The Queen’s Arms in 23 Logos.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II rules with a cheerful smile over many things. Laws are brought to parliaments by governments in her name, enforced by judges across the world upholding the Queen’s Peace from the Queen’s Bench. Academies and colleges and theatres bear her patronage — or her ancestors’ patronage. The United Kingdom, and the (now sadly 15) Commonwealth Realms are awash with Her Majesty’s coat of arms, and so now the world is awash with logos depicting them. Continuing what is becoming a series of heraldry-based graphic design critiques, I present 23 different emblazonments of the same coat of arms, used by institutions across the world.
- The Royal Family
Of course in the 21st century even the royal family need a logo. This appears largely on their website and on an impressive variety of products which are produced ‘by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen’ through royal warrants. From a graphic design perspective this definitely feels like an older painted version was vectorised, and there’s a huge disparity between what is shown with lots of detail (the helm, the backs of the motto scroll, the shadows on the mantling, for example) and what is just shown in block colour (the supporters and compartment especially). Had the kind of shading seen on the helm been kept throughout it may have been better, but then any simplicity would have been lost. I don’t think it’s a very good logo (or a very good emblazonment of a coat of arms really), but it doesn’t really have to be, because it’s the Royal Family. That said, the Prince of Wales’ logo is far more sleek and stylish, working just as well on a screen as it does on a letterhead. And in terms of letterheads, that’s what the coat of arms above is really for. Not to show off unduly but I received a letter from the Palace earlier this year for being shortlisted to the final ten designs for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Emblem Competition, and the variant of this logo used as a letterhead does work well even at a small scale. It’s the Royal Family, they can afford to be old fashioned, it only has to look good on paper.
2. Acts of Parliament and Passports
This version of the royal coat of arms is perhaps one of the most recognisable, and probably one of the oldest still in use. I’ve seen this emblazon of the arms on 1980s ancient monument guidebooks, and on a large late ’70s book produced by the Government I saw in a second-hand bookshop once. Today it’s used on Acts of Parliament and on British passports. It works well for what it’s supposed to, it’s too fancy and detailed to work as a social media icon, but it toes the perfect line between modernity and tradition to work for passports and legislation. This is less of a logo and more of a seal of Her Majesty’s authority, and it works very well as that.
3. Her Majesty’s Government
Probably the most recognisable to those in the UK, especially over the last year of seeing its smaller brother (right) stuck on every COVID warning poster. I like this logo, though I admit it’s quite detailed and a little messy from a distance, I’m glad that the UK Government is still using a coat of arms unlike its three devolved counterparts, and this works well enough as a logo. I think it looked better when it was in a circle, which both contained it a bit better and reflected historic government use of the royal arms better. This version shows how small the shield ends up being in a coat of arms with supporters and a crest, and I think in the government version it’s almost at its most insignificant, with the shield whittled away behind the garter circlet. I like this logo enough and it does the job, but it’s nothing special, and there are plenty of examples of better executed coats of arms in logo form, such as Manchester City Council’s logo, but good graphic design is not something we will be seeing a lot of in this list, so we take what we can get…
4. HM Government, Scottish Variant
Her Majesty has a different coat of arms in Scotland, with the unicorn in dexter, the Scottish quarters in the senior position, and the Order of the Thistle not the Garter. This logo was used by the Scottish Executive until the Scottish National Party took power in 2007 and replaced it with the less interesting saltire logo, and is still used by the Scotland Office and the Attorney General for Scotland. I like this logo, and I think it’s better than the UK Government one, to the extent that I used this one as a base for my redesigns of the the devolved government logos a while ago. The lion and the unicorn are better designed, the shield is bigger, the circlet cleverly vanishes under everything, and there’s a compartment not just a scroll. This feels more like an heraldic logo than the UK Government’s leaning towards logo of heraldic elements.
5. UK Government in Scotland
I don’t think they use this any more. That’s a very good thing. At least give the animals something to stand on so they aren’t perpetually one one leg.
6. The Home Office
A common design which we shall see more of, but a well executed logo nonetheless, and shows up the government-wide one a bit.
7. The Royal Opera House
And so we exit the field of public bodies (for now) and enter the arts. The Royal Opera House uses two different versions of its royal arms logo, depending on the size of the logo one assumes, and they both look pretty good. The large one is in a florid 18th century style of heraldry, with realistic animals, curvy scrolls, and lots of shading. It looks good enough, but I think that the more minimalist version on the left is where this logo really starts to shine, it’s simplified to just the right amount to keep the shading and detail but still be visible at a small scale. The shield and crown aren’t that good but I think these are the best renditions of the lion and unicorn which we’ll be seeing today. It exudes class, as the opera should, and works very well in its regal red setting. As an interesting side this was the logo which inspired me to make this list, as it was so different to the royal or governmental logos but still obviously the same coat of arms, showing the incredible versatility of the heraldic blazon.
8. The Old Vic
Another florid 19th century styled emblazonment, which I like for all the same reasons as that of the Royal Opera House. This logo was actually designed by Chris Mitchell, who also did the Manchester City Council arms I lauded previously, and while this doesn’t have quite the modern flare that Manchester’s logo does, it isn’t aiming to and it pulling harder on the tradition strings, so it works well. The supporters again are very well done, and the motto and flowers are certainly nicer than the Royal Opera House’s. A very nice logo all round.
