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

Art Nouveau Typography

By Carl Shank • September 6, 2025
Art Nouveau fonts grew out of the late 19th-century Art Nouveau movement (c. 1890–1910), which sought to break away from academic, historicist styles and create a new art for the modern age. The style flourished across Europe and America in architecture, furniture, illustration, and typography. In lettering, Art Nouveau embraced organic forms, flowing curves, floral motifs, and asymmetry, reflecting the movement’s fascination with natural growth and hand-drawn ornament. Art Nouveau took its name from the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, a Parisian gallery that exhibited the works of artists and designers who were associated with the movement. The style was characterized by flowing, curvilinear forms inspired by natural shapes and motifs such as flowers, vines, and insects. It also incorporated elements from other artistic traditions, such as Japanese art and the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was particularly popular in Europe, where it influenced a wide range of artistic disciplines, including architecture, interior design, furniture, jewelry, and graphic design. Some of the most notable Art Nouveau architects included Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, and Victor Horta, while artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, and Gustav Klimt were celebrated for their decorative and ornamental works. Art Nouveau declined in popularity after World War I, as artists and designers began to embrace new, more modernist styles. However, its influence can still be seen in many aspects of contemporary design, and it remains an important and influential movement in the history of art and design. 

Ornamental Gothics

By Carl Shank • August 30, 2025
Gothics History. Gothic typefaces are a broad group of styles rooted in medieval calligraphy and evolved into distinct print types during and after the invention of movable type via Gutenberg in the 15th century. They are sometimes confusingly named. In Europe “Gothic” usually refers to blackletter (medieval scripts), while in the U.S. “Gothic” often refers to sans-serif typefaces since the 1830s. Gothic script is a broad term for the entire family of medieval European scripts that developed from Carolingian minuscule around the twelfth century. “Minuscules” are lower case letters as distinct from capital letters, or uncials. Type developed in the sixth through tenth centuries with modern lettering evolving from Carolingian scripts. The Emperor Charlemagne used these letters as an educational standard. These densely packed scripts featured tall, narrow letterforms, strong vertical emphasis, sharp, angular connections, a dramatic thick/thin contrast and minimal spacing between letters. Gothic-inspired fonts create immediate medieval impact and work beautifully for titles, logos, and short display text. They are used today in Fantasy Gaming, Historical Projects, Themed Entertainment (like the Renaissance Fair), Book Design, Certificates, Breweries and Distilleries. Jack Nolan, a professional graphics designer, has provided a fetching display of such faces in his "33 Medieval Fonts Perfect for ‘Ye Olde’ Designs in 2025."(1)
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