NEMO Coat of Arms

Since the original NEMO “N” shield logo was designed to resemble a medieval shield, we’ve been itching to make NEMO’s very own coat of arms for a while. Last July, I started to design the crest, which we eventually put on a NEMO tshirt. Here’s a closer look at some of the details.

1. I wanted to put in an airbeam because this is one of NEMO’s main technologies. On this upper part of the airbeam, you see the inflation valve and the deflator cap (pretty true to the real construction), which helps the airbeam from looking like a boring black tube. The poles on the other side (#4) make a good counterpart to the airbeam – and rounds out the symmetry in the crest.


2. The upper left section of the shield is a graphic element that I thought fit in well with the rest of the shield elements. The diagonal stripes are one of the more common design details I’ve seen found in medieval shields.


3. This radiating burst is another graphic element. It helps the shield look less empty up top. I originally tried an illustrated eagle head up there, but it looked a little weird and creepy.



4. The aluminum poles are the counterpart to the airbeam. Originally, I had tried things like katanas (inspiration) and ice tools (more outdoorsy) there, but it made more sense to put the ‘weapons’ in NEMO’s arsenal – namely airbeam technology and pole technology. There’s a little sheen to the poles so they don’t look so flat. Here's what the ice tool version looks like. Ignore the dragon among the leaves...



5. The upper right section of the shield are birch leaves. The color of our green tents is inspired from the green color of birch leaves.


6. This is the original NEMO “N” shield.


7. This black shield around the “N” helps the white “N” pop a little more. I didn’t bother making it follow the curves of the “N”; instead it’s a more elongated version of the bigger shield.


8. These flourishes are inspired from a few details I had seen in other coat of arms. They are a standard graphic element from that era too.



9. Adventure Anywhere™ is a NEMO tagline that we often use. I wanted to use a script font that was similar in style to the way “NEMO” is written in the center. Earlier, I had tried a more medieval font (like this) , but it started to look like something for Zelda.



10. The compass represents NEMO’s attention to detail and design.


11. The tail of the eagle is a lot more geometric than the wings. There was no real reason for this other than the fact that I thought it looked cool. The style is reminiscent of German/Russian/Eastern Bloc representations of eagles.



12. The ‘NEMO’ was originally suppose to look carved in, but I played around with the style and liked this embossed look better.


13. The edge binding on this banner is a detail that mimics the edge binding found on our tents.


14. The banner is another common element found on many coats of arms. Here's one example that was one of my inspirations



15. Bet you didn’t notice this barrel I snuck in here. There a some surfers here in the office and I thought this would be a good shout out. Originally, there was a lot more froth and detail in the wave but I decided that it would have been lost in the print job.



16. The mountains you see here were originally the NEMO mountains. Before that, they were trees.
    
    In the end, I decided to simplify it all and make it a more symbolic representation of the mountains that we all play in and are inspired by.


17. These are eagle wings (a flying eagle is a key part of the NEMO logo). They are fairly realistic (more so than the tail). They add some drama to the coat of arms.

-Bill