A Photoshop template free for all! I just ask that you do not alter the file, and don't try to pass it off as your own creation:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9238362/Starfleet Dedication Plaque Template.zip
I’ve always loved the dedication plaques on Star Trek. After I decided to join an RP fleet in STO, one of the first things I wanted was a dedication plaque for my ship. I searched online and found a few templates, but found them all wanting. They looked too much like drawings, rather than physical objects, and not one of them was of a resolution high enough to avoid looking blurry on Retina displays. Not so with this file, which I think almost looks like it could be a photograph and even remains sharp on higher-resolution displays.
This template can be used to represent any ship built between around 2290 and the present time in STO, which (as of this writing) is either 2410 or 2415, depending on how your roleplaying group rolls.
2293 was the year the Enterprise-B was launched, and is the earliest year we’ve seen this style of dedication plaque, which had the names of production staff listed. That style was then seen relatively consistently through to Star Trek Nemesis in 2379, with the main differences being the department names and number of columns, as well as the materials used to make the plaques. And, of course, the changing of the Starfleet logo which seemed to track fairly consitently with which uniform insignia was being used.
Based on that, the logo used for the STO (2386+) era is the TOS insignia, a variation of which the Antares, Sierra, and Odyssey uniforms all use.
Also included are TNG commbadge-style logos, seen on many early TNG ships, and DS9/VOY-style logos. The years of use listed are estimates, and I’m sure that if your ship’s commissioning date falls around the transition from one to the next, you can get away with picking the one you just prefer. (The producers of Star Trek did that kind of thing all the time.)
This template is designed to be user-friendly, or at least as user-friendly as one can make a Photoshop file. The idea is, you just select the Starfleet logo and border you want to use, and then edit the text. Shape layers are locked, as is the background, so as to prevent accidental editing. Likewise, all the text layers are position locked to prevent moving around. (But still allow editing of the text itself.) The end result is a consistent, well-designed (in terms of graphic design), and canon(-ish) dedication plaque that you can crank out in a few minutes. I encourage you to read the notes that are included in the PSD file, which not only offer instructions on how to use the file to create your plaque, but also provide an explanation for why things are the way they are—and even some references like a list of shipyard names you can use.
Here's a PNG preview of my STO ship's dedication plaque, made using this template:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9238362/26th Fleet/Dorsa-Brevia-Dedication-Plaque.png
Typography
=========
Ship name: Garamond Bold 60pt
Ship info: Garamond Bold 20pt
Department Names; Garamond Bold 10pt
Department Personnel: Garamond Bold 14pt
Motto: Times New Roman Bold Italic 16pt
Technical
========
The Starfleet logos were made using Sketch and imported into Photoshop as Smart Shapes.
The background is a flattened composite of several layers which combined to create the gold colour and texture effect with the lighting around the focal point of the upper centre, which is where one could imagine a ceiling light would be focused.
All the embossed areas were given almost identical layer effects, with gradients used to mirror the lighting effect used on the background.
The background is a bitmap, but everything else (which is just the text, border, and Starfleet logo) is made up of vectors—fonts, after all, are vector shapes—which helps keep everything sharp.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9238362/Starfleet Dedication Plaque Template.zip
I’ve always loved the dedication plaques on Star Trek. After I decided to join an RP fleet in STO, one of the first things I wanted was a dedication plaque for my ship. I searched online and found a few templates, but found them all wanting. They looked too much like drawings, rather than physical objects, and not one of them was of a resolution high enough to avoid looking blurry on Retina displays. Not so with this file, which I think almost looks like it could be a photograph and even remains sharp on higher-resolution displays.
This template can be used to represent any ship built between around 2290 and the present time in STO, which (as of this writing) is either 2410 or 2415, depending on how your roleplaying group rolls.
2293 was the year the Enterprise-B was launched, and is the earliest year we’ve seen this style of dedication plaque, which had the names of production staff listed. That style was then seen relatively consistently through to Star Trek Nemesis in 2379, with the main differences being the department names and number of columns, as well as the materials used to make the plaques. And, of course, the changing of the Starfleet logo which seemed to track fairly consitently with which uniform insignia was being used.
Based on that, the logo used for the STO (2386+) era is the TOS insignia, a variation of which the Antares, Sierra, and Odyssey uniforms all use.
Also included are TNG commbadge-style logos, seen on many early TNG ships, and DS9/VOY-style logos. The years of use listed are estimates, and I’m sure that if your ship’s commissioning date falls around the transition from one to the next, you can get away with picking the one you just prefer. (The producers of Star Trek did that kind of thing all the time.)
This template is designed to be user-friendly, or at least as user-friendly as one can make a Photoshop file. The idea is, you just select the Starfleet logo and border you want to use, and then edit the text. Shape layers are locked, as is the background, so as to prevent accidental editing. Likewise, all the text layers are position locked to prevent moving around. (But still allow editing of the text itself.) The end result is a consistent, well-designed (in terms of graphic design), and canon(-ish) dedication plaque that you can crank out in a few minutes. I encourage you to read the notes that are included in the PSD file, which not only offer instructions on how to use the file to create your plaque, but also provide an explanation for why things are the way they are—and even some references like a list of shipyard names you can use.
Here's a PNG preview of my STO ship's dedication plaque, made using this template:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9238362/26th Fleet/Dorsa-Brevia-Dedication-Plaque.png
Typography
=========
Ship name: Garamond Bold 60pt
Ship info: Garamond Bold 20pt
Department Names; Garamond Bold 10pt
Department Personnel: Garamond Bold 14pt
Motto: Times New Roman Bold Italic 16pt
Technical
========
The Starfleet logos were made using Sketch and imported into Photoshop as Smart Shapes.
The background is a flattened composite of several layers which combined to create the gold colour and texture effect with the lighting around the focal point of the upper centre, which is where one could imagine a ceiling light would be focused.
All the embossed areas were given almost identical layer effects, with gradients used to mirror the lighting effect used on the background.
The background is a bitmap, but everything else (which is just the text, border, and Starfleet logo) is made up of vectors—fonts, after all, are vector shapes—which helps keep everything sharp.
