Military

Department of Defense and Agency Plaques

Fig. 1 - Shown above are different styles of our dimensional wall plaques for the Department of Defense. Most of the plaques shown are carved in 3-D bas-relief, the rest are carved in 2.5-D flat relief. Shown are multi-colored and gold & silver painted, bronze-plated, and 24K gold and silver-leaf gilded plaques. Any of these plaques can also be ordered in 2-D flat relief with giclee printed vinyl on an acrylic base.

ALL OF OUR SIGNS & PLAQUES ARE MADE IN THE USA BY AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN

Fig. 2 - The Pentagon, which contains the Offices of the Secretary of Defense, the JCS Members and their supporting organizations. Several of our plaques are mounted on walls in the Pentagon.

WELCOME TO OUR PHOTO GALLERY OF DoD & AGENCY PLAQUES

Welcome to the DoD and Defense agencies plaque page of the website of The Wood & Metal Plaque Company, a division of Art Sign Works, Inc. that specializes in designing and manufacturing custom plaques.

This page shows wall and podium plaques of the seals and crest for the Department of Defense (DoD) organizations including  the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the  Secretaries of the services, and Defense agencies. It also shows sets of the five armed forces seals starting with photo IP-1160 on the photo Gallery below. Photo Galleries and descriptions of  plaques of  over 700  unit seals & crests , ship & division Plaques, command and roster boards, retirement & award plaques, etc.  for the five armed forces (USN,  USMC,  USAF, USA, and USCG) are shown in the  five other Galleries in this section, which can be viewed by clicking on the underlined link above or by clicking on  its name listed horizontally immediately below the  gold masthead above. 

If you have just entered our website and you want an overview of our company and all our products, please start with our Home page ( tab upper left header), which has a listing of all plaque types in the silver box on the left side of the page.  Other web pages and photo galleries can be visited by clicking on the titles and pull-down menus in the gold masthead at the top of this page. These include  the Federal and state executive and legislative branches of government, military, local Government (county, city & village) and police, sheriff and fire department wall plaques (including badge and shoulder patch plaques) . 

We  design and carve a wide variety of custom and personalized hand-crafted wood and metal dimensional wall and podium plaques of seals, emblems, logos, badges, insignia, memorials and awards. We offer the highest quality materials and workmanship, great customer service, short turnaround times (typically 30 days from order to shipment), and factory-direct affordable prices to government, commercial, non-profit and consumer clients. We also offer wholesale prices to retailers and re-sellers, and discounts for buys of 3 or more identical plaques. All our plaques are manufactured in the USA  by Americans using American-made materials. We have many styles and materials, and can make plaques in sizes from 10 inches to 10 feet in diameter.

Fig. 3 - Podium and Wall Plaques enhance Speaker appearances and dress up austere furniture and wall colors

PRODUCTS

We make attractive and authentic custom carved plaques from natural wood, artist-painted High-Density-Urethane (HDU)  composite, and bronze, brass, nickel-silver,  aluminum-plated  and 24K gold and silver-leaf plaques of all sizes and designs for the US military, We make custom crest and seal wall and podium plaques. These plaques include organization and unit identity, command boards,  unit/individual recognition & awards, and  personnel retirement and memorial plaques.

In this gallery and the five Armed Forces Galleries, we have  a total of over 600 photos of wall plaques and signs that  we have made of military seals, crests, emblems, badges, insignia, medals, flags, and shoulder patches. We also make base entrance signs, building signs, way-finding signs, command boards, podium plaques, wall signs, ship signs and door signs.

If you have questions on a specific type of plaque you are interested in, or you want information on our plaques or prices, you are always welcome to call Christie or Regina at 951-698-8484 or you can email us at info@artsignworks.com and we will respond quickly.

Fig. 4 - Former officers of the joint-Chiefs-of-Staff (JCS). The DoD, JCS, and four of the Armed Forces seals are on the wall. All can be purchased on this website.

PLAQUE STYLES

We offer custom carved 2-D, 2.5-D, 3-D and engraved dimensional authentic wall plaques of all sizes, from 10 inches to 120 inches in diameter, which are made from multi-color painted carved High-Density-Urethane (HDU), wood (cedar, redwood, mahogany, oak, maple, cherry), and metal-coated HDU (brass, bronze, copper, silver-nickel,  stainless steel, and aluminum).  We will work with you to design and build the exact wall plaque you want. We can customize the size, shape, carving relief, text, materials, and color scheme of any plaque shown on this page, and we can make a custom plaque for ANY artwork you may have. Send us a drawing, a photo or a rough sketch of your seal or crest, and we will design and make a carved dimensional plaque to your specifications. We  have a large library of existing 3-D and 2.5-D computer models that we use to carve these plaques, which greatly reduces graphic artist labor costs.The various styles of the plaques we make are described in our plaque  STYLES section (click on "STYLES" on upper gold masthead to access pulldown menu). All our plaques are manufactured in the USA by American craftsmen.

