The Imagery of the Worshipful Company of Silverfists...

For the first Silverfists blog entry, I wanted to give a bit more context for the company and its imagery.

During high school art class, I started sketching a logo that featured a smudged fist holding a pencil. Inspired by the way my hand would routinely be covered in graphite after a drawing session, I developed an image to suggest that creative abandon. At that point, I wasn’t sure what I would use it for – perhaps a symbol for a future design firm? Fast forward 20 years and the logo finds life as the central symbol for the Worshipful Company of the Silverfists.

This time the original logo is joined by two additional fists. They clutch a non-photo blue pencil, a micron pen, and a watercolor brush, suggesting sketching, inking, and coloring, steps in the illustration process. The multiple fists also point to the collective nature of the company – illustration isn’t an individual effort.

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Originally, the members planned on labeling the group The Silverfists but as we learned more about medieval trade guilds, we expanded the name to The Worshipful Company of Silverfists. As noted on the about page, this curious designation gives homage to the historic yet still active trade guilds or livery companies of London.

With this title, there was potential to include a full heraldic achievement (such as the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass achievement on the right) and thus the larger logo was developed. 

​As heraldry requires a variety of elements, we began to seek out additional meaningful symbols.

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Our shield includes the previously mentioned graphite smudged fists trefoil, holding the illustration tools.

It is complete with primary colors, harkening to red, yellow, and blue as the building blocks of all color.

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Our supporters include our cats, Momo (dexter supporter) and Mooch (sinister supporter – sorry, Mooch). 

Momo 

Mooch

They are rearing in battle as is unfortunately too often the case. They stand on books, linking the silverfists with both illustrated story and sketchbooks.

Walnut

Oak

The mantle that wreaths the helmet includes both a walnut and oak branch. They are local floral for us in Iowa, and both are sources of beautiful drawing inks via walnuts and oak galls.

 The Helm is a rendition of Keith Kogane’s paladin helmet from the Netflix series Volton: Legendary Defender. 

The crest perched on the helmet is an homage to Momo the flying lemur from the series Avatar: the Last Airbender (the namesake of the previously mentioned cat).

The Silverfists firmly agree that both Voltron and Avatar are classics of modern animation in both imagery and story - more on that in a future post. We anticipate both the silverfist helm and crest changing at points to reflect the wide variety of our cultural interests.

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Finally, beneath the shield is the banner that contains the Silverfist motto. 

Though I took Latin class in highschool, that was too long ago, so I am trusting google that this phrase roughly translates to proclaim...

Proudly We Bare Our Silver Fists!

- Matt