Medal Design Info -- ***Submission deadline has passed***

[Heather]

The deadline to get your medal submission in is Wed, April 10. All entries will received will then be posted on the medal design site by Thursday, April 11.

If you have a design, e-mail it to me at kswm30b@yahoo.com
Subject line "MK Medal designs." Please try to make the file size as small as possible (at least less than 100k), either .gif or .jpg format. Files in the bmp format can't be posted, so please convert it to .gif or .jpg format. Thanks.

All submitted designs will be posted here:
heatherw.com/medal/ (http://heatherw.com/medal/)

Voting will last approximately 3 weeks, but more details on that will be posted later (such as start date.)

editing to say that the deadline for submissions has passed. The only other design that might be added is one I'm expecting via snail mail, but hasn't arrived yet.

[Yankees Suck 01]

Can I ask one favor.
When you post a poll on which one we like the best can you make individual poll for the front and back.



I like one person's front idea and another persons's back idea.



????????????? Just wondering.?

[venrayee]

bump

[Heather]

YS-The voting details aren't worked out yet, but they probably will be so that you can vote for things you want from all different medals. I don't know if there will be a back. Read skatingfan5's message from her contacting NWT.

venrayee-You don't need to bump this topic. It is a sticky topic, which means that it stays on the top. I saw that you have been bumping a lot of posts lately. Is there any reason for that?

[venrayee]

bump

[loving moolah beach 298]

Stop bumping please

[kyla]

Nice designs everyone but I am partial to Lisa's and Janice's is great as well.

[QUAD LUTZ]

Ohh Lisa I love your design it made me cry...

One word to describe it
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Kwanderful<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

[Heather]

Two more medal designs were added today.

[kwanzababe]

Iskatgal--Sylvia,
That is the most wonderful design!!! I was about to submit one, saw yours, and said "WOW!" That is so perfect!
I love it!

For whichever medal we all choose, I think a stiped ribbon(a band of gold, silver and bronze) would be so beautiful...everyone has done such an incredible job!

[Terri]

That's funny, I was thinking the same thing about the ribbon. I don't know if NWTM will have one so maybe we should all keep an eye out for such a ribbon the next time we visit the sewing or art store.

[Miss Duffy]

They are all so nice!!! This is going to be a tough choice! :b

[iloveskating]

or red white & blue for the ribbon

[Heather]

The medal page has been updated with a few more submissions (don't forget, the deadline is Wednesday!), as well as michellekwansfan's diagram to help with the voting. So, check it out if you haven't in the last few days.

[Cole50]

I LOVE the inscription Shallah has come up with......and maybe we could add "We're very proud of you" as well.....

I just really, really like that inscription A LOT! :)

[shell4mk]

These are some fantastic designs. There are a lot of talented and creative people. I have to agree with Cole50, that's a beautiful inscription Shallah (a lovely design too). It made me teary.

[JinGXionG]

Er... no offence Tom but the chinese words seem a bit inappropriate.
What meaning do you intend to convery?
Maybe I could help

[modicum]

JingXionG,
If you read my comments posted with the design I hope I'm pretty clear that I didn't choose the characters by what they mean, only to show their placement in the design. When I looked up the characters online on some translations sites, frankly there were too many different meanings or characters for words like love, faith, perseverance, and I couldn't decide which ones, so I arbitratily chose ones I thought looked cool from calligraphy artwork, just to show where they would go in the design. (I didn't want to choose one for love and pick a romantic one by accident, or a word for faith that was necessarily religious, etc.)

There has been a lot of previous discussion in the Forum about which characters (words/concepts) we should use, and I am assuming we will choose those separately and incorporate them into to whatever design elements we eventually decide on. Does that make sense? Feel free to suggest specific characters I could use and I could update the design if anyone thinks it's necessary. Also I would like to know what the characters I did use actually mean, so feel free to let me know. I certainly don't want to express anything inappropriate, and assumed what it would end up saying is something nonsensical like "house, cat food, education."

Thanks for any and all input; of course we all want this medal to be the best it can be.

[Jimbo]

Here is one suggestion on what the medal could say.

"You captured our hearts."

Regarding the design of the medal, maybe it could be the shape of a heart, or at least, have an outline of a heart in the design.

These are just a few of my thoughts.

Whatever it is, I am sure it will beautiful and Michelle will love it.

[kwansong99]

I love the "you captured our hearts"... love it! i just love it!

[Terri]

Another thing to be considered is if we want words inscribed on the rim of the medal. We haven't decided which company to use but just about all of the ones mentioned will inscribe words on the rim of the medal. Just a thought.

