Illustration: Vintage emblem

A screen-printed badge on cream paper: one bold object on a sun disc, a splash of ink along a hard bottom edge, and a heavy condensed wordmark with a small serif tagline. It suits named things (a club, a release, a principle, a team ritual) where the words are part of the picture. Use illustration-two-colour-brush instead for loose brush-painted scenes in two inks; illustration-teal-spot for a single-colour spot object with no lettering; illustration-flat-with-black for a flat character scene with solid black shapes.

Extracted from a set of 42 original design-and-coding cards in 14 styles; the three cards in examples/ are this style's shipped cards.

The look in one sentence

One chunky object, outlined in thick green-black ink and shaded with carved ink wedges, stands on a terracotta sun disc that a 7.5 px cream keyline cuts it free from, while a hard horizontal edge slices the scene into a dark splash band with cream droplets punched out, all locked up over a heavy condensed wordmark.

Palette

Measured from the examples. Seven flat colours, nothing else.

Role	Hex	Where it goes
Card	#f8f0e3	full-bleed background (78–85 % of the rendered card), keyline, cream highlights, droplets cut into the ink, the billow
Ink	#1f2b25	outlines, shadow wedges, splash band, gulls, wordmark, tagline (45–51 % of all non-cream pixels, wordmark included)
Terracotta	#c8693f	the sun disc; one repeat on the subject (nose cone, beetle shell, porthole ring, flame)
Sand	#d9a873	main fill of the subject (fins, crown, lens rim, flame core)
Tan	#b5824f	darker fill: trunks, grips, the shaded tone under sand
Pale	#ecd2a8	highlight streaks, rock faces, glass
Teal	#3f8273	accent only: one band, ring, collar or set of node dots per card, 2–4 % of non-cream pixels

• Never: gradients, opacity, textures, hatching, filters, pure black or white, a sixth hue.
• Terracotta never touches the sun: anything terracotta on the subject sits inside the keyline.
• Teal never fills a large shape; a teal fin set was cut from the first card.

Line and fill

All numbers are in lockup units (the lockup is scaled 0.95–0.97, so on the card they come out about 4 % smaller).

• Subject outlines: 3.6 ink strokes, stroke-linejoin="round" (OUT in the kit). Small inner parts 2.2–2.8 (nozzle, collar, porthole ring 2.0).
• Union outlines: shapes that read as one mass (trunk + roots, a cluster of puffs) get one outline: an ink underlay stroked at 7.2 (2 × OUT), then the fills (unionOutline).
• Keyline: the subject's silhouette shapes again, filled and stroked cream at 15 (a 7.5 px cream gap), drawn after the sun and before the subject. Include every lobe, handle and spike, or the subject melts into the disc.
• Shade is ink cut into colour, on the right/lower side (light from the upper left):
  • woodcut gouges: wedge() 1.8–4.2 wide (10 on a trunk), blunt base, sharp tip;
  • crescents inside round parts (crescent(), thickness 2–4.2);
  • a two-tone offset for puffy masses: tan underneath, sand shifted (−2.6, −7.6) on top, so tan shows as a lower-right crescent (puffs()).
• Light is pale or cream streaks on the upper left: streak() half-width 1–2.4, both ends sharp; 2–5 per object. Short round-capped pale strokes (1.8–3.6) are fine on narrow parts.
• Flat fills only. No outline on the gulls, splash, droplets or wordmark (the wordmark uses a 2.2 same-colour stroke only to round its corners).

Characters

No people. The hero object is the character:

• One hero, chunky and nearly symmetric, 80–210 px wide, built from 3–8 big shapes. Secondary structures compete with it: a launch tower beside the rocket was cut.
• It breaks the sun's circle: the rocket's nose rises above the disc, the tree crown is wider than the disc, the magnifier sits left so the disc shows as a crescent.
• Each big shape: flat fill, 3.6 outline, one ink shadow shape or 1–3 gouges on the right, 1–3 pale streaks on the left.
• Detail is carved, not drawn: rivets as ink dots r 1.15, grain as gouges, a code glyph </> in cream strokes 2.4 inside a porthole.
• Coding cues live inside the object (a </> porthole, roots laid out as a git graph with cream-and-teal nodes, a beetle under a lens) or in the splash (curly braces and chevrons as ink strokes 5.2–5.4).
• Creatures are cut like woodcuts: ink head and legs (tapered tubes with round joints), coloured shell with ink striae and pale streaks.
• Round objects (lens, dial, porthole, wheel), the Debug Club recipe: a sand ring outlined 3.6; inside a clip of the ring, a tan ring offset (+2.4, +2.4), an ink crescent on the right (thickness 4–4.6) and 5–6 short gouges on the right; a cream arc highlight on the upper left of the ring (stroke 2.6, two dashes); then the glass or dial in pale outlined 3.6, with a sand ring offset (+6, +6) and cream streaks on the upper left, all clipped to the glass.
• Small parts that stick out of a round object (crown, pushers, handle collar) are stadiums or quads standing on its rim, sand or tan, each outlined 3.6 and each in the keyline.

