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TX-30 Congressional Challenge Coin

Visual Design · Texas 30th Congressional District · Visual Design, Illustration, Civic, Dallas

Winning design in the first TX-30 Congressional Challenge Coin Competition (2024). One idea for a small, struck canvas: the Trinity River runs into the center of the coin, with Reunion Tower, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Fountain Place, Republic Center Tower and the Texas Star from Fair Park on its banks. The Congresswoman chose it herself for its clean lines and its theme of unity.

In June 2024, my congressional office asked residents of Texas's 30th District to design its first Congressional Challenge Coin. I sent one design. In December the office wrote back.

“She appreciated the clean lines and the clear theme of Unity represented by the Trinity River flowing through the center of the coin.”

Award email, December 17, 2024
Excerpt of the December 17, 2024 email announcing that Micah Boswell's design won the Congressional Challenge Coin Competition
The award email. Names blurred.

The brief

The theme was Iconic TX-30: the history, culture, landscape or spirit of the district. The coin would go to residents who serve their community. The rules asked for something simple, with clean lines and clearly separated colors, drawn inside a circle. No faces.

A coin is a hard canvas

A challenge coin is about an inch and three quarters across. Everything on it gets struck into metal. Raised metal walls hold each color in place, and a color area much thinner than half a millimeter can't hold enamel at all. Fine detail disappears. Gradients disappear. What survives has to read in a hand, at arm's length, in bad light.

So I designed backward from the press, on weekends and evenings. Every shape had to survive the strike.

One river

I've lived in Dallas since 1994, and I love this city. It's given me great opportunities, and with them, chances to rebuild myself after life's failures.

Dallas has more icons than a coin has room for. A coin has room for one idea. I picked the Trinity River.

The original coin design: the Trinity River running into the center between Reunion Tower, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Fountain Place, Republic Center Tower and the Texas Star Ferris wheel
The original design.

It enters at the bottom edge and runs straight to the middle of the coin. The city stands on both banks: Reunion Tower and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge on the left, Fountain Place and Republic Center Tower on the right. Where the river meets the skyline, the Texas Star from Fair Park turns, with the lone star at its hub.

Everything else stays quiet. A crescent moon on each side. A star on each side. Clouds in matched pairs. A short palette of night navy, cream, copper and river blue. Flat shapes stacked like cut paper, so the depth comes from layering instead of shading.

The Congresswoman saw unity in it. One river, two banks, one sky.

Struck

The ceremony never happened. Redistricting got there first.

So I rendered the design as a die-struck silver coin, to see it the way the mint would. Each color became its own relief plane. The river became a channel, the banks became frosted plateaus, the lettering became the highest points. Nothing was added.

The design rendered as a die-struck silver coin, seen straight on, with the lettering and landmarks in raised relief
Rendered as a die-struck silver coin.

Case study from the portfolio of Micah Boswell, design leader — 30 years of UX and product design.

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