We can also combine materials on a plaque. We often use Mahogany plaque boards and carve 3-D HDU appliques which are either multi-color painted or metal-plated, to mount on the Mahogany. We can cut out text and artwork from thin sheets of aluminum and mount  these on 2.5-D Mahogany or cedar plaques with raised text and art; we call these metal-clad wood plaques.  The contrast between the shiny metal and rough dark wood is striking. We often gild  V-carved text of Mahogany plaques with 24K gold or silver leaf. We can also gild  areas of painted HDU plaques, usually raised text and art. We also make separate cut-out metal, stained wood and painted HDU letters. We can provide a 3-D bas-relief cast bronze and aluminum memorial or living person plaque featuring the face or figure of an officer or enlisted man, etc. if we are provided a good photograph.

 Although we show primarily painted High-Density-Urethane  plaques on this page, we can make any plaque out of natural wood (stained) or put any of several types of metallic coatings/color schemes on them . We can also put digitally printed long-lasting full color giclee vinyl (photos or very elaborate painted or digital art) as an applique on any HDU or wood plaque. For Command Boards, we make photo frames with glass covers where photos and names can be easily replaced when there are personnel changes.

Fig. 5 - Shown above are artist-painted plaques of the five armed forces seals we have made. These can be purchased separately or as a set. We have several versions of these (metal, artist-painted HDU, mahogany, printed giclee vinyl on acrylic). Typical sizes range from 12 inches to 36 inches in diameter.

PLAQUE  RETAIL PRICES

Our  plaques have wide variations in prices, depending on size and style. Fig. 6 below shows our three basic relief styles, 2-D flat relief , 2.5-D multi-level relief, and 3-D bas-relief. These can be made of different materials, including natural wood, artist-painted High-Density-Urethane (HDU) , metal-coated HDU, and acrylic. Our STYLE page describes these in detail.  All 2000 photos of plaques on this website has a Style Category and a Price Code listed in the second or third paragraph in the text description under the photo (click on the photo or title to expand the photo and read the text to get the price code of that plaque, then look up the price for different size plaques with that style on the Price List at the bottom of the PRICE page). Fig 8 below provides a summary of prices for various sizes and styles of our most popular military, government and intelligence agency plaques.

2-D Giclée Economy Plaques. Our lowest price economy 2-D  giclee printed plaques feature digitally-printed full-color giclee vinyl appliques mounted on a  round  or rectangular  solid wood or acrylic base. The retail prices for this type of two-dimensional (2-D) flat custom plaque are as low as $92 (Sintra base) to $102 (Mahogany veneer  wood base) for 10 inch diameter plaques.  A set of 5 matched 10 inch diameter service Sintra plaques has a price of $414 plus shipping. The same style plaques in a 18 diameter size have prices of  $145 (Sintra) and $170 (Mahogany veneer) each.  A set  of five 18 inch diameter matched service Sintra giclée plaques  has a price  of $825.

These low prices  assume we have made a previous plaque of the same artwork design  ( featured in one of our Galleries of over 2000 photos, including photos of 3-D plaques), or if the plaque requires  new artwork, that the client  provides a print-ready JPEG photo or colored drawing of the artwork for the plaque. These prices for giclée plaques are listed as   styles 1.4.1 ( Mahogany veneer base) and 1.4.3 (Sintra base)  in Fig 8 below.   Examples of giclée plaques are shown in photos IP-1130 and IP-1295 below. Many examples are shown on our 2-D Giclee Plaque web page. A set of five or more service/Agency  plaques has a discount of 10% compared to these individual plaque prices. We use high-resolution photos of our 3-D carved artist-painted, metal-plated, or stained wood plaques, rather than line drawings from the internet; from a distance they look exactly like our 3-D carved plaques, except they are flat instead of 3-D. They are  gorgeous because of the very high quality glossy color printing.

Fig. 6 - This photo shows three security agency bronze-plated wall plaques carved in 3-D bas-relief from High-Density-Urethane. The artwork, border and text are polished, and the backgrounds have a dark bronze patina applied which is hand-rubbed into the art and border. The text below is made of individual carved HDU letters which are bronze-plated and polished. Both plaques and letters have imbedded studs which are epoxied into holes drilled in the blue board.

