# Heraldry × Signal Flags — composed image prompt
# IndexStyle — https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=heraldry+signal-flags
# Heraldry carries the structure. Signal Flags appear as accents, each further back than the last.
# Style descriptors only. Never imitates a specific artist, studio, brand or work.

An original image that takes its structure from Heraldry (Style, 12th century–) and its accent from Signal Flags (Style, 1857–). Structural cues: Limited tincture colors; The grammar of shield divisions; Describability in blazon; Stylized animal poses. Accent cues, used sparingly: High-contrast geometry; Designed for distance; One flag, one letter; Hoists strung to the masthead. Composition: The shield divided by the grammar, one charge to each part. Type and lettering: Motto lettering sits outside the arms, never on the shield itself. Let one material quality come from the second style: Saturated red, yellow and blue set hard against white and black. Mood: Trust, Luxury, Nostalgia, Technology, Exhilaration. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.

# Where the two fight
# - Both belong to Symbol Systems, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
# - Roughly 1845 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.

# Cautions carried from each entry
# - Heraldry: Choosing tinctures by eye breaks the rule about metal on color, and the result can no longer be described as arms at all.
# - Signal Flags: Borrowing the palette while complicating the shapes collapses the outline when reduced or backlit, and recognition at range fails.

# Design specs: https://indexstyle.org/styles/heraldry/design.md · https://indexstyle.org/styles/signal-flags/design.md