Post Archive – Page 5 – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

Machine-Printed “Silk Banners”

Colorful pennants and long standards fluttering in the breeze significantly enhance the ambiance of outdoor historical recreation events — but hand-painting silk can be a daunting project, and requires skills that I have not mastered.

To approximate the impression while leveraging my collection of digital images, I turned to a custom fabric printing service from Spoonflower. The results were satisfactory, so I’ve written up the process I used in case others would like to follow it.

KWHSS Panel Proposal: Software Roundtable

I’m hoping to organize a session at Known World Heralds in Philly this June to talk about the future of the software infrastructure that supports the College of Arms.

Here’s my draft panel proposal:

Proposed Navigation Changes for the CoA Website

The SCA’s heraldry website is a critical resource for the armorists, onomasticians, and administrators that staff the College, and for the members of the populace who want to develop names and armory for their own personae.

However, the site’s organization and navigation haven’t been substantially updated in more than a decade, and a number of weaknesses have become apparent in the course of the site’s heavy usage:

Thoughts on Updating the CoA Website

I’ve been thinking about potential improvements that could be made to the heraldry.sca.org website so that it’s more useful to heralds and the populace.

Here are some notes about this effort based on what I’ve learned so far.

Top-Line Objectives

There are three main avenues for improvement, as discussed further below.

Appearance
- Improve the site’s readability on modern mobile and desktop devices.
- Refresh the site’s appearance and give it a more “contemporary” feel.
Organization
- Make it easier for non-heralds and new heralds to find key information.
- Reduce effort for experienced heralds to reach key “hot-spot” resources.
Education
- Link to more Internet reference material frequently used by heralds.
- Clarify whether articles are authoritative, incomplete, or out of date.

Personal Heraldic Title

When Wilhelm Laurel established the rank of Herald Extraordinary, he began the practice of personal heraldic titles:

Each Herald Extraordinary shall have a title that is his/her own personal title that s/he shall hold so long as s/he remains active.
Cover Letter, July 1981 Letter of Acceptances and Returns

Over the year since my elevation, I’ve struggled to think of an appropriate title to take on, until I was startled awake this weekend with a stroke of inspiration. The submission form has now been sent off and we’ll wait to see if the College will accept me as the “Gadfly Herald.”

A Sketch of Possible Changes for the CoA Website

I spent some time today sketching out a possible overhaul of the heraldry.sca.org website, at coa-freshness.digitalherald.org.

Obviously this is very incomplete, but hopefully it can serve as a reference point for conversations about possible future work.

It mixes together two different kind of changes, which I think make sense to tackle all together, but which could be undertaken individually.

Kingdom Sumptuary Laws for Heraldic Achievements

A recent question regarding allowable elements of a heraldic achievement sent me running for the best reference I know: a paper by Andreas von Meißen presented at KWHSS in 2013.

This document is admittedly out of date — among other things, it predates Avacal, and it does not include several changes that were made to the rules in Ansteorra the following year, based on Andreas’s recommendations — but I’m not aware of anything more recent or more authoritative, and so this remains a useful guide.

Corrections Wanted!

As noted prominently on the heraldicart.org website, the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art is not an authoritative source; in particular, despite the inclusion of art by a large number of contributors, the text is nearly all the work of one person, and indubitably contains numerous errors.

In hopes of saving the community from picking up any accidental misinformation, I’d love to have some help correcting those mistakes, and if you’re reading this, you’re invited to help out!

Kingdom Crown Calendar Comparison

A few days ago, after putting together an illustration of the East Kingdom’s annual cycle of crown/coronation events, I wondered what it would look like to compare those cycles across the other realms.

I asked some other heralds about this idea, and Ollivier Le Floch took the initiative in setting up a shared spreadsheet that allowed a bunch of people to quickly jump in and collaboratively fill in that data across all all twenty kingdoms. As the patterns emerged, I resolved to try presenting them in graphical form.

A Phylogeny of the Laurel Kingdoms

The Known World of the SCA is divided into twenty kingdoms which have emerged over its fifty-eight year history, as shown in this family tree.