Heraldry in the Streets

I was driving home from work the other day and saw a “coat of arms” style logo in the back window of the car in front of me.  Not having my camera with me (I generally don’t take it to work with me, which sometimes costs me a photo opportunity, but there you go) and saw the shield logo of USA Swimming.

When I got home, I looked them up on the internet, and found a (smaller) version of their logo on-line.

I find the logo interesting because it’s both based, albeit loosely, on the arms of the United States (Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure) but is also done so that the lower half of the shield looks like the lanes marked out in a competition swimming pool with the engrailed line of division just below the fess line representing waves of water.

As heraldry, I don’t think it’s the best design, but as a logo I actually think it’s pretty effective.