The Blue Tyger has served as a mascot for the East Kingdom for about fifty years, since it was selected to combat the red dragon of the Middle, and it is displayed widely as a populace badge as well as being integrated into other badges and displays.
This has led to a bit of good-natured grumbling from scribes and others who have been repeatedly asked to paint this image in a wide variety of sizes and media: “oh no, another tyger, with all of those fiddly little tufts of hair — why didn’t we choose something simpler?” Nobody was seriously suggesting replacing the tyger, but a joke developed within the scribal and heraldic communities that things would be easier if our populace badge was a simple blue square.
It was in that context that Baroness Kay Leigh Mac Whyte designed the iconic Team Blue Square image — a blue square adorned with the tyger’s characteristic tufted tail — which she registered with the College of Arms as a heraldic badge, and made available for use by the community.
With Kay Leigh’s permission, I’ve digitally traced her original illustration and am making it available here in vector and raster formats:
As with Kay Leigh’s original, this image is released for free use within the SCA by all who live in or have love for the East Kingdom.
