CAPT W. Scott Gureck, USN (Ret.), President of the Naval Academy Class of 1986, recently commissioned Joe Barsin to re-illustrate the official 1986 class crest since for over 25 years, the original art never matched the design that ultimately wound up on the class ring – which is primary purpose of the class crest.

“It’s unclear why the art we’ve been using all of these years differs in so many ways from our actual class rings, but at the end of the day, the crest on our rings is the official Class of 1986 crest,” Gureck said.

Shown below is a picture of the crest as it appears on the class rings, as it appears on the matching lapel pin, the original line art, and the updated line art as illustrated by Barsin.

My guidance to Joe was to be as true to what appears on the ring as possible. Our crest is what’s on the ring, and the goal was to create matching, high-quality line art, not to create a new crest.  Accuracy and fidelity to the original, with one small exception, was paramount.”

On both the original art and on the actual rings, the handles of the U.S. Navy sword and the U.S. Marine Corps Marmeluke are reversed.  Gureck asked Barsin to fix the error since he ultimately wanted a vector file that could be easily reproduced at any size and on any medium.  Joe provided full color, two color and black & white files for all possible reproduction needs. 

“The error on the rings is an interesting piece of trivia and mostly inside information known by classmates. But to reproduce the art in its new glory on posters, banners and other items we might use at future reunions, it only made sense not to continue to reproduce the error. Instead, it can remain a bit of class trivia, and can serve as something fun to test children, grandchildren and friends by asking ‘what’s different between the art and the actual ring?’”

Tony Thamasangvarn, Signcraft Annapolis Signcraft Annapolis has taken Barsin’s art and has created the clay relief you see here.