Certificates & Awards

Carl Shank • September 10, 2022

Designing Certificates and Awards

Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done or for a special milestone accomplished. We can do this, in part, through certificates and award papers that are then framed and given to the recipient. However, there is not much thought through design given to the standard certificate. Preprinted certificate papers with fancy border designs help, but the typesetting and layout in the heart of the certificate often lacks power or pizzazz. In Example one below, I redid a certificate given to me by an employer, NCDAmerica, which is a church health consulting firm in Michigan. I have been licensed through them since 1998 and specialize in church consultations in the Northeast. You will note how I redid the layout and design below.


Certificates usually have eight or nine standard elements — (1) Name of presenter; (2) Title; (3) Name of recipient; (4) Reason for the presentation; (5) Term of membership or certification (if applicable); (6)Date presented; (7) Signatures of presenter or presenter's agent; (8) Presenter's logo or seal; and (9) Presenter's city and state. Chuck Green in John McWade's excellent Before & After magazine (Vol. 4, No. 4 / 1995) gives ample clues as to content and design of certificates and awards. I have designed some certificates for NCDAmerica, a church health consulting firm, originally in Germany and based in several countries. Note the examples below.

Successful Layout & Design

The Legibility Group

By Carl Shank • July 29, 2026
The Legibility Group. This group of typefaces comes from the The Mergenthaler Linotype Company was a company founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine, a system to cast metal type in lines (linecaster) invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. The company became the world's leading manufacturer of newspaper and book typesetting equipment. The Legibility Group is a series of serif typefaces intended for use in newspapers on Linotype's hot metal typesetting system. They were developed in-house by Linotype's design team, led by Chauncey H. Griffith and released from 1925, when the first member, Ionic No. 5, appeared. The family became a large group due to the creation of slightly different designs for different printing conditions, such as levels of inking used in different newspaper production processes and versions with different x-heights. [6] [b] Linotype carried out a survey of optometrists as part of their research processIt consisted of Ionic No. 5, Textype, Excelsior, Opticon, Paragon and Corona. Although not part of the family, Linotype marketed its sans-serif family Metro and slab serif face Memphis as effective complements for headings.

English Penman Calligraphic Fonts

By Carl Shank • July 13, 2026
George Bickham the Elder (b. 1684) was one of the most influential English engravers, calligraphers, and writing masters of the eighteenth century. Although he was a capable print engraver, his lasting significance lies in his role in preserving and popularizing English Round Hand (later known as Copperplate script) through beautifully engraved writing manuals. His work shaped business handwriting, penmanship education, typography, and ornamental lettering for generations. He trained as both a writing master and an engraver, two professions that were closely linked before the advent of modern printing. Rather than merely copying handwriting, he engraved elaborate penmanship examples onto copper plates, allowing thousands of identical, highly detailed specimens to be printed. He became renowned for his extraordinary ability to translate handwritten originals directly onto copper plates with exceptional fidelity, a skill admired by his contemporaries.
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