American Dance Orchestra

In the late May of 2013, I was contacted by Dana Kimble, a retired musician / member of the West Point Band / United States Military Academy Band having served 25 years with the organization. Presently he was in charge of a newly-formed band in the Tampa Bay area of Florida that was made up of mostly veteran military musicians. The band functions much like a military big band. Many members of the band have a long and colorful history serving in the military in various bands. One of the members served in the Air Force and then was the bass player with Duke Ellington’s Band, having played on 3 Grammy Award winning albums. The reason for contacting me was, quote:

“…I am writing because I found your website “Military Insignia 3D” and really like your work. I would like to ask if you would consider designing a “military style” insignia for the band. […] Having one of your “Military Insignia 3D” designs would enhance the look and presentation of this musical group and help us keep the traditions of military big band music alive…”

Although it was a bit of an unusual request, since never before I had to deal with music-related heraldry, I found this project quite interesting and agreed to pick it up. It also proved to be more challenging than I bargained for, but thanks to Dana’s clear vision and perseverance, we managed to bring this project to fruition. 

Southwest Military Academy

Recently I was contacted by Jim Stephens, President/CEO, KTF Enterprises. He was in the process of opening a small military academy in Gallup, NM, that would have a large number of native American kids (mainly Navajo), grades 6-12+. They will use the Civil Air Patrol Cadet program as their cadet program instead of JROTC. The CAP unit he commanded here from 2003-2006 was the #1 Cadet program in the entire United States, but sadly, fell apart and has been deactivated, when Jim was ordered to active duty. Jim was wondering if I could help to design a logo/patch for the academy, based on the old patch. Here you can see the outcome of this project.

DoD Future Vertical Lift Initiative [FVL]

Not so long ago I was contacted by Mike Burns, Col. AV, a coordination officer for the Department of Defense Future Vertical lift Initiative. In a nutshell, it is an effort to assess, design, develop and field the next generation of vertical lift aircraft for the U.S. Department of Defense (basically the family of aircraft that will replace current helicopters). Mike developed a logo he would like me to work a bit of magic on. The wings are in the position they are to represent vertical flight. The purpose of the five-colored triangles is to represent the five services that are participating in the Joint program. Green for Army, Red for Marines. The three different blues represent Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Purple is the Department of Defense color for Joint Multi-Service. The black on the broad arrowhead is meant to represent Special Operations and also symbolizes the aggressive/attack side of vertical lift aviation.

The result of this effort can be seen below.