9. The Times
I suppose we’ll let them off because they’ve been using the same drawing since 1785. The Times says this about their use of the royal arms:
When John Walter first published the paper on January 1, 1785 (under the title Daily Universal Register), he used the royal coat of arms as part of the masthead, because Printing House Square, the site from which the paper was published, had originally been the site of the King’s Printing House, and the building bore the royal coat of arms on its pediment. There was no patent or warrant for its use…
And then the paywall stopped me reading any further. I don’t think this is a very good version of the arms however, in both artistic and heraldic terms, but it’s not as bad as what’s coming next…
10. The Daily Mail
It’s trying to be the Times but also trying not to infringe on heraldic law (I cannot see any other reason to leave the shield blank) and not doing very well at either. At least it’s been vectorised cleanly.
11. The Royal Ballet
We’ve seen this one before. The Royal Ballet takes place at the Royal Opera House so their branding is identical.
12. The Royal Academy of Music
We’ve seen this one before, too. That’s the Royal Family’s logo, but in red.
13. Royal College of Art
With all that art going on inside you’d of thought they could get one of their students to design a better coat of arms. The lion looks strangely demented, and the one in the crest is far smaller compared to the crown than usual. The shield looks crowded inside the garter circlet. None of this works very well as either a logo or an emblazon of a coat of arms.
14. The Royal Mint
The Royal Mint seems to have the money to have a logo done for them. The use of negative space for the shield is clever though I’d have put the charges in the same grey used elsewhere as the black seems a bit harsh against the other colours. The crown is nicely simplified but the charges seem very angular compared to the rest of the design. It’s okay though.
15. The Parliament of Victoria
For our first trip outside of the United Kingdom we head down under to the Australian state of Victoria, which uses a very similar logo to the British Home Office. The crowns are almost the same, and the proportions of the shields, but the garter circlet and the charges are all unique on each. I like the simplicity of this though, and the classic use of ovals around the royal arms is changed up a bit here with the more upright coat of arms minus supporters. The logo itself looks a bit like the head of a ceremonial mace, as well, which adds to the Parliamentary feel. All in all a good logo.
16. The Court of Appeal
Back in the UK we have the not very well rendered logo of the Court of Appeal. It’s not the worst judicial logo we’ll see today, but it’s not very good. It feels very hand drawn and vectorised which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just looks quite unprofessional compared to other logos, and this is the national judiciary, they ought to look professional.
17. The Judiciary of England and Wales
The Judiciary do in fact look more professional when their logo is displayed better and with a bit more shading. This feels very like a slightly more detailed version of the Government logo, and isn’t very good for it. The text also appears to have been added in later and doesn’t fit very well. However the Judiciary’s use of the logo is smart and makes up for its shortfalls.
18. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was the UK’s Supreme Court until 2008 when we got a Supreme Court. Their logo leaves quite a lot to be asked for, and the strange curve of Arial text round the bottom doesn’t add much to it. The Garter circlet is nice but the rest is forgettable and standard, only the text makes it a bad logo, per se.
19. The Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of British Columbia
Anybody who has been involved in the internet heraldry community will have noticed at a glance what has been done here, and it hasn’t even been done very well. Wikimedia heraldist Sodacan’s standard emblazonment of Her Majesty’s coat of arms has been taken as a vector, and then an outline setting has been applied to it, giving all of the complex shading an outline which makes the lion and unicorn look gaunt and starved and everything look too detailed. It’s not gone very well for British Columbia, and they could easily make a better monochromatic logo using Sodacan’s emblazonment. It’s impressive how far Sodacan’s work has spread however.
20. The Provincial Court of British Columbia
I’ve seen this one before as well. It looks a lot like the royal family’s logo, or at least a variant of it, coloured yellow. It’s really not going well for British Columbia’s judicial graphic design today.
21. The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador
Staying in Canada we have a very low quality logo which again I have seen before, and appears to be the same as the Judiciary of England and Wales’ logo. The same criticisms apply. I also wonder who came up with any of these versions first, as they seem to repeat so often.
22. The Supreme Court of Victoria
A unique logo, but a strange one, featuring very dark supporters and a very light shield. This has the same problem of some areas being nicely shaded and others not shaded at all that the Royal Family’s logo faces. The shield, motto, garter circlet, and the crown, are all really nicely done however and I’d like to see a whole emblazonment done in this style.
23. HM Government of Gibraltar
The only government logo thus far to feature the helm and crest, and the helm at least is done well, though I don’t like the enormous crown atop it. There’s a lot going on but it manages it well enough and certainly screams ‘government logo’. Pretty good.
Conclusion
I know, I keep saying “this one has the best x”, so I better make good on my abilities as a graphic designer and cobble together the perfect royal arms from all of these. And I would like to, only I can’t get vector files of most of these to cobble bits from, and they’re all so wildly different that it would be hard to mesh them anyway. Maybe at some point I’ll make a perfect royal coat of arms, and come back and edit that into the end of this article, but for now, most of the current royal arms in use as logos are a bit rubbish, but that’s just how the world is, and they’re all rubbish in their own ways.
