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Heritage Line has over 9,000 standard emblems including many civic and fraternal organizations, religious groups, government agencies, and armed services............. These emblems are often available in an assortment of sizes to fit different-sized plaques.......... Heritage Line has over 9,000 standard emblems including many civic and fraternal organizations, religious groups, government agencies, and armed services. These emblems are often available in an assortment of sizes to fit different-sized plaques..........

   NOTE: Many find this page directly, searching for "armed services logos" & "military seals". Please click those links, or Patriotic Tributes II for more service emblems. Visit Standard Cast Plaques for a wide array of "government plaques", and "Up" for our main Cast Plaques Page for full cast plaque information.

Portraits

   Portraits of people, places & events may be added to a plaque using a variety of techniques. Best method depends upon artwork available, final appearance desired and budget. Click most images for enlargements.

 

Flat Relief Portraits

An economical alternative to a bas-relief, method begins with a black & white subject rendering. Once approved, a photopolymer pattern is produced. A raised image two-level metal casting is either manufactured & applied to the cast plaque, or cast integrally.

     

Bas-Relief Portraits

  Sculptors use photographs to model a low relief clay image of the subject. Once approved, a sand mold is made as is a cast metal version. The cast bas-relief is hand-finished & attached to the base plaque.

   Commonly associated with portraits, bas-reliefs are also effective for depicting buildings, historical vignettes & logos.

Many find the distinction between Bas Relief and Flat Relief imagery confusing. Enlarge, compare & contrast the treatments below. Bas is sculptural, where the image undulates. Flat isn't; it's either upper level A or lower level B; no dimensions in between. Think of bas reliefs = "rolling hills", flat reliefs = "plateaus". Click Here for audio/visual explanation.

Portrait Options Above:

Click on any of three small images and

larger image opens in a new window.

House on Left is Sculptural: Bas relief.

 House on Right is not:

It's Flat relief (image raised 3/32" above surface).
   

Steps for receiving a traditional, clay molded bas relief plaque attachment:
Step One: Submit Picture Step Two: Review your hand-sculpted clay molded image. Step Three: The image is cast.

Step Four: The image is attached to the base plaque.

PictureCast Portraits: Up to 10": Add $649. These portraits have a minor sculptural aspect to them...

and look exactly like the provided photo.
Visit PictureCast Page for an economical alternative to Bas-relief plaques.

Cast Bronze Plaque Etched Portraits Appliqués

   Process utilizes a halftone dot pattern acid-etched on a metal plate. The recessed dots are filled to contrast with the satin-finished background. Best photographs have high contrast with bright white areas, dense black areas & minimal grey tones. Monotone photos or those having muted colors produce poor halftone etchings.

 

MetalPhoto™ Portraits

   MetalPhoto uses a photosensitive aluminum sheet, available in satin or gold-tone aluminum. Sheet is exposed using a film negative made from a photograph using a UV light source. Image is produced in a permanent image on the plate. Largest size available: 20" x 24".

   MetalPhoto is recommended when art available is extremely detailed or the image itself does not have a lot of contrast.

Emblems - Standard

Options available to enhance a plaque using standard or custom emblems & custom portraits. We offer over 9,000 standard emblems for civic & fraternal organizations, religious groups, government agencies & armed services. Available in assortment of sizes to fit different-sized plaques. May be flat or bas-relief. Check for availabilities. One standard emblem included for no extra charge. Additional emblems: $30.00 each.

Flat Relief

Bas-relief

Emblems - Custom

Virtually any emblem, seal or logo can be cast in two ways:

Flat Relief Emblems

  Line details are raised the same height as the raised copy. Required camera-ready art or an electronic file to photographically reproduce the emblem.

Bas-relief Emblems

   Many emblems & logos tend to a multi-level design. The image will be sculpted in clay from your artwork or modeled using a 3-D model maker.

          

For Flat Relief imagery lines must be crisp with separation between them to be castable.

Here's an example of a Recent Line Art Project:

   Volunteer Fire Department wanted an "Old-Timey Hook & Ladder" on a cast bronze plaque as line art. They had no artwork. (Neither we nor most others have files for every image imaginable). We recommended they find clip art on a website like Microsoft ClipArt Online.

   Customer struck out with search. "Out of the goodness of our heart" (read: "A Momentary Lapse of Reason") we offered: "Find a picture that you like and we'll make it castable for a vector-art-only-charge." BUT: There's tons more to it. Subjective decisions direct how "tones" are treated as lines & shapes, raised & recessed areas...an arduous process.

We--like many--outsource overseas to be competitive. (Outsourced art costs 10% of US labor.) Our Indian source does a great job...when instructions are followed. Instructions were:

Please see attached...I DO NOT NEED ART FOR EITHER casting_art.jpg OR custom-flat.gif OR example_fire_truck.gif IMAGES. Those...are attached ONLY to provide guide for how emblems need to be treated.... CONSIDERATIONS: Do not provide a background for the Fire Truck.jpg image. The truck will be silhouetted as per example_fire_truck. Please use raised vs recessed treatments on that...as guide for this [project]. ...Silhouetted Fire Truck.jpg truck is 8 5/8" x 4" on final plaque. Lines must be at least 1/8" thick--in finished size-- in order to...cast."

Image Enlargements Open in New Windows.
Originally submitted image. Received tonal image.

No tones or colors were requested, stipulated on previous projects. Line art is either Black/Raised, or White/Recessed. Skipping several Instruction Files and Notes here, we then proceeded with:

"Unlike your submission, it's not possible to have a different-colored background to differentiate the background from the recessed areas... Therefore... all needs to be [done] with lines & shapes. Please see attached. What's black is black. What's pink is black. When they butt... the area all becomes black. THESE ARE THE RAISED AREAS...alterations in pink so you'd...see the changes.

...What's white is white. What's blue is white. YOUR GREY "BACKGROUND" IS ALSO WHITE. THESE AREAS ARE RECESSED. When they butt ...the area becomes white...I did the alterations in blue so you'd...see the changes. Note that many lines have been beefed up--steering wheel, etc.-- BEFORE AND AGAIN NOW--so that they're castable (at least 1/8" thick)."

When that still didn't soak in, we drew & submitted:
   
 
Here is the Ultimate Result:
 
PUNCHLINE: Consider submitting your own usable line art to save time & money. Or request an Etched Plaque attachment of your image instead. Art creation is a discretionary, time-intensive process, regardless of who does the art, and...."Time is Money"....