Decor and props

• Gulls: 2–4 ink "m" silhouettes (gull(x, y, s), s 7–10.5), in the sky beside or above the disc, never overlapping the subject, sizes varied, one mirrored.
• Splash band along the crop (foam()): an ink band from x 96–100 to 380–384, rising to a crest near y 216–224, 5 lobes a side (r 6.5–13.7, mirrored about x 240); cream holes r 1–3.2 punched into the dark (8–15 of them), teardrop drops r 1.8–3.2 flung outward at ±48–72°, 4–6 loose specks r 1–1.5.
• Centre of the band is the subject's base and changes per card: a cream cloud billow with ink lobes behind (rocket), a dark knoll with pale boulders and grass tufts (tree), ink spikes with drop tips (magnifier). A cloud bank is ONE outlined mass shaped like a mound, tallest under the hero: puffs(list, { merge: true, dark: PALE, light: CREAM }); draw part of it after the hero so the hero sits in it.
• Optional ink flecks: tiny triangle chips, grass blades as wedge() tufts.
• Never: stars, sparkles, frames, ribbons, banners, circles of text, dates, a second sun or moon.

Composition

• Card: full-bleed <rect width="480" height="360" fill="#f8f0e3">, square corners.
• Emblem: sun disc r 86–88 at (240, 114–118); the scene clipped by <clipPath><rect width="480" height="229"/></clipPath> so everything ends on one hard horizontal edge at y 229. Emblem 276–328 px wide, about 205 px tall.
• Wordmark: top at y 258–260, centred on x 240, scale 0.68–0.95, cap 38–53 lockup units (the CLI prints it), 190–310 px wide on the card. Words of 12+ letters need --max-width 320 (or wmMaxWidth: 320 in card()) to keep the cap at 38. Tagline baseline = wordmark top + cap + 19.
• Lockup: everything in <g transform="translate(240 180) scale(0.95–0.97) translate(-240 -cy)"> with cy = (top of the emblem + tagline baseline) / 2, so the whole badge is centred. Shipped lockups span y 30–331 (84 % of the card height).
• One focal point, dead centre, symmetric weight; the sky stays clean except gulls.

Techniques

Two helpers in scripts/, no dependencies. From the skill folder:

• node scripts/wordmark.mjs "RELEASE DAY" --tagline "TAG • SHIP • REST" --prefix rd- prints the wordmark <g>, the tagline <text> and the lockup numbers. A–Z, 0–9 and - . ! '. --max-width 280 (default) sets the scale; node scripts/wordmark.mjs --sheet alphabet.svg renders every glyph. It reproduces the shipped OPEN SOURCE and DEBUG CLUB wordmarks exactly.
• node scripts/emblem-kit.mjs demo.svg writes a self-test card. card() builds the whole SVG shell (card, crop, sun, keyline, lockup centring, wordmark, tagline). When the hero rises above the sun (a rocket nose, a bow), pass top: its highest y, or the lockup centres on the sun and sits low.

import * as K from '/abs/path/to/illustration-vintage-emblem/scripts/emblem-kit.mjs';
const P = 'rd-', fo = K.foam();                       // the Debug Club band; pass lobes/holes/flung to vary it
const body = 'M210 60 L270 60 L270 200 L210 200Z';     // your hero's silhouette paths
const svg = K.card({ prefix: P, label: 'Release Day', word: 'RELEASE DAY', tag: 'TAG • SHIP • REST',
  keyline: `<path d="${body}"/>` + fo.keyline,          // silhouettes: cream, stroked 15
  emblem: `<g fill="${K.INK}"><path d="${K.gull(150, 60, 9)}"/></g>
    ${K.outlined(body, K.SAND)}
    <path d="${K.wedge(262, 196, 258, 90, 4, 0)}" fill="${K.INK}"/>
    <path d="${K.streak(218, 80, 220, 150, 2, 0)}" fill="${K.PALE}"/>
    <g fill="${K.INK}">${fo.ink}</g><g fill="${K.CREAM}">${fo.holes}</g>` });

A cloud bank the hero sits in: back puffs, hero, front puffs, each set under one outline; every puff also goes in the keyline.

const rnd = K.rng(23);
const back = [K.puff(190, 206, 30, 12, 9.5, rnd), K.puff(292, 206, 30, 12, 9.5, rnd)];
const front = [K.puff(240, 214, 36, 17, 11.5, rnd), K.puff(196, 222, 26, 11, 9.5, rnd), K.puff(284, 222, 26, 11, 9.5, rnd)];
const pb = K.puffs(back, { prefix: P + 'b', dark: K.PALE, light: K.CREAM, merge: true });
const pf = K.puffs(front, { prefix: P + 'f', dark: K.PALE, light: K.CREAM, merge: true });
// defs: pb.defs + pf.defs; keyline: [...back, ...front].map(c => K.puffShape(c, K.OUT)).join('')
// emblem: splash, pb.svg, hero, pf.svg

Carving inside a shape, clipped so gouges never cross the outline (as the rocket body and beetle shell do):

<clipPath id="rd-bodyclip"><path d="M…body…"/></clipPath>
<g clip-path="url(#rd-bodyclip)">
  <path d="M243 55 C244 66 243 78 242 88 … L262 146 V55Z" fill="#1f2b25"/>   <!-- shadow side -->
  <path d="M245.6 86 C246.6 96 … Z" fill="#d9a873"/>                         <!-- reflected light in it -->
</g>
<path d="M…body…" fill="none" stroke="#1f2b25" stroke-width="4.2" stroke-linejoin="round"/>  <!-- outline last -->

Failure modes

• Hero lost among props. A launch tower beside the rocket split the focus; one hero only.
• Teal everywhere. Teal fins made the badge read as a different palette; keep teal to one band or ