I originally made these to go on the sides of the letters. The idea was to "thaw" the snow from the letters during the opening animation. The shield pattern ended up looking too busy on the sides at smaller sizes. An important factor since the logo of a movie goes everywhere, not just on the big screen.
As crappy as the knotwork tests look, the were the deciding factor in deciding to model up the whole thing. But that's for the post on Modelling "Troll Bridge".