When creating the design for the skull plaque there were a few things I wanted to include and I'll quickly cover them here.

First was the inclusion of flags but given the size of actual folded flags I wasn't looking at using real ones so I made two faux flags. 

The US flag is a two layer design; white on blue. 

The Marine Corps flag is four layers; red, black, gold/white, and letters. 

While there are also skull plaques without flags these are really what takes this plaque from nice to NOICE!

The skull is the focal point of the plaque and I really needed to find the right one with the shape and detail that worked best. I purchased the original vector but it had a lot of excess details I wasn't a fan of so I simplified the design quite a bit. 

The skull itself is a two layer design and the optional letters on the skull would make it a three layer. There is also a gap under the skull to another backing that creates an element of depth. 

The highly detailed laser engraving is on 1/8" birch plywood that is sanded, lacquered, lasered, sanded, and lacquered one more time. I wanted six specific aspects for the engraving to include an EGA, "United States Marine Corps", an area for a custom quote or place for unit name, chevrons, start and end dates, and name.

The last thing was a placard that is either left aligned which would comfortably fit a 4" object to the right; or centered for two 2" objects on either side (not shown).

The placard isn't aluminum rather a two layer design. 

The black frame is handmade (by me of course) and finished off on the back with acid-free paper backing, hanging hardware, and bump-ons. 

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below. 

-Dan