Appropriate / politically correct name seal image

[mikelove]

We're redesigning the icon for our Chinese dictionary app - it will still have our trademark 魚 in the middle, but with a more calligraphic font (FZXingKai, see attached image though my wife refers to it as a "frowny face") and a background that suggests a calligraphy scroll (though we're keeping the basic iPhone icon shape). In order to make this look nice and realistic we want to put a name seal at the top right corner of the image, but we have to be very careful to choose one that's both appropriate to the setting of a calligraphy scroll (no "#3 Contract Signing Seal") and politically correct (not a seal from any person / organization that a significant number of people have a problem with). Also needs to be copyright-free, though as long as it's pre-Republic that's not likely to be a problem.

Can anybody suggest a good name seal image for this? We were thinking something from a famous Qing emperor like 康熙 or 乾隆 (康熙 has the added associations with Chinese dictionaries but his grandson seems to has been much more colophon-happy) but technically I suppose if there was only one seal on an calligraphy scroll it's unlikely it would be from an emperor unless the calligraphy was done by him personally. We could have a custom name seal done for Pleco, but if we wanted it to look good to experts it might be a bit on the expensive / time-consuming side.

[Shelley]

How about a name seal for Mike Love?

This name is associated with dictionaries , should be copyright free,

You should be able to come up with some good looking characters for this phoneticaly.

As you can tell from all the smileys that I am sort of half joking but also half serious, it could work

[mikelove]

Heh, thanks, but my Chinese name is actually pretty silly - 罗麦克, assigned by a well-meaning Chinese teacher way back in 1995 (before people had gotten the idea of giving foreigners Chinese names that actually sound good in Chinese) - so I'm not sure if it would be the best pick here.

[skylee]

I like this piece of calligraphy a lot. And there are many seals on it. Perhaps you could see if you like any of them.

[character]

We're redesigning the icon for our Chinese dictionary app - it will still have our trademark 魚 in the middle, but with a more calligraphic font (FZXingKai, see attached image though my wife refers to it as a "frowny face") [...]

Oh, so it isn't "dragon walking leftward while getting an x-ray."

How about a seal with the characters 中文辭典 ?

[外国赤佬]

How about just the seal 魚 character? Looks much better than the "frowny face".

[mikelove]

skylee - thanks, those are indeed quite lovely.

character - excellent idea, I just posted a rendering of that in our company forums - a little bit funny because the left half is so much more densely stroked than the right, but still pretty workable.

外国赤佬 - I'm not sure about using seal script for the main character because it's a little too much of a departure from what we have there now, but the "frowny face" is getting quite a few complaints so we may change it to something a little closer to 楷体 (separate strokes on the bottom, e.g.).

[Shelley]

Just wondered why you feel you have to keep a name assigned to you that you don't like. Can't you change it, I am sure there must be an alternative.

Dare I suggest throwing it open to the forum to make some suggestions for a new name for you, as small gesture of appretiation for your efforts with Chinese Forums.

Of course you can completely ignore the suggestions, but you never know it might be interesting