Heraldry: Tips for Great Design

Heraldic Design is a very fluid and dynamic art. However, there are many rules of thumb that can help you design good heraldry for use within the SCA.

The First Rules You Should Know

Some of the most important guidelines for creating good heraldry include:

• Keep it simple as much as possible
• Avoid "metal on metal" or "color on color"
• The guideline of "bold and butch"

Some possible sections for this article

• an appropriate size for a border on a shield
• a good example of a border done in rayonny [and by extension, name your complex line here]
• how to size a single widget as a central charge
• appropriate sizes for single widgets on only half a shield, only one quarter, etc.
• the right place for drawing a chevron (and then all the variations)
• well-sized lozengy backgrounds, well-sized checky (etc)
• tips for making central widgets look good on complex backgrounds like lozengy, checky, etc.
• appropriate sizes for widgets used in semy

Some very special details for the article

• various ways an Augmentation of Arms can be incorporated

Some Recommended Links

• Heraldic Tinctures
• http://heraldry.sca.org/ - A great list of Society-wide heraldry information
• http://www.s-gabriel.org/heraldry/ - Academy of Saint Gabriel's Medieval Heraldry Archive - The Academy is a group of around 50 volunteers who research medieval names and armory.