Moose Jaw artist Erin Zimmerman recently collaborated with Stephen Damery, a medical technician in Winnipeg, to design the official unit crest for 23 Canadian Forces Health Services, a unit that includes Moose Jaw, Dundurn, Thunder Bay, and Winnipeg.
"So, Stephen Damery used to be a med tech here in Moose Jaw, and he's in Winnipeg now, but he and I teamed up to design this unit crest," Zimmerman explained in an interview with MooseJawToday.com.
Zimmerman is a former member of the military who now works as a full-time public service employee at 15 Wing Canadian Forces Base.
"Stephen came up with the symbolism and did the research behind all of that. They sent me the information from that and asked if I could put something together. And we're really proud of how it turned out."
Zimmerman said it was enjoyable to put together a story and hear the context behind each of the crest's elements — The bison is for Winnipeg, the wheat is for Saskatchewan, and the trillium flowers at the bottom represent Thunder Bay.
"I put the snake in, and the whole crest is in very Saskatchewan and prairie colours, because medical is supposed to be adaptable to their environments. I tried to keep everything very shape-oriented and not too detailed, because it has to be scalable and that way it won't look too messy. And then, the way the fields are lying is reminiscent of the provinces."
The crest has no crown, which means it is for unit use only and received final approval from 23 CF Health Services' commander. It will be used for all unit memorabilia, awards, and correspondence. Zimmerman said she'd loved to work on a national-level crest at some point, which would require a much longer design and approval process.
Zimmerman said the graphic design took about three months, but most of that was learning the software skills to transfer raster (pixelated) elements to vector elements, which can be blown up to any size without becoming blurry.
"It was a big learning curve, mostly on the technical side, learning the rules of design and how to make them work, but I enjoyed it," she added. "It wouldn't take me nearly that long to do it again."
Zimmerman is most excited about the coin the crest has now been used for, which she said turned out amazing.
"What I think is the most important and coolest thing is that these coins are used for unit awards. The commanding officer of 23 CF Health Services has the coins, and anybody that's done something awesome or did a great job on something, he's going to thank them by giving them one of these. And they're usually numbered.
"I have one from my time in the military. They mean a lot when you get them, they're a super big deal.
"They usually outlive the person who received it, and they're kept in the family and passed down from generation to generation. To think that I've created something like that, that people will look at after I'm gone, is really meaningful."
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