[modicum]

Excellent point! I hadn't thought of that; it's great because it gives us more space/ways to express our appreciation to Michelle.

[KwanFan4Life]

Y'all, I really, really like Sallah's medal design! If you haven't looked at it yet, you should becuase it's awesome!!! They're all really, really good, but I love Sallah's! It's AWESOME!!! I just had to say that becuase I'm so excited about it! I'm done now! :lol I haven't posted in a while so I hope eveyone is doing well!

Richard :rollin

[modicum]

I just wanted to try and make some specific (and hopefully helpful, or at least hopefully thoughtful) comments about the designs (recusing myself from mine). All of them are really really really (x1000) great, I admire the simple elegance of the beautiful sketches and the thought and care put into the detailed specs. (If I praise a specific design it applies to all designs that used that element. Please forgive me if I make mistakes from my scribbled notes, and please don't take any criticisms personally or any omission as a criticism.)

Shelia
I love the use of smaller Chinese characters a lot, seems really unique, and of course the excellent slogans "Champion of our Hearts" and "You make us proud." Forgive me if the following is weird: My only concern about using the flame, though it may be part of the symbolism of the Phoenix, rising from the ashes and all that, and this may sound horrible, is that on the cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Street Survivors" album cover they were surrounded by fire, and (soon?) thereafter died in a fiery plane crash. (Also in a Vaughan Brothers poster I have Stevie Ray is facing away and sitting in the dark, and soon he was gone.) That may be stupid or superstitious but I always think of it when I see fire used (behind the figure of the skater here), especially given 9/11.

Lisa
Excellent detail and beautiful figure drawings, I especially like the use of the two figures (a couple other people used two or three too I think). I love your Phoenix design too (as long as it's clear that's what it is).
Just in general I feel we should stay away from the use of the multiple 6's even though I appreciate the intent. This was discussed before, but aside from a strictly religious connotation of the 666, it is something that has also leaked into popular culture, from movies like The Omen and other apocalyptic moves and TV shows, and I think that might be the first thing that will come to some people's minds, even if they don't take the religious symbolism literally. Also isn't there something about Chinese superstition and numbers (maybe 6 is good, I don't know)? Someone who knows the culture better will have to answer this.
Also listing every medal is nice, but to me it seems maybe too "clinical" or "factual" or something for a medal, when images can say so much; plus it was discussed before that if she wins any more it will be out of date, and it might look like we are summarizing a career that isn't over yet!? Does that make sense?

Janice
Like the front design a lot, espically the use of the word "Sportsmanship" and "Figure Skating Legend," plus the olive branch, and I like the wording National/World/Olympic Champion on the back, which covers it nicely without having to do the whole list. Once again I'd stay away from the 666s but maybe that's just me.
Also like your inscription around the edge, something like "For Lifetime Achievement, Presented to you by the
Michelle Kwan Forum"; I'd suggest that's something that could appear on a card we give her with the medal, or even better, that might be especially good for the rim of the medal. YES!!! (Unless we don't want to say "Lifetime Achievement" when she hasn't lived a whole lifetime yet?)

Sylvia
Totally LOVE the back design, my favorite I think, and the metallic look you gave to your graphic (which others did quite well too).

grishma
I like the way you've filled the edge with the descriptive words, and also the "Thank You Michelle" is really great.

Shallah
Your front design is absolutely beautiful, mainly the Phoenix part, probably my favorite so far. I guess in the finall design the descriptions around the edge will look smaller and more like they do on a coin or in grishma's. First I wasn't sure I liked the wording OUTSIDE the Phoenix, because the outside of the bird is round, for some reason it looked a bit strange to have the words outside, but I'm liking it much more with time because it might give it kind of a "different" look, to me. Does that make sense? Or would it be possible to spread the Phoenix out more, either to the edge, or maybe just to make some space in the middle, for a few smaller Chinese characters for instance? Also, as far as the back, your inscription is excellent, wonderfully worded and says it all. My only thought is that images work so well for a medal type design, i.e., a picture is worth a thousand words, what if instead we put that beautiful inscription on a keepsake card we give her WITH the medal??

-----
Overall, the Phoenix is a great symbol, the dictionary definition fits well:
"a beautiful, lone bird which lived in the Arabian Desert for 500 or 600 years and then consumed itself in fire, rising renewed from the ashes to a start another long life; a symbol of immortality"
My only question is are we putting too much emphasis on a "crash and burn" ("consumed itself"!!??) sentiment from the Olympics that may have diminished as time has passed? Not saying that necessarily neutralizes the symbolism, just thinking out loud I guess.

I hope those comments are helpful. Also if we need to take it in steps we can probably choose the design elements first, THEN the actual wording, THEN the metal finishes and topography. Does that make sense?

