F/A-18 Challenge Coin for an Aviation Support Team

This coin is a trapezoid: a wide end, a narrow end and two slanted sides. It is the least used of the geometric formats and it does something none of the others do, which is build a hierarchy into the shape itself.

A Shape With a Top and a Bottom Built In

Every format has its own argument. A circle has no orientation and no hierarchy, so everything on it competes equally. A square has four equal sides and a top. A rectangle has a long axis. A trapezoid has something different: two parallel edges of different lengths, which means one end is bigger than the other before a single element is placed.

The wide end gets the subject. The narrow end gets the name. That is the whole layout decided by the outline, and it is why a trapezoid suits a design with one main image and one line of identification. On this coin the carrier and aircraft occupy the broad area and the lettering sits where the shape narrows.

Three things the shape asks for in return:

Two acute corners, and they are the weak points. A trapezoid’s slanted sides meet the parallel edges at angles that are not right angles, and the sharper of those corners is the thinnest metal on the piece. They get radiused, and artwork is kept clear of them.

Lettering along a slanted side runs at an angle. Text set along the diagonal edges reads as tilted, which looks like a mistake rather than a choice. Keep text parallel to the top and bottom edges and leave the slanted sides to the border.

The usable field is narrower than the outline. Artwork that runs toward the sloping sides runs out of room progressively rather than suddenly, so a composition drawn in a rectangle and dropped into a trapezoid will be clipped at the corners.

See custom shaped challenge coins for the other formats.

A Support Team Can Use the Aircraft

Here is a distinction worth drawing, because this site argues the opposite case elsewhere.

On our headquarters coin page we say that a command should not put a subordinate unit’s aircraft on its coin, because the aircraft belongs to the wing that flies it rather than to the command above it.

A support team is the exception, and the reason is that the platform is the job. An integrated weapon system team exists for a specific aircraft. Its whole purpose is the readiness of that airframe, it is named for it, and it would not exist without it. Putting the aircraft on the coin is not borrowing somebody else’s equipment, it is naming the work.

The test is simple. If the organization would still exist with a different aircraft, the aircraft is not its identity. If it would not, the aircraft is exactly its identity. A squadron keeps going through airframe changes; a weapon system team for one airframe does not.

That is also why this coin carries two aircraft rather than one. The team supports the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler, so both belong on it, and leaving either off would misstate what the team does.

Two Related Aircraft on One Coin

The Growler is built on the Super Hornet airframe, which makes this a harder design problem than two unrelated aircraft would be.

Two similar silhouettes read as one aircraft drawn twice. At coin size the differences between the two are mostly in what is hanging off them and in details that will not survive the strike.

Three ways to handle it:

Show them at different angles. One in plan and one in three-quarter view, or one banking and one level. Different attitudes distinguish them where different details will not.

Use position rather than detail. One forward and one behind, at different relief heights, so the eye reads two aircraft in a formation rather than two attempts at the same one.

Let the lettering carry the distinction. Both designations on the coin, clearly, so the viewer does not have to tell the airframes apart by sight. This is the honest solution and it is usually the right one.

Bright Paint on a Graphic Design

This coin goes brighter than most of the pieces in this gallery: a contemporary graphic treatment with bright colors and premium paint over the whole design.

That is a legitimate choice and worth explaining rather than apologizing for. Bright paint suits graphic artwork and works against sculptural artwork. A design built from flat shapes and clean outlines, which is what a contemporary graphic treatment is, reads from its color boundaries. Paint is doing the structural work there, not decorating it.

The coins on this site that avoid paint are the sculptural ones: portraits, figures, ships in relief, weathered textures. On those, paint fills the modelling and flattens exactly the depth that was the point. On a flat graphic design there is no modelling to lose.

So the rule is not that restraint is always right. It is that the finish has to match the kind of artwork: paint for graphic, relief and plating for sculptural.

See plating options.

About the Team

ASO stands for Aviation Support Office and IWST stands for Integrated Weapon System Team. The team sits within Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support and works on the supply, maintenance and readiness side of the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler.

One note on the acronyms, which applies to any organization in this position. A coin whose identity is three acronyms is unreadable to anyone outside the team, and these coins are given to people from other commands. Spell at least one of them out on the piece, or let the aircraft carry the identification, which is what this design does.

For the logistics side of naval aviation, see a fleet logistics coin, and for a squadron that flies the Super Hornet, the VFA-102 belt buckle.

Order a Shaped Coin

Free professional artwork, unlimited revisions and a digital proof before anything is produced. Free shipping within the continental US, a 50-coin minimum, and most orders complete 45 to 50 days after artwork approval, with rush production available. Embleholics is veteran-owned, an SDVOSB, and registered in SAM.gov.

If you have a shape in mind, send it with the quote request. The outline decides the layout on a piece like this, so settling it first saves redrawing the artwork afterwards.

See more Navy challenge coins.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an F/A-18 challenge coin?

An F/A-18 challenge coin is built around the Super Hornet, usually for a squadron that flies it or a team that supports it. Where the organization exists specifically for that airframe, the aircraft is the identity rather than borrowed imagery.

What is a trapezoid challenge coin?

A trapezoid coin has two parallel edges of different lengths and two slanted sides, which gives it a wide end and a narrow end. That builds a hierarchy into the outline: the subject goes in the broad area and the lettering where it narrows.

Where does a trapezoid coin break?

At the acute corners, where the slanted sides meet the shorter parallel edge at a sharp angle. That is the thinnest metal on the piece, so the corners are radiused and artwork is kept clear of them.

Should lettering follow the slanted edges?

No. Text set along a diagonal reads as tilted and looks like an error rather than a choice. Keep lettering parallel to the top and bottom edges and leave the sloping sides to the border.

Can a support organization put an aircraft on its coin?

Yes, when the organization exists for that aircraft. The test is whether it would still exist with a different airframe: a squadron would, a weapon system team named for one would not, so for the team the aircraft is the identity.

How do you show two similar aircraft on one coin?

Distinguish them by angle and position rather than by detail. Different attitudes and different relief heights read as two aircraft, where small differences in equipment will not survive the strike, and the designations on the coin carry the rest.

When is bright paint the right choice?

On graphic artwork built from flat shapes and clean outlines, where the color boundaries are doing the structural work. Paint works against sculptural artwork such as portraits and figures, because it fills the modelling and flattens the depth.

What do ASO and IWST stand for?

ASO stands for Aviation Support Office and IWST stands for Integrated Weapon System Team. The team works on the supply, maintenance and readiness of a specific aircraft type within Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support.

Should acronyms be spelled out on a coin?

At least one of them, yes. A coin whose identity is three acronyms is unreadable to anyone outside the organization, and these coins are regularly given to people from other commands.