As a newbie in heraldry and working on ideas to create my own coat of arms, I have a question with a design that I would like to include on my shield but it’s a) a non standard design and b) have no clue how to describe it accurately, let alone blazon it.
A jpeg version of the design is:
http://www.andreou.org/sciklops.jpg
It’s a drawing of my own design and have been using to mark my books, etc. for at least a decade. To me, it represents my online "handle" of "sciklops" I’ve been using for almost 20 years in technical forums, irc, etc. It’s like a sci-fi cyclopean eye.
Anyway, any help provided in blazoning this image would MOST appreciated.
Thanks!
There must be something more important in one’s life than the attachment to one’s on-line pseudonym? When one’s only inspiration for a coat-of-arms is a pseudonym, one should re-examine the building blocks that make a meaningful life. e.g. family, religious faith, pastimes, profession, military or naval service, and so forth and so on.
You proposed design looks like a poor corporate logo for the Vendor’s Surveillance Corp. I can see it clearly now on the side of a white maintenance van parked outside of a shopping mall.
I realise that you are new to the field of heraldry but surely you should have read more of the posts here on the forum before proposing such a wanting design. Many of us here have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours reading and researching the concepts of heraldry and thus find logos submitted as heraldic devices to be very disturbing and an insult to our studies.
Would like to start afresh? I would happily assist you with an heraldic design, if you so desired.
If you really, really like the design, you could include a chevron in your arms. Or would that be an inverted chevron, David? :D
Cheers,
Kimon,
You’ll learn that David sometimes seems like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but he is really very passionate about heraldry. And in this instance, though he might have been rather more direct than I would have, I think he’s right. A logo is a logo and a coat of arms is a coat of arms and ne’er the twain shall meet.
As a graphic designer, I believe that much of what "works" in graphic design would make poor heraldry. You have been using your image for 20 years, you say? Well then it must be quite meaningful to you and I can appreciate that. But I think to see it on a shield would be pseudo-heraldry at best. Stick around and I think you’ll come to that conclusion on your own. But do stick around. 
Yes, Kenneth makes an excellent point, and despite David’s rather honest style, so does he. While your logo is very interesting, it really isn’t heraldry. However, I see no reason why something that you identify so personally with couldn’t be the basis for correct and interesting heraldry.
A good start is the "pile" ordinary.
In Germanic heraldry, if this was your housemark, then you just might slap it on a shield and call it heraldry. So you could pick a shield tincture, and then the blazon would be something like:
Argent, a housemark consisting of a demi-annulet open downwards, a dot, and a horizontal line all in pale and within the letter V Sable.
Did you have to post an inverted pink/vermillion triangle as an example?
David, are you, perchance, related to Simon Cowell? Lighten up on the newbies, will ya? I could understand your brutal brand of honesty if, for example, Philip or Michael were to propose such a symbol, and have come to expect it from you if Joseph were to propose anything. But Kimon hasn’t even been here a month yet. Please play nice? :(
Yes, indeed. Let us ALL play nice, okay?
Thank you all for the replies and suggestions. It gives me some things to think about regarding the approach to my design.
Michael Swanson;56483 wrote:
In Germanic heraldry, if this was your housemark, then you just might slap it on a shield and call it heraldry. So you could pick a shield tincture, and then the blazon would be something like:
Argent, a housemark consisting of a demi-annulet open downwards, a dot, and a horizontal line all in pale and within the letter V Sable.
Thanks, Michael, for pointing out some of our default tendencies to go with the heraldric traditions of England and her immediate neighbors. And me with German and Swiss ancestors. :oops:
Personally, I believe the initial reply was overly harsh. As far as I’m concerned he can use whatever he wants as the basis of his arms. I would encourage you, kimon, to think of things that are enduring parts of yourself, background, heritage, (as David did say). But ultimately YOU need the arms to be something you like and identifie with. Ultimately, those of us who had armigerous ancestors may have chosen their arms in a way that would appear arbitrary and flighty to us today, but they have the benefit of age to lend them weight.
Anyway, kimon, welcome. I’m hoping we didn’t scare you off. I think everyone just wants you to have a nice set of arms that deal with your whole person and something you might think of to pass down to others if that situation were to arise. Of course, we all have very different arms and some of us probably well-nigh despise some of the other designs of our membership. But, YOU are the person who needs to be most satisfied. And our fellow members are here to give you good rules and advice for (hopefully good) heraldic design. Hopefully in the end you will be happy with the result!
Kyle=
I must say that I really like Kevin’s reinterpretation of this logo in post #7!
How would one blazon that? Perhaps: sable a pile Argent on a fess enarched to the chief a roundel counterchanged?
http://www.hectorcito.com/heraldry/kimon_ver1.gif
Argent on a pile throughout Sable voided of the field in pale a crescent inverted a roundel and a bar humetty of the second.
Dohrman Byers;56515 wrote:
I must say that I really like Kevin’s reinterpretation of this logo in post #7!
How would one blazon that? Perhaps: sable a pile Argent on a fess enarched to the chief a roundel counterchanged?
Thanks!
I was thinking more like: Per fess Argent and Sable a chief enarched Sable over all a pile counterchanged, at honor point a plate