My choices so far, with minor modifications or different words, would be Shallah's front and Sylvia's back!

I guess that's enough from the peanut gallery for now! Thanks for letting me share. :)

[modicum]

Just wanted to add with Lara's new one, I LOVE the way the image of Michelle came out looking in your graphic, like with a slight rainbow/color tint, almost like it might look like if it was crystal over platinum or something. I don't know if there's anything in real life that can look like the image does, but anyway it looks great.

(Also in my previous (long) post about the other designs, I had meant to use "the" instead of "your" so the comments wouldn't sound personal, but I hope it came out OK anyway.)

Thanks again for letting me share. :)

[Shallah]

Modicum I haven't used my graphics program much and was not able to shape the text and apply it well the way I wanted. I wanted the words to perfect encircle the phoenix as a border. If my graphic gets chosen I hope someone with more skill and better program can edit the graphic with the words more neatly and elegantly applied. Also as I am not good with the program I was not able to edit the edges of the image into a circle neatly so I simply left it in the box shape. I like the image of the phoenix as it is a magical and rare creature as Michelle's skating is a magical and rare talent. The phoenix rises again and again like Michelle's skating in that so many keep predicting the end of the Kwan Era. Every year it seems at least one sportswriter tries to pick the next Michelle Kwan to take over at the end of her Era yet Michelle keeps on skating wonderfully :-) That is the parallel for me. Also according to this page here freeman.sob.tulane.edu/48...hoenix.htm (http://freeman.sob.tulane.edu/481/wfung/phoenix.htm) the Phoenix represents the virtues loyalty, honesty, decorum and justice and also represented the "represented power sent from the heavens to the Empress". That suits Michelle as many will describe a magnificent skate as a 'walk with the gods'. To me great art (in whatever form it might take) can give a glimpse of something beyond the everyday, a whisper of something heavenly and glorious. It gives the experiencer a natural high. I get this from many things whether it is the stars in the sky, sunlight on a lake shineing like diamonds, great music, and sometimes in skating and I have a *W*o*W* moment. I am probably babbeling here so please forgive my ramblings :o

[iloveskating]

Wow! I haven't checked the medal designs for about a week or so and I am floored by all the new designs!! You folks are amazing and so creative. And I for one, the non-artiste, appreciates the talent of you who are able to capture our feelings so well. Voting and deciding is going to be really difficult and FUN!! With all the money we're collecting, maybe we can make 3 or 4 medals!!! :lol

I hope everyone knows how much they are giving to this wonderful project and to fellow MKFers. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to use EVERYTHING submitted and I hope none of the artists feel bad if their design or element isn't used in the final medal. I agree that a scrapbook with all of these ideas will be great and will honor Michelle as well as each of the contributing artists.

[Terri]

I love everyone's designs. I don't even know where to begin! Thank you all for sharing your designs with us, I'm sure that Michelle will be touched.

[silliest putty]

WOW
WOW
I am humbled!!
WOW you guys!! Thanks for ALL the time spent--this really is going to pay off! :) :)
thanks, modicum, for all your thoughts :) I agree with them, but there's just one little thing...About Iskatgal's back, I just feel the little graphics don't really "come together" (??).. I really really like the front though :)
that's all for now...


<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> ~the silliest quirkiest putty around<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

[moonface]

All the medal designs are great, but my favorite is Shallah's because it has almost nothing to do with competitions, judging, or Michelle Kwan being the best or a legend. I think her mountains of other medals tell that story. I like that it honors her outstanding character in an elegant way (maybe undaunted courage?) and simply thanks her for allowing us to share her amazing journey in figure skating. Those are my own reasons exactly for wanting her to have the medal. I guess the words could be fine tuned--maybe change the part mentioning "a decade" to make the message timeless and take out the tears and triumphs? I think it's fine all in English since that's her main language. And with the message on there, she'll always know the reason for the medal. I also think it's better that the medal given to her not have her own image on it. But I think the ones that do would make great keepsakes for fans--I'd buy one! Just my thoughts...

[Terri]

Lara, that is a beautiful design! Very simple, but very beautiful.

[Heather]

Several more were added today. Wednesday was the deadline, but there may still be two additions. There is one design that is up, but they e-mailed me today, and I think they meant to send me an updated design, but there was no attachment. I've e-mailed them, and if they meant to send an attachment, I will add that when I get it. Also, someone is supposed to be sending me a design via snail mail. I have not received it yet, and I won't be checking my box again until next week when I get back, but if I get it before we start voting, then that one will be added.

