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| My take on a seal with arms for Woodberry Forest School. Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2024. |
Not terribly far from Richmond, Virginia is Woodberry Forest School, a preparatory school for boys and young men established in 1889. For the longest time I've admired the simplicity of the school's coat of arms, but never dug into their origins. Recently, I needed to render the arms and armorial flag for a project and this gave me pause to begin thinking critically about this straightforward design.
There is little (and I mean little) information regarding WFS' coat of arms; however, its clear that the school community highly cherishes this symbol as the arms literally adorn every item in the bookstore. I've only seen the arms set within a wafer style seal bearing the school's name and date of establishment. I've added their version below for reference.
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Official seal and coat of arms of Woodberry Forest School. Image source: WFS website. Fill the field! This heraldic design rule always rang loudly whenever I encountered WFS' arms. Yet, when I finished my emblazonment recently I had a "grinchy" change of heart. I actually like the simplicity of the design, though not a big fan of stains such as "tenne." From what I can observe, the arms also a "cant" or heraldic pun on the school's name--three trees to create a forest, get it? It is clever. Orange and black are the school's livery colors; it appears that from some desired need to incorporate those tinctures in a design of new arms resulted in the orange stained chevron. I think I just didn't like the school's version where everything appears flimsy and rather small. |
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| Coat of arms of Woodberry Forest School. Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2024. |
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| Armorial flag of Woodberry Forest School. Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2024. |
