Rhode Island Architect seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them

No, and the two come from different boards. The architects' rule is dimensioned to the sixteenth of an inch: the seal is a symbol one and one half inches (1½") in diameter consisting of two concentric circles, the outer being 1½" and the inner being one and one eighth inches (1⅛"). The engineers' rule, 430-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.3.1(E)(1), states no dimension of any kind. Rhode Island runs a separate board and a separate regulation for architects, for engineers and for land surveyors, and the architect's figures are fixed values rather than minima — an electronically generated seal may be used in lieu of the hand stamp, but nothing in the rule authorizes rescaling the device to fit a title block. (415-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.7(A)(1)-(2); cf. 430-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.3.1(E)(1))

The rule places every element, and the placement is unusual. The space between the two circles carries the name of the architect at the top and the word "Architect" at the bottom; the inner circle contains the State emblem and the architect's certificate number; and the word "Registered" appears below the State's emblem, just above the word "Architect", in the space between the circles. So the legend is stacked rather than set as a single arc, the architect's own name is part of the seal face, and the certificate number sits inside with the emblem rather than around the rim. (415-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.7(A)(1))

The moment the certificate stops being current. The right to the seal is loaned by the Board rather than owned, and § 1.7(A)(5) provides that upon retirement, revocation of the certificate, or non-payment of the renewal fee, that loaned right and the use of the seal are voided. Non-payment of a renewal fee on its own is enough — the rule gives it the same effect as revocation — so an architect in that position may not apply the seal to anything, and that includes the electronically generated seal § 1.7(A)(2) allows in lieu of the hand stamp. A stored seal image has to come out of the workflow at that point, not at whatever later date a physical stamp would have gone back to the Board. (415-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.7(A)(2), (5))

Across the seal and below it, in that order. Section 1.7(A)(3) requires the seal to be applied so as to produce a legible reproduction on all copies or prints made from the document, then requires the architect's name to be placed across the seal and dated below the seal. Electronic signature and dating are permitted for architects — which is worth knowing precisely because the land surveyors' board, working from an otherwise parallel rule, forbids them at 435-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.6(A)(3). One office workflow will not serve both professions. (415-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.7(A)(3); cf. 435-RICR-00-00-1 § 1.6(A)(3))