Digging through my collection of pictures I come across this collection of Mon. I’ve been fascinated by these heraldic devices for a while and wondered what the rules were governing them. Well, Wikipedia to the rescue:

Mon (紋, Mon?)(plural mon), also monshō (紋章, monshō?), mondokoro (紋所, mondokoro?), or kamon (家紋, kamon?), are Japanese family heraldic symbols. Mon refers to any symbol, while kamon and mondokoro refer specifically to family symbols. Mon are sometimes called “badges”, “crests” or “family crests” in English.

A mon consists of a roundel encircling a design (such as feathers, flowers, or some man-made object). They are somewhat like coats of arms in that they are either associated with a particular clan or family, or an individual who has achieved some variety of public recognition. The designs are usually stylised versions of traditional Japanese themes, such as bamboo. Artists may choose something symbolising their art; a fan design might be chosen by a geisha.

I love Wikipedia. Interesting that people nowadays use the inkan instead. I’ve always wanted to do my own inkan — as it closely resembles the western form of printer’s mark. I really want to have my own Mon too, though. What kind of Mon would a designer/photographer/typographer have though? And would it be considered unforgivably gauche for a westerner to create their own? Well dammit, I want one. Maybe I could just use the crown image from this site…

That’s how, apparently. I love the image, but I suspect there’s a portion of style over content going on there. I can’t help but think that there are some very important (but less visually appealing) steps missing.

This is one of those images I have that I can’t find the source of.

The start of a new, much-needed category: Pictures Found Online. When it comes to browsing, I’m a bit of a magpie. Anything that I want to look at in more detail or inspires me, I grab a copy of it in case it disappears offline or I lose track of it. Unfortunately, over the years the latter concern has proved itself as I’ve lost track of where I found almost all of these things. To add to the confusion, some of them were sent to me by friends and relatives, “You might like this...” so I’ve even less chance of finding where they’re from. I’m going to put up examples of them as I go through my big stack of images, and hope that someone will point me to the original source (and allow me to give correct credit).

So yes, at right. A little label that has inspired a few titles and design treatments of mine over the years.