So there are these plaques that hang in bell towers around the world, called peal boards.

I remember learning about them in chat a while back, yes.

This year I've got a group of students who've rung a few and deserve plaques in our tower. (This is the first time a HS band in North America's rung a peal of any length since 1999.)

Here's what our existing ones look like:

Here's what the published record of a recent one of ours looks like:

I'm making new plaques out of red oak in my basement now, and I've got access to a laser engraver that can do really precise work:

Nice.

(That was a little test-piece I whipped up this afternoon. Yes, my laser engraver creates coinage. Don't tell the US mint!)

So I'm aiming for a sort of middle-ground between the two. Something a little spiffier and containing a little more info than the old-fashioned board, but retaining the simple style.

why is the quarter sitting on it?

For scale.

ah

Which I forgot in the first photo: that board's about 16"x12", with the lettering contained in a 10"x8" area.

Well, a quick Google of peal boards shows a LOT of variety, and a LOT of information tends to get crammed into them.

Yes. I'd like to keep it at some sort of logo at the top: "Kent Guild of Change Ringers" and possibly some graphical elements. Below that the method, date, and band listing.

But then there's the question of how to or whether to also include the "first peal for..." info and the dedication.

What shape for the board?

I guess one question is: what division of space to give the "persistent" info vs. the transient parts? I.e. the top-matter--logo and name of guild--would be the same for each board. But the bottom-matter will change each time, though will generally follow a pretty predictable pattern.

@BESW Roman shield, like the one pictured above.

(I mean, unless there's a strong reason to prefer changing the shape, I figured I'd just carry forward that visual element.)

Aight. I'm seeing a lot of peal boards that are portrait with a semicircle or triangle on top, but I think most of these are English too.

Yeah, or they're landscape rectangles. I don't know that I've seen shields outside our tower.

And to the extent that I can use any elements from the school seal--or at least reference them--that'd be nice, too.

I was wondering about the cross-hatching+scalloping as a divider element between top-matter and bottom-?

I have to pause a bit--time to put the kids to bed.

Gotcha.

So, looking at various peal boards it's clear that while there's a broad tendency for elements like curving the guild name across the top, no particular quality is more than a suggestion.

I don't know if you saw this one, but I have to say it's pretty impressive. It records two peals rung on the same set of bells on the same day--the queen's jubilee. One was the first rung in this particular tower. The other was the first rung on that set of bells... while they were being transported down the Thames on a barge!

In any case, back to our meagre attempts =)

I'm poking at some ideas.

Basically, take the guild name and arc it over the unchanging information.

Below that, the peal's context and credits.

@BESW My first thought was "Kent Guild of [shield logo] Change Ringers" across the top, then some divider, then the info.

but then I started getting ovewwhelmed by placements, font choices, relative sizes, the need for this to fit when we have bands of eight and even ten people, &c. &c. &c.

So I ran for help/consolation.

@nitsua60 I think Discord's back, I'm going to try uploading something there.