Carved 2.5-D  Multi-Level Plaques. Our  carved 2.5-D multi-level or engraved  hand-crafted and artist-painted plaques have prices about twice that of the 2-D flat plaques with giclee printed art. These prices  depend on the size, material, carving complexity, and number of colors. Prices for  custom carved  18  inch diameter 2.5-D artist-painted HDU or stained wood custom plaques vary from $240 to $385. Fig. 6 shows three bronze-plated 3-D plaques.  Prices increase with size, with large plaques (4 ft to 10 ft in diameter having prices of several thousand dollars.  Fig 8 below gives prices for carved  plaques of various sizes, materials, carving and coating styles, and number of colors. About 80% of our military unit plaques are carved in 2.5-D multi-level flat or engraved relief,  using  High-Density-Urethane (HDU) as the substrate. These are very popular and look great. Many times the artwork provided to us for custom military plaques does not benefit from 3-D rendering, and we recommend a 2.5-D relief carving which looks nearly as good and is from 1/2 to  2/3 the price. Our 2.5-D relief plaques carve faster and are much faster to paint than 3-D bas-relief plaques, so they have lower prices. Most of our military and many of our government,  university and corporate plaques are carved in 2.5-D relief. 

Carved 3-D Bas-Relief Plaques. Our premium  plaques are carved in 3-D bas-relief,  using  wood (usually Mahogany, Cedar, or Redwood), or High-Density-Urethane (HDU) as the substrate. These are higher- priced carved 3-D bas-relief artist-painted plaques, and have prices about 3 times that of the 2-D plaques. These are  very high  quality plaques, which usually feature great seals, and are often ordered by higher level commands in the military services, federal and state government agencies and courts. Fig 6 above shows examples of  large bronze-plated  outdoor plaques for DoD security agencies. Prices for 18  inch diameter 3-D artist-painted or bronze, brass or silver-plated  HDU or stained wood custom plaques vary from $380 to $585 each. Prices increase with plaque size.  Fig 8 below  gives prices for carved 3-D plaques of various sizes, materials, styles, and number of colors.  These high-quality 3-D relief plaques may require  from 8  to  24  hours of machine carving time,  and then 4 to 8 hours of artisan work  to hand-sand and artist-brush paint or metal polish them. They are unique works-of-art for our most discriminating clients.

Fig 7 - We make plaques in three different styles of relief, as shown above. Engraved plaques are in the same price category as 2.5-D relief plaques. Prices increase from left to right.

Fig 8 - Price List for our military, intelligence agency, and federal, state and local government and court round plaques. Sets of 4 or more plaques are discounted 10% each, if ordered at the same time.

CONTENTS OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PLAQUE PHOTO GALLERY 

This Gallery contains photos and designs of wall and podium plaques of the seals, emblems, logos, and crests  of the Department of Defense, its agencies, and its support organizations. Plaques for the five services  are given on five other webpages (USN,  USMC,  USAF, USA, and USCG) in this Military section.

 This Gallery is organized in the following sections, listed in order top to bottom on this page (click on gold underlined text link to go directly to that section or page):

• DoD and Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) Seals -  top of page, begins with photo IP-1000.
• Sets of 5 Service Seals- begins with IP-1160
• Intelligence Agencies - begins with IP-1320
• Support Agencies - begins with IP-1720
• Operations Centers - begins with IP-1870

Please use the pull-down menu for plaque " TYPE " in the gold masthead above to go to the Federal Government plaque gallery or any of the  24 customer-oriented photo galleries of our plaques.   

PLEASE CONTACT US

Please call or email us for a price quote on a specific plaque. We will work with you to design and build the exact plaque you want. One of our knowledgeable and helpful Customer Service Representatives, Christie, Regina, or Liz, will respond to your request promptly. Call us at 951-698-8484 or email us at info@artsignworks.com. Or, you can fill out and submit our on-line Request a Quote  form. We would like to make your  plaque, and we are confident that you will be pleased with it. We take great pride in every product we make for our valued clients. We offer a 2 year warranty on all our products, and our indoor plaques will last many decades without degradation

WEBSITE NAVIGATION

You can view the bottom of the page using the slider on the scroll bar in the right margin. You can click on a photo or a title of a photo below to see an expanded view and a description of that plaque. You can return to this page by clicking on Return to List on the bottom left of each plaque title or description, or by using your back browser button. You can go to another Section or Gallery page by clicking on an item in the pull-down menus in the gold masthead at the top of the page. 

You  can search for a specific plaque type (e.g., "FBI" ) by entering the key word in the search box in the upper right of the gold masthead. You can view a list and use the navigation bar for all 24 Gallery types by viewing the silver box on the left side of the HOME  page. You can view a description of different plaque styles by going to the STYLE section listed above in the gold masthead.  To request information, request a design and a quote, send a file, or to place an order, click on the text (e.g., "contact ", "quote", "file" or "order")  in the far upper  right of the gold masthead at the top of this page.  All prices are given on the "PRICE" page in the menu in the gold masthead. 

For more information on design options, prices and delivery times, please call us at 951-698- 8484 or email us at info@artsignworks.com, and our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives Christie, Regina or Liz, will be pleased to help you.