This crest represents The Schippers which includes my husband Ben, our amazing daughter Aurelia and me. Ben is 100% Dutch, his ancestors road around on barges and sold sand in the Netherlands. My ancestry includes Irish, English, Scottish, French and German- a myriad of nationalities and not one I care to try and represent via flags, etc. This crest is about who we are as a family unit. The computer represents Ben and I- He programs I wield the wacom and design stuff. The flame represents the three of us, the tiny blue bit is Raily- the hottest part of the flame and the most important thing to us. The slogan love, love, love is a motto to live by and also a pretty damn fine song by the mountain goats, who happen to be my favorite band of all time and whose music daily keep my ass in my  chair which in turn helps keep the family fed. The "laurels" represent Ben's family, who grew asparagus and sold it so they could take camping trips to National Parks. It is also a representation of my childhood on a cherry farm and our attempt at being farmers this year in our local community garden. The westphalia is one of our dreams and when Raily is a little bigger we hope to spend time as a famly fixing one up and taking her on camping  trips. The color scheme is also borrowed from 1970's vehicles. They dont make cars in Goldenrod anymore or maybe they do, either way I thought it worked well to represent us, a little earthy, a little off. I made a few versions, one that is straight vector, one that has a poorly printed look to it ( like it would if I tried to Gocco it) and a shirt with only two colors because I work in the screenprint industry and I know how crazy expensive this thing would be. This was a great journey and my only regret is that I didnt somehow put my two black cats in the crest, so for now lets just pretend they are curled up napping in a sunbeam in the back of that bus. Cheers!