Thank you to everyone who sent in a design! I'm very flexible, so if you send me something today (thursday) before midnight Friday, I'll try to add it. Hopefully I'll be online later today, we'll see.

[mkisthebest]

modicum, thanks for your comments and I can see you put a lot of thought into it. I want to assure you and anyone else having concerns that "6" is in fact a very good number in Chinese culture, it implies prosperity, abundance, affluence, etc., nothing but the good things. It is one of the best numbers for Chinese as opposed to for Westerners.

My design revolves around 6s (something I am very glad to see that other designers also pick up for their designs) because I really want to emphasize her impeccable record of perfect scores which is even harder to achieve once the judging system is overhauled, no one can touch her on this record, she stands tall on all the sixes scores.

I'd really like to see some kind of reference to the 6.0s on the finally design even if you don't like my design because 6-0 also remind me of '06 -- the year of next winter Olympic. Don't get me wrong, I am not pushing the idea of chasing the gold just for the gold, but if it is something that she wants to pursuit for herself down the road, I want her to know that she will have the utmost support from us fans and this medal could be a good karma/good luck charm for her as an encouragement, and it is very subtle, not jinxy; but again, "6" is a very good number.

Finally, one question, didn't you also use 6.0 in your own design, or you just did not like a whole bunch of them?

[modicum]

No I do agree a 6 or better a 6.0 should (I hope) definitely be a part of any design we choose (and I did use one on each side of my design), I just don't particularly like a bunch of them together or in a row, because of the (non-Chinese) symbolism of 666 that could be implied, plus putting all 30 takes up a lot of space that could be used for other things!

[modicum]

moonface (your real name? :) ), your comments about Shallah's (front) design are definitely compelling (even though I would still prefer imagery on the back).

Shallah, Your further description of and link to the Phoenix make it sound more and more perfect as an image to represent Michelle. I mean WOW. (Also I did understand from your notes posted with the design what you meant about the intended look of the graphic, I guess I just meant to restate it.)

silliest putty, as far as the back of Iskatgal's design I suppose I'm the opposite of you; I think the elements come together well but I'm not as happy with them individually (e.g., "Dare to Dream" is a great sentiment but seems more appropriate to someone who hasn't accomplished everything Michelle has).

[iloveskating]

michellekwansfan, I noticed on Heather's site there is a preliminary concept of how the voting will be done. The categories so far look great & will really help us get started on narrowing down the options. A couple of suggestions: Should we include a vote for whether or not there should be back side? If people do want a back side, then we can go through abother round of voting for that (after the front has been decided?). But it seems like we should at least decide up front IF we want a back.

Also, there was comment above (or maybe in another thread) whether or not it is possible to put a diamond or other jewel on the medal. Perhaps we can get an answer to this before we vote.

[Iskatgal]

I am ready to vote! Everyone did a great job, there are now so many designs to choose from!

Shallah.k, I like your front design it’s so different, it looks like etched crystal!

modicum, I like your front and back designs, the Chinese symbols are a nice effect, you have a lot of nice art elements as well, and thank you for the nice comments.

What I meant by Dare to Dream, is that Michelle is only 21 years old and there are things she hasn’t done yet, and we are in store for some amazing skating, hopefully she will continue skating and competing for a long time to come.

As far as my designs are concerned, nothing is set in concrete, any changes can easily be made, I’m very flexible.

Sylvia,

Iskatgal
www.ldynwaitin.hispeed.com/iskatgal/ (http://www.ldynwaitin.hispeed.com/iskatgal/)

[nonpareil]

I used the words "lifetime achievement" in my design to make it very clear that this medal isn't a consolation prize for the Olympic gold. I think it's important that that point is clear. While I agree that many people win lifetime achievement awards when they're near the end of their lives/careers, it doesn't necessarily indicate that Michelle is anywhere near the end of her career.

On another topic. If the part of my design that mentioned Michelle's career achievements (National Champion, World Champion, Olympic Medalist) is selected to be part of the final design, I think the words "Sullivan Award Winner' should be added too.
Janice

[silliest putty]

skatingfan5! I love he picture for your "Front 5" design!! :)
moonface--I agree! I think the focus of the medal should be MICHELLE, but I think the 6's wouldn't be a bad addition :)

have you guys noticed how the designs have gotten steadily more "sophistocated"? (sp??) :D

[smileyllama]

wow.... you guys, I just want to say that you guys all did a GREAT job! Michelle will LOVE this! I'm so proud to be a Kwan fan! I wish I had thought to have gotten involved in the project a while ago! It's just completely past me! Thanks for your good intentions and everything! Hope everything goes well!

Wow.... just WOW!

[deanna35]

My gosh, we have a huge amount of talent among us!! :eek The designs everyone submitted are awe-inspiring, truly. It's so hard to make a decision between them!

At this point, I think I like Lisa's design the best. What a gorgeous "front" design!! I like the concept of including "6's" somehow in the design, but can we somehow change it to 6.0, as someone else suggested? That would be the only change I would make.

Overall, I really loved the design contributions and I'm getting so excited to see the finished medal and have it presented to Michelle.:) :) :)

[mkisthebest]

Deanna35, thanks for your kind remarks! I really think that after we put everyone's idea together, we will have the most beautiful medal ever being produced by real fans, not "businessman," in the world to present to MK!

I did pick up that there is a lot of concerns with just "6", so in my updated designs, I did put 6.0 in the front, just the "0" is in platinum finish behind the Y-spin image of MK, did you catch it? Maybe it is not so obvious but I want to give the golden "6" more room for MK to skate on! I really appreciate all the feedbacks given to me and I do agree that "6" is not as clear as "6.0."

I also want to use this chance to let all the designers know that MICHELLEKWANSFAN is doing a lot of works to try to put everyone's designs into categories on the #3 Planning Thread and we can make her job easier by providing more info on our own designs, but only if you want to, thanks.

[modicum]

iskatgal,

Thank you very much for your comments. (Even if nothing from my design ends up being used) I definitely appreciate the positive feedback.


----
MKGA Keeper of Michelle's spirit.
Self-appointed:
Keeper of the ice on Michelle's knee after her slide during FOG at SLC.
Keeper of the wind beneath Michelle's wings.
Keeper of Michelle's garbage (well there wasn't anything left to choose from! :) )

[Baylor]

I must say that I got so teary-eyed looking at all the designs for the medals! They are wonderful and I know that Michelle will love whatever we decide on.

[skeeter973]

are there any pictures of the final design?

[kwanluv]

What wonderful designs. Can't wait to vote!

[Heather]

The final updates were done to the medal page:
heatherw.com/medal/ (http://heatherw.com/medal/)

One I finally got via snail mail, and the other, since I was adding this one, I added another I recently got. But, now, really, submissions are over. :)

[kwanISgold]

I really liked Kathy's design with the the intermixing of gold, silver and bronze and the "We'll remember you."

The simplicity and the symbolism of the gold, silver and bronze really moved me.

[probativev]

So many of these designs are INCREDIBLE! You guys are just amazing. I don't know how in the world I'm going to vote.

Alexa

[Sharon]

They are all so wonderful and touching. It's going to be so hard to choose. I really hope it's a mixture of <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> all<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> of them since it's obvious a lot of thought and heart went into each and every one :) .

[tateskates]

I just finished looking at everyones ideas for the medals. Oh My God you guys are just so tallented!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. What wonderful jobs. I just couldn't believe how great they look. well good job guys (i wish i was that tallented lol)

[epoibim]

WOW! Those are just breathtaking...it brought tears to my eyes thinking about the joy that we all have in doing this and the fact that we are giving back to Michelle, who has given us so very, very much.

Anyway, I was watching Bud Greenspan's "Michelle Kwan" last night (one more week of bedrest was ordered and I needed to go into serious "Michelle Mode"!) and one coment of hers got my attention and I wanted to post it here. You can do with it what you want, I just wanted to point it out as we decide on a design.

She said something to the tune of "Titles are great, but when the history books are written, I don't want to just be remembered as Michelle who won 96 Worlds, 98 Worlds, 2000, 2001's, but I think it's more important who the person was. I want to be remembered as someone who brought people joy, happiness and just made people feel good."

Well, there's no question she has accomplished that, but I just think we may want to keep away from a medal that just proclaims all of her titles and medals-besides, we'd have to ADD more for the years to come :) -and instead lean more towards "Champion of Our Hearts" or "Legend" or something more like that...just my two cents, thanks for reading!!

~Forever a Champion, Forever a Legend, Forever My Michelle~

[gotspeedyfingers]

OK, I don't want to sound like a complete idiot, but where can I go to see the medal designs?! Someone, please guide me!!

[Shallah]

heatherw.com/medal/ (http://heatherw.com/medal/)

[luenatic]

I really like MKISTHEBEST (Lisa)'s front medal design. Just lovely. Great job you guys/gals. Can't wait to vote!!!

[Cole50]

I too love Lisa's front design.......
And I love Shallah's inscription on the back, it's so beautifully worded and really says what we all feel........

I like the list of accomplishments, but what about the ones to come?? And I would want Michelle to look back on it and know it wasn't about what she did or didn't do, but how she touched our hearts......

When does voting start?