In the beginning
The starting point for each of the house
crests was the Hogwarts crest, which first appeared on the title pages of the
Harry Potter books, and represents all four Hogwarts houses. This original artwork and J.K. Rowling’s
descriptions of the houses were used to inspire four unique house emblems for
Pottermore.
The process
The artists started by talking about the best
way to include the natural elements of fire, earth, water and air into each
house; what the best positions and expressions for the animals would be; and
the most effective way to include the house colours in the final designs.
Their main aim all the way through the
process was to make the crests into symbols that Sorted Pottermore users would
be proud to display as a token of their Pottermore identity.
To start with, three versions were sketched
for each house crest. The team then looked at each variation to make absolutely
sure the details and attributes of each house were clearly represented. The
design they felt was the strongest out of the three was selected to go through
to the next stage of the process, which involved adding colour to the designs.
Ravenclaw sketch series
For Ravenclaw, the artists tried to stay
true to the form of an eagle but they found it didn’t work at times; the
centre sketch, for example, was thought to look too much like a gull. As the
eagle has been used in mythology throughout history, the artists were also
aware that it could be difficult to make their eagle instantly recognisable and
original. After the sketches were finished, everyone agreed that the pose with
wings outstretched was the best. They felt that the image of the bird
going outside the borders of the crest showed Ravenclaw at its strongest: an eagle unbound by the borders of the shield and ready to take flight.
Gryffindor sketch series
As the lion is another symbol often found
in popular culture, the team again needed to focus on creating a recognisable
one for the Gryffindor house crest. For all four of the crests the facial
expressions of the animals were used to symbolise house traits (in this case
courage and chivalry). As you can see in the sketches above, the artists were
trying to capture the expression of a lion waiting to attack, as well
as one that was mid-roar.
After the initial sketches were examined it
was decided that the head of the lion, with its strong face and striking mane, was the best design as the crest showing the body seemed to take
away from the lion’s powerful features.
Ravenclaw colour process
Interestingly, Ravenclaw was the only house
for which the team did not create a number of colour options. The first colour
design became the final version of the crest as they immediately
felt that they had it right. They added blue to the swirling air element in the
background, then coloured the eagle bronze. Once they placed it within the
polished silver framework of the crest they felt they had got the spirit of
Ravenclaw in one go!
Gryffindor colour process
The crests for the first Gryffindor colour
designs were treated with a gold and scarlet colour palette. Then the
background designs were looked at closely, so that the fire element could be
shown in the most striking way. The art team agreed that the best version
was the one that used the full red background but they felt it still needed
the strength of the fire displayed in the other designs.
The twitching tail that escapes the
boundaries of the crest in the first two images was judged to be too much of a
distraction from the power of the lion’s attacking stance and the fearsome
expression on its face, so it was removed from the final version.
The final crests
The final design for the Ravenclaw house
crest shows blue air currents around the bronzed eagle, while
the Gryffindor house crest focuses on the golden lion’s powerful face, its raised paw, and the scarlet flames flickering behind.
We hope you enjoyed part one; next week
we’ll be looking at the Slytherin and Hufflepuff
house crests.
