Michigan sets the wording of an architect's seal but publishes no diameter. Your name and full license number appear on the face exactly as on your license, inside a legend reading State of Michigan and Licensed Architect. The design must be substantially equivalent to figure 404 of the rule. Below: the face, the missing size rule and when sealing must stop.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1). Sources read September 2026. Updated 8 November 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes. A licensee applies the seal together with a signature. | Mich. Comp. Laws § 339.2007(2), (3) |
| Name | Spelled as it appears on your state issued architect license. | Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1) |
| License number | The full number, taken from that same license. | Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1) |
| Legend | Two lines run in the legend that surrounds the seal: State of Michigan, and Licensed Architect. | Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1) |
| Overall design | Substantially equivalent to figure 404 of the rule. | Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404(1) |
| Diameter and shape | Not addressed. Neither the architect rules nor the statute gives a diameter, as a minimum or as a maximum. | Mich. Admin. Code R 339.15404 (silent) |
| Devices | The statute names three families of device, and all three are legal. | Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 339.2007(3), 339.2008(1) |
| Signing and dating | The seal and the signature go on together, and no dating instruction appears in the statute or in the rule. | Mich. Comp. Laws § 339.2007(2), (3) |
| Electronic seal | Authorized in the statute itself, with no technology named. | Mich. Comp. Laws § 339.2007(3) (2013 Act 178, eff. Feb. 25, 2014) |
| After a lapse | The authority to seal ends with the license. | Mich. Comp. Laws § 339.2007(2) |
For the same rule in the other 53 jurisdictions, read architect seal requirements by state. How an architect reaches licensure in Michigan, from education through the ARE, appears in the national table on architect licensing requirements.
Does a Michigan architect have to seal work?
Yes. The statute pairs the seal with a signature and applies them to the documents it lists, so sealing is a duty attached to the work rather than a formality attached to the license.
What follows is that the device gets used on real submissions to real reviewers, and legibility after copying matters as much as the wording. A fuller account of architect seals in Michigan covers how the statute and the board rule divide the subject.
What must a Michigan architect seal show?
Five things, set by R 339.15404(1). Four are content and the fifth governs the look of the whole device.
- Your name, spelled as it is on your Michigan architect license
- Your license number in full, taken from that same license
- State of Michigan, set in the legend that surrounds the seal
- Licensed Architect, set in the same legend
- A design that is substantially equivalent to figure 404 of the rule
Two of those items point back at your license document rather than at your own usage. The name is the licensed spelling, not a preferred one, and the number is the full number rather than a shortened form. The Michigan architectural seal requirements in order is worth keeping beside your license when you check a proof.
What is figure 404, and why does it decide the design?
Figure 404 is the illustration printed in the rule, and R 339.15404(1) requires your device to be substantially equivalent to it. Michigan states the standard as a picture rather than as a written specification.
That is why a Michigan order is a matching exercise. You are not assembling a face from a list of measurements, you are reproducing a published design with your own name and number in it, which makes the proof stage more important than it is in a state that writes its geometry out in numbers. A closer look at Michigan architect stamp design shows how the elements sit inside that layout.
What size is a Michigan architect seal?
No size is published. Neither the architect rules nor the statute gives a diameter, as a minimum or as a maximum, so there is no figure to quote at a reviewer.
Any diameter a supplier offers is therefore a house convention, and a reasonable one is whatever reproduces the figure 404 design legibly on the sheets you file. Ask what a supplier's standard size is and why, rather than assuming the state set it. How we make Michigan architect stamps and seals explains the sizing we work to and the reason for it.
Which devices may an architect use?
The statute names three families of device, and all three are legal, so the question is not left to practice. The rule's face requirements apply the same way whichever one you carry.
Pick on how your documents travel. Michigan architectural output goes to agencies that work from reproductions, so an impression that survives a scan is worth more than one that has to be read in raking light.
Does the signature have to be dated?
No. The seal and the signature go on together, and no dating instruction appears in the statute or in the rule. A date beside the impression is a professional habit in Michigan rather than a requirement.
Nothing tells you where the signature sits relative to the seal either. Keep both legible and clear of each other, since a signature written across a fine legend costs you the legend.
Which documents carry the seal?
The statute names them: a plan, a plat, a drawing, a map, and the title sheet of a specification, an addendum, a bulletin or a report. When a bound copy is submitted, the seal goes on the index sheets of a plan, specification or report instead.
Two conditions must both be met. A licensee must have prepared the document, and the document must be one that has to go to a governmental agency for approval or record. Work meeting only one condition falls outside the listed duty.
Can a Michigan architect seal electronically?
Yes. The electronic seal was authorized in the statute itself, by the 2013 amendment effective February 25, 2014, and Michigan named no technology when it did so.
Naming no technology cuts both ways. It leaves you free to choose a method, and it leaves you without a safe harbor, so the sensible test is whether the result reproduces the figure 404 design and carries the same name and number your physical device does.
What happens to sealing when a license lapses?
It stops. The authority to apply the seal runs with the license, so an expired credential ends the practice rather than merely postponing a renewal task.
Diary the renewal date with the same care you give a submission deadline, because a sheet sealed on the wrong side of it is a problem in the record rather than a problem in your office. More on how Michigan architect seals are used day to day covers the practice side of that boundary.
What should you send when you order?
Your license in front of you, and two values read straight off it: the spelling of your name and the full license number. Those are the only variables in the design.
Do not supply a shortened number or a name you use professionally but that the license does not show, since the rule points at the license as the source for both. Read the proof back against the document rather than from memory.
How do you check the impression before you use it?
Print it on white paper and compare it against figure 404 element by element, then read your name and number character by character against your license.
Copy the sheet afterward. The legend is the first casualty of a device that is inked too heavily or cut too small, and State of Michigan and Licensed Architect are precisely the lines a reviewer scans for when deciding whether a submission is properly sealed.
Frequently asked questions
Why will nobody quote me an official Michigan seal diameter?
Because none exists in the rules or the statute. Michigan sets the standard by the figure 404 illustration, so any inch measurement you are given comes from a supplier rather than from the state.
Can the seal show a shortened version of my name?
The rule points at your state issued architect license for the name, so use the spelling that document carries. The same goes for the number, which is required in full.
Does an expiration date belong on the face?
No date appears among the required items. The face is your name, your number and the two legend lines, inside a design equivalent to figure 404.
Is an electronic seal a substitute for the physical one?
It is a separate route authorized by the statute, not a replacement for the device. Which one you use depends on how the document is issued.
Does every sheet of a bound submission need a seal?
For a bound copy, the statute directs the seal to the index sheets of a plan, specification or report. Check the list of documents, not a general rule about sheets.
Can I seal a project while my renewal is in process?
Sealing stops with the license, so treat a live license as the condition for applying the device. The statute ties the authority to the credential rather than to the application.
Have your license to hand, confirm the name and number it shows, then order from our Michigan architect stamps and seals cut to the figure 404 design.
