Vector built in CorelDRAW 2020.

The registrar of the Greenville Antique Car Club is a retired military member, and when he needed a design for their 50th Anniversary celebration, he was thinking of the challenge coins that are common in that realm.

I’ve always loved challenge coins, their weight and depth, the ingenuity of design, the bright colors of the enamel contrasting with the relief of the metal.

And then he told me they had decided to use the Kaiser Darren as the mascot and I was hooked. It’s an incredible car and I immediately wanted to draw it.

So the elements were decided: A gold medallion, for their golden anniversary, incorporating the car club patch that graces all of the clubs’ media and featuring the Kaiser Darren!

The first step was to take reference pictures of the Darren.

I took many more to make note all of the details, but these capture the essence of this incredible car.

The technical drawing, and the whole medallion, was done as a Corel DRAW vector. The vision was to create some flags and large banners that the club could display at various events to celebrate their special year, and they needed a design that would nicely scale that large.

The limitations of the vector format were a fun challenge to overcome. Extrusions make the edges of the coin and its 3d elements. I deconstructed, sorted, and welded many of them together to make a common shape so gradients could add that metallic sheen that help make it look real.

Transparent fills allow you to see the interior of the car. My clients were particularly pleased about this, apparently most people draw cars with opaque windows.

They made many keepsakes out of this design: cups, pens, calendars, membership rosters, t-shirts, but my favorite by far is the patches! I used the previous anniversary patches as references and know that these will be the most enduring items, cherished for decades to come. I certainly enjoy mine!