Yeah, it’s a lot of money.
We haven’t done it either.
We did look into it for the Wing though and the chap was very helpful with advice regarding the process and his thoughts about our current Wing badge. We’ve not pursued it yet though.
We kept the same crest only I updated ours to be crisper and clean looking compared to our last crest we’d had for many many years. I have noticed many Sqn’s in my wing have done similar and tweaked theirs which slightly differs from their original and no one has said anything.
How much did your crest differ from the one you were updating from?
Several years ago our Wing gave out a short ‘heads up’ of the sort of things that were not allowed on a unit crest - aircraft (??) being one of the banned items. They gave a contact to the officer who guides you through the process of obtaining a new crest design - who I contacted to ask if there was a document as to what was allowed etc. As has been alluded to, the process is to give them a run down of what you want, and they design a crest that will be allowable - for the before mentioned £500.
In the end, we decided to leave things as they were - and have carried on using our current crest (which is currently on a great number of branded clothing items - polo shirts etc.).
No other feedback / grief from anyone, and it’s been a while.
Some sort of guide would be useful - so units could see what is (or isn’t) allowable on a crest - but it seems there isn’t anything available.
The whole College of Arms approval thing is unnecessarily expensive and that £1000 or so would be much better spent on stuff which directly benefits the cadets
For that reason most squadrons elect to completely bin off getting their badges officially approved (and you can’t blame them). There’s a template on the ACC drive which is very good and provides the correct fonts and design - all you have to sort out is the middle bit.
I don’t believe there is a document saying ‘you can use this but not aircraft unless you’re within 5nm of a flock of migratory birds’, which essentially leaves anyone who’s not going down the official route to choose what they please. I find personally that the simple designs that reflect something locally significant work best.
Although it’s the fact that too many people with a terrible lack of good taste have “done as they please” which lead to all the fuss over unauthorised badges.
I would have hoped that the Corps would have taken a slightly more active stance on the issue, giving guidance and local ‘approval’ where (quite obviously) few units can justify spending £500 on a whim.
You’re absolutely correct. Too many of the home made badges are gopping. Look at the region ones, you’d think out of anyone that they would do it right. If a document was made to provide even basic guidance standards would increase two or three-fold.
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That ship has sailed, if they wanted Squadrons to play by a set of rules they needed to get involved 25 years ago when embroidered clothing really took off, Squadrons own made badges are now too deeply embedded in units and many if not most would just tell HQAC to take a running jump if they tried to change things now.
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It could be done. as long as the timescale was long enough. The issue is that they lack the will, and even the ability to get the rules they have written on unit shirts right.
And all it would take is the guts to say “Tough luck. Your badge is totally unacceptable. Either fix it or stop using it”.
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The rules on units shirts only apply if they are being worn as 3A anyway (and they are another too late should’ve done it 25 years ago situation as many of us are attached to our Colours).
And all it would take is a few Squadron OC’s to go “or what?” for that bluff to fall through.
Administrative action for those renegade OCs then.
What are they going to do? Quit? Fine… Then the next person can toe the line when it comes to badges.
The answers “But we’ve had it for x number of years”, or “But we’ve put it on our minibus at great expense” is not a good enough justification for using some of the utterly awful designs out there.
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Yeah, but they make no sense as rules. Read them, a) they ignore all the previous practice on badging placement, b) the picture they used to demo the new rules doesn’t comply with the rules!
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The ones that are the right colour, the right font and the right crown should be allowed to stay. But the gopping, awful, blue with laurels, HM crown ones in calibri 12 ought to be burned and then the ashes burned again.
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Ultimately if it’s not acceptable then it’s not acceptable. It’s a simple as that.
If a Sqn had a badge featuring a big spliff, or a swastika, nobody would hesitate to say “THAT image is not going to be associated with our organisation! I don’t care how much the livery on your minibus cost… IT GOES!”. In those extreme cases I don’t think we’d find much by way of opposition on here.
So clearly the only matter would be for HQ to decide what is acceptable and what isn’t - and that’s where some leeway can be granted.
Sure, some people will get their noses put out of joint but, as I say, it’s tough luck.
Which is fine and I agree in principle, but what about units who were formally given the regular Squadrons Crest so that it didn’t die with the Squadron, it was done lots in the past and was acceptable, are we going to overrule that too?
Yes because it’s against our values and those of our parent society. Having the wrong font or a motto in the wrong langue or god forbid the numbers or indents, no one outside the college of arms or a very small society of pendants gives a stuff!
To which the response would be if you don’t care how much it costs are you going to pay for it to be changed plus all the internal signs, the squadron sports kit and all the cadets T-Shirts, Hoodies and Fleeces? If not sod off would be the response of many a Squadron OC and unless you know of a box of spare Officers somewhere to replace problem with there would be nothing they could do to enforce it.
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Regulations change, people must adapt
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Which is where the leeway can be applied.
But if a Sqn has a badge which is deemed to be unacceptable then they must toe the line. If that means they’ve wasted money that is their problem.
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Our squadron badge redesign is fantastic, it captures elements of the local area and commemorates a local RAF Station that is no longer… it looks really professional…
The thing that got me was the squadron motto had to be changed as it was deemed to aggressive.
Can’t have it all!
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What was it? Asking for a friend