good for this. Here's a draft version of another design for the Pod of Oceania. What do you think? Which version do you think is better? Any ideas on what you would like the coat of arms to have or not have?

http://oi42.tinypic.com/dzttzm.jpg

I'd like to add some stuff in the four corner regions around the shield. Any thoughts on what I should add?

[happyguava]

Hmmm, not sure what I think of the southern cross... it reminds me too much of our flag :P Let me have a think, I'm terrible at ideas.

[malinghi]

Let's brainstorm what sort of imagery and symbolism represents Oceania well. I think the southern cross is a really good one, though maybe I shouldn't use the seven pointed stars cause they look so similar to the flag. The great barrier reef is also good, and great white sharks. Volcanoes are also a good symbol, both because the region is part of the pacific ring of fire, and because H2O featured a volcano so prominently in their mythology. Also, the indigenous Australian have some good art and mythology that might work well.

Also, I like the colors of their flag. I think the colors for this pod might be similar warm colors, though it would be disrespectful to them to use exactly the same colors.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/Australian_Aboriginal_Flag.svg/250px-Australian_Aboriginal_Flag.svg.png

[malinghi]

So here's another concept design. It incorporates a volcano, and has the southern cross represented by fish swimming near a reef. What do you guys think? What parts of this design do you like and dislike? What parts of the other designs? If you let me know what parts you like about each one I can put them together.

http://oi39.tinypic.com/2n6bypy.jpg

[Tiffany J Michie]

Nice! So creative :D

[Mermaid Narina]

[QUOTE=malinghi;12030]So here's another concept design. It incorporates a volcano, and has the southern cross represented by fish swimming near a reef. What do you guys think? What parts of this design do you like and dislike? What parts of the other designs? If you let me know what parts you like about each one I can put them together.

i love this! there are no active volcanos in Australia, so im not sure about that, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE REST OF IT!!!! I hope we get a coat of arms soon!

[Nixe the Tropical Mermaid]

Loving the ideas! I've done some research as I can't wait to see this finished! I love the leafy sea dragon in there, (perfect for an emblem) also local only to Australia is port Jackson shark, spotted wobbegong, basking shark. Good varieties of Moray eels found both in aus and nz. I don't think it's allowed but Hectors dolphin is rare and only found in NZ, which it's also known for the NZ fur seals. I really like what is done do far, just throwing around ideas! Would love some coral colour designs in it to symbol our Great Barrier and other reefs =) once this is finished I hope we can use it to show how proud we are to be Pod of the Oceania!

[Nixe the Tropical Mermaid]

Ps. I don't mind the southern cross stars making an appearance in there either!!

[Mermaid Bella]

has anyone thought about putting a fairy penguin in there? theyre like flies out here, damn cute flies!

[mermaid Ilythia Finlay]

shouldn't we have a mermaid in it somewhere too? I love the reference to the reef as well I like
malinghi (http://mernetwork.com/index/member.php?1-malinghi) 's second version (though the first one is nice too) but maybe with a mermaid, or do you all think that's not appropriate?
I'm no expert at this stuff just my thoughts - Cheers

[Artisankatie]

Technically the Newer Volcanics Province in Victoria is still active (but very unlikely to erupt any time soon) *cough*geologist*cough*.

Though I'm not sure about the volcano part either... I think it makes it look a bit too complex and busy... I LOVE the fish as a Southern Cross, and as the Southern Cross is on pretty much every flag in Oceania, I think it's very appropriate. If it were me I would have the reef and southern cross fish by themselves, keeping the fish fairly nondescript so as not to localise it too much.

[malinghi]

Here's a version with the southern cross made of fish.

To answer the question why it doesn't have mermaids, its cause as a rule I don't think the coats of arms for the pods should have mermaids for several reasons. For one thing, if one pod had a mermaid as their symbol it would be either unfair to everyone else who can't have a mermaid on theirs, or everyone would have mermaids on their coats of arms, and they would all look too similar. Also, it conflicts with the suspended disbelief of the coats of arms. They're supposed to be like coats of arms merfolk societies might have. Why would they have merfolk on them? Coats of arms for existing human societies typically don't don't have humans on them, cause humans don't consider being human to be a noteworthy trait. Also, if they had merfolk on it, it would imply what merfolk look like. I think it being acceptable to everyone, no matter what they like to imagine merfolk look like.

Anyway, here's a version I just threw together:
7470

[Elle]

I love it!

[mermaid Ilythia Finlay]

I understand :) the design looks great btw :)

[Mermaid Miel]

I got bored and whipped this up as my contribution.

8837

I put a lot of thought into the colours. The Blues are for the three Oceans that surround us... the South Pacific is Light Blue for its sub-Tropical/clear water. The Indian Ocean is the cooler water to the west of Australia and is the Mid Blue. The Dark Blue is for the cold Southern Ocean connects the southern shores of Australia with the Antarctic. (which is why my local beach is very cold even after 2 week of 34+ temperatures) It makes more sense to me that Mermaids would seek to honour the oceans then the settlers on land.
The fishes are Goldenrod, this is to honour the faraway Suns that form the Southern Cross and the Gold Sun on the Aboriginal Flag.

I tried to colour the leafy seadragons as close to RL as I can remember, but if someone can do it better then Yay! XD

Can another Mer do some more? I would love to see the colours that some of the NZ mers choose and the meanings behind them.

[Trident True]

I personally like the 2nd one with the stars and maybe some dugons or dolphins on the sides where the seahorese are. I say dolphins because up where im located we can hand feed wild dolphins that come in everyday. its actually one of the only places in QLD that you can hand feed wild dolphins as it is illegal. dugons are getting very scarce here as their main sounce of food is getting hard to find in our waters.

[spottedcatfish]

Aww I wanna go back home!

[SeaGlass Siren]

Ohh I'd love to make one too :0 we shoul all have one for each pod, yeah?