Forms




			Draft Ideas in Prose				Craft Device Using Symbols

			Turn Prose into Concepts				Validate Device Suitability

			Map Concepts to Heraldic Symbols				Submit Device

Draft Ideas in Prose

Explain in simple terms, short sentences what basic purpose(s) you would like to achieve.

Communicate the idea, the emotions, the time period, the rank of choice, etc. For instance, “In my 15th century French persona, I roam the country side on a horse, and offer my knightly service for a fee. I will also animate a soirée with instrumental and vocal renditions for food and lodging. I enjoy the freedom of such life and the knowledge I acquire on my travels.”

The text in prose may be long or short. Just remember, the prose is your well from which you draw concepts and symbols. The clearer and more complete, the easier it is to identify concepts and validate that the symbols you choose fulfill the initial intent. This is also the easiest to do. You don’t necessarily have to think in middle age terms. You can simple write out your thoughts so you have a clear intent in words. This is not the place to identify colors or objects in your device, just what you want represented in terms of ideas or ideals.

Turn Prose into Concepts

Once you have a clear prose of your intent and ideals, then reduce each thought to a single key concept or word so you can identify a half a dozen to a dozen of those. These concepts will help you identify symbol potentials. In the example above, I would identify the following key concepts:

Errand knight

5. Bard

Mercenary

6. Horse travel

Entertainment

7. Learning

Musical instruments

8. Freedom

Map Concepts to Heraldic Symbols

With these key concepts you can identify many middle age symbols that can help create our device. Don’t stop at just a few. The more you have, the more options you have to create the desired look and feel, and the ability to find an alternate way to differentiate your proposed device with an existing one.

Take each concept and scan thru your arrays of Middle Age symbols, and whenever you find a fit, add it to the mapping list. Be sure to include even those you don’t like. This is the time to add every suitable symbols, not just your favorite. I can’t overstate this enough. The more the better. Try to find at least 5-10 symbols for each concept.

Symbols include objects, shapes, metals and colors. Colors also have mapped meanings. The symbol you wish to represent may be best suited with a color or metal. See Heraldry Link for a basic mapping. The idea is to enlarge your sphere of possibilities, not to narrow them down.

Metals

Gold =

Silver =

Argent

Colors

Blue =

Azure

Purple =

Purpure

Black =

Sable

Orange =

Tenne

Red =

Gules

Maroon =

Sanguine

Green =

Vert

Craft Device Using Symbols

With your dictionary of mapped concepts to symbols, start narrowing down your selection. This is the poetic creation of device making: Identify the desired device forms, colors/metals and objects to work with. You may find many ways to represent your core ideas and that is good since you may find too much commonality with other registered devices.

Remember to use as few items as possible. To be effective, you need to be able to tell what it is across a battle field, so sharp contrasts work really well, whereas detailed nuances may be more difficult to tell from afar.