Retrocentrics' Club Emblem and Tie

[RWS]

. . . . As to colors for the rosette, were we to adopt the Villon motto, I'd suggest white with lilac. Or, in honor of the tortoise, should it be chosen, marine blue with solar gold or lunar sliver.

RWS, do we need to avoid any famous color combinations?

White with lilac strikes me as excellent. No likely mistake for any order or society that I´m aware of, either, with this pretty combination.

A quick anecdote. A few years ago I wore the rosette of a particular American hereditary society while visiting Argentina: I thought its light blue and white an unobtrusive homage to a country I have such fondness for. It took me a few weeks to recognize that the salute from a military sentry posted not far from where I was staying, and past whose post I habitually walked, was for me and not for someone behind me: the rosette of the Cincinnati is identical to the Order of the Liberator, awarded to outstanding foreigners for services to the Argentine nation.

I am reminded of the canting blazon produced by an old friend of mine for a fictional 17th-century mercenary. "Captain Duncan Carruthers: Or, seven vert ewes displayed."

Thank goodness that my own are not canting arms! It would be a bit of a bluster to bear them.

[storeynicholas]

RWS - I think that the lilac and white would be difficult to accommodate the tortoise motif and, maybe a striped field club tie as well as the house tie is over-ambitious. Maybe the marine blue with lunar silver motifs of the tortoise? I am really not sure how we are to settle this!! Any ideas?
NJS

[Swark]

An idea for the crest might be a shield background with two colours one half of the shield in colour x the other half in colour y with the tortoise in the middle, at the top of the crest where a helm would be in a coat of arms you could place a depiction of the eccentrics club clock with a large base so as to have it sitting completely over the shield and underneath the shield have the motto on a scroll, this is fairly heavily based on the structure of a coat of arms.

[marcelo]

Dear Marcelo,

I suppose the tortoise doesn't want to live 100 years either when it's 35. But when it reaches 75 and realizes it's still able to enjoy a good swim...

The prospect of living a truly long life reminds me of an obituary I once read in The Economist (Oct 19th 2006), on the life of the Mr Benito Martínez Abrogán, the man who is reported to have lived the longest life one knows of. At the age of 108 he decided it was time to stop smoking. He passed peacefully away aged around 120. In saying that I do not intend myself to live that long, I had in mind the supposition that longevity do only matters to the extent that it enables one to have more of a life worth living, but the life worth living may be one which in its turn will not necessary lead one to be able to swim around as long as our Tortoise does. Yet, if one eventually happens to have the fortune of having the life worth living, by being e.g. amongst like-minded gentlemen in the premises of the Retrocentrics' Club for as long time our Mascot swims, so much the better.

I endorse some suggestions already made:
Motto: Ou sont les neiges d'antan.
Mascot: giant Galapagos tortoise.

[storeynicholas]

. . . . As to colors for the rosette, were we to adopt the Villon motto, I'd suggest white with lilac. Or, in honor of the tortoise, should it be chosen, marine blue with solar gold or lunar sliver.

RWS, do we need to avoid any famous color combinations?

White with lilac strikes me as excellent. No likely mistake for any order or society that I´m aware of, either, with this pretty combination.

Every club needs a nut and I unhesitatingly volunteer!! I have completely changed my mind and I do like the lilac and white stripe idea: it has the same distinctiveness as the 'salmon and cucumber' of the Garrick or the 'bacon and eggs' of the MCC and, if anything, it is much more elegant while at the same time, probably, avoiding any clash with another club and clearly marking out members for each other when meeting in the world's great cities. The University College London tie is indigo with a thinner light blue stripe and is, similarly, unmistakable. However, if our tie has equal stripes, what about the tortoise which, at the moment, seems to be out in front as the mascot?
Here is a design (colours not quite right - but just to illustrate:



[img][img]http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg55 ... stripe.jpg[/img]

The alternative is stripes of equal width. I suppose that one could interpolate a logo of the tortoise in, maybe silver.
NJS[/img]

[Costi]

I now realize the irony in the association of the mascot and Villon's verse: the tropical tortoise wondering where the snows of yesteryear are
IF a house club tie is to be designed I would suggest either a blue (sea) or gold (sand) background, with green tortoises (even though the creature is more brown and grey) arranged in a minute a la Hermes pattern (so the animal's contour is not immediately noticed). Tortoises swimming in a hot red sea might be reminiscent of tortoise soup and would go better with whale bones...
But I very much like the clock idea and I think we should not miss it. Again IF the clock were built with an inverted dial and clockwise rotating hands, the club crest or house club tie could succesfully be designed around it, as it would make sense in a static picture, too. Besides, it would show that the Retrocentric doesn't go backword, it moves forward, only its frame of reference is different. Much like crayfish (which is another interesting idea for a mascot!).

[Costi]

On a practical note, if the clock were built as described above, we could easily (and less expensively) commission the making of a limited edition of wristwatches, because they would not require a special mechanism. The watch could have two crab claws for hands, if it were the mascot (they have one longer and one shorter claw from Mother Nature, who obviously designed the creature with the perspective of the Retrocentrics' club in mind).
One more practical aspect is that, if we look at the clock / watch ignoring the dial, we can still tell the time quite easily (which is not the case with a reversed mechanism).

[marcelo]

Shouldn’t we also consider the confection of cufflinks with an embossed effigy of our tortoise in addition to necktie, crest, and rosette?

[storeynicholas]

On ties, it seems likely that a minimum order for a bespoke design is around 5 dozen - so we really need to aim for a minimum of 60 members.
NJS

[Swark]

If for no other reason than the learning experience you can count me in.

[marcelo]

A giant Galapagos Tortoise, it seems, spends more time upon the surface than under water. At any rate I have not been able to track any picture of our reptile in swimming activities. This might be reason, then, to prioritize “gold (sand)” over a “blue (sea)”. Actually, even some shade of green might be considered, for it is the background colour in most of the pictures depicting the Tortoise in its natural habitat.

[storeynicholas]

A giant Galapagos Tortoise, it seems, spends more time upon the surface than under water. At any rate I have not been able to track any picture of our reptile in swimming activities. This might be reason, then, to prioritize “gold (sand)” over a “blue (sea)”. Actually, even some shade of green might be considered, for it is the background colour in most of the pictures depicting the Tortoise in its natural habitat.

They do not seem to be aquatic and normally sit around on golden sands, surrounded by greenery and the blue of the ocean.
NJS

[marcelo]

They do not seem to be aquatic and normally sit around on golden sands, surrounded by greenery and the blue of the ocean.
NJS

Such an idyllic life, such a polychromatic form of existence... But the reproduction of such a plethora of colours along with a tiny representation our Tortoise would be aesthetically feasible on the surface of a necktie?

[dopey]

I am disappointed at the rush to impose uniformity. Homogenization is precisely what we must be against. I have no objection to fixing a single mascot but I have a hard time understanding why it must be the same one for everyone, day in and day out. Why can't our official mascot be the tortoise and also the Pine Vole, depending on the whim of the member? Surely neither will be offended.

[storeynicholas]

I am disappointed at the rush to impose uniformity. Homogenization is precisely what we must be against. I have no objection to fixing a single mascot but I have a hard time understanding why it must be the same one for everyone, day in and day out. Why can't our official mascot be the tortoise and also the Pine Vole, depending on the whim of the member? Surely neither will be offended.

This would be a truly pragmatic solution!! We do however, need to find agreement - even if it is this - but then what of the tie?
NJS