Foreword

This project was inspired by one of my earlier projects, called “Small World”. Since I was always fascinated with heraldic images, the very logical step was to explore state heraldry, such as coats of arms of different countries. The most captivating feature of such images was their ability to convey essence of the whole country in a very precise, compact and yet, visually striking form.  However, my earlier “Small World” project was not systematic, the order and choice of countries was somewhat erratic, and not quite unified in terms of styles and artistic approaches. I always felt that this could be done differently, bigger and better. This is how the idea of the “World Heraldry 3D” project was born. The plan was to recreate and gather under one roof state heraldry images of all the existing modern countries of the world, as well some of the historical ones, utilizing my unique Multi-Layer Enhancement & Texturing Technique (M-LETT 2.5D), which helps me to highlight the true beauty of such images. Not a single country missed, all in alphabetical order. For each country would be represented by four distinct designs:  a coat of arms, a map overlaid with country flag, and two variations of the above-mentioned designs combined, as you can see in the Canada’s example below.

Also, each article will have a brief intro about the country itself, and wherever possible, some background on the coat of arms. I will also be giving highlights on some of my techniques and tools used to create each design. In this project I will be relying on the “List of sovereign states” provided by Wikipedia, as well as on some other sources.  Quoting Wikipedia, “…Compiling a list such as this can be a difficult and controversial process, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerning the criteria for statehood. For more information on the criteria used to determine the contents of this list, please see the criteria for inclusion. At the time of this writing, the list contains 206 entries. As soon as the entire list of sovereign states is covered, I will move to the next stage of the project, which will involve all countries and territories, which were not included in the above list. When Stage II is done, I will be moving to Stage III, covering administrative divisions, such as states, provinces, republics, etc., eventually moving down to a town/city level. 

As always, the designs will be available on a limited number of selected quality products via my “World Heraldry” galleries at Zazzle. You may simply follow the direct links in the article to navigate to the corresponding galleries.

I will also make my designs available free of charge for non-commercial use to any government and military officials of the corresponding countries, as well as for non-commercial and personal use, such as school projects, presentations, forum avatars to businesses and individuals. 

Obviously, the project is fairly massive and extremely exciting, and I am definitely in it for a long haul. So, stay tuned and visit often…