A family crest as a gift
A family crest and creed is a gift that cannot be bought off a shelf, because the family makes it. It costs nothing to design here, and printing costs as much as you want it to.
Three ways to give it
- Make it with them. Bring a phone to the holiday table, pass it around for ten minutes, vote on the designs together, then surprise everyone with the framed print later. The session is the gift; the frame is the souvenir.
- Make it for them. Grandparents making one for the grandchildren, or grown children making one for their parents, can answer the questions on the family's behalf. Use your best guess, or quietly send each relative an invite link and collect their answers first.
- Make one for a new family. A wedding, a new baby or a first home. Choose the occasion in the session and the creed adds a line for it; a wedding crest leans toward the split shield heraldry has long used for a marriage.
Printing it
- Home printer: download the Letter or A4 PDF and print on heavy matte paper or card stock. Turn off “fit to page” so it prints at full size.
- Photo counter or print shop: download the PDF or PNG at 8 × 10 in, 11 × 14 in or 16 × 20 in. Files are 300 dpi (16 × 20 in is 200 dpi), which is what print shops ask for.
- Shirts, mugs and tote bags: download “crest only”, a transparent PNG 2400 pixels wide. Print-on-demand services accept it as is. Choose the flat finish for embroidery.
- Engraving and laser cutting: the SVG download is a vector file that scales to any size.
Sizes that frame easily
| Size | Good for |
|---|---|
| 5 × 7 in | A card inside a holiday card, or a desk frame |
| 8 × 10 in | The most common frame; fits a shelf or a hallway |
| Letter / A4 | Home printers; standard document frames |
| 11 × 14 in | A living-room wall, especially with a mat |
| 16 × 20 in | A statement piece above a fireplace or a reunion banner |
Timing for the holidays
The design takes about ten minutes. Leave time for printing: a few days for a print shop or an online order, and up to two weeks for shipped frames, shirts or mugs in December. If you are short on time, print it at home on card stock and frame it in an hour.
Is it a real coat of arms?
It is a real piece of heraldic design, drawn with traditional shields, colors and charges, and it comes with a correct blazon, the formal heraldic description. It is not a historical coat of arms and it is not granted by any heraldic authority. That is the honest version of the “family crest by surname” sold elsewhere: coats of arms historically belonged to individuals, not to everyone who shares a surname. A crest your family designs together is yours in a way a surname lookup never is. Learn more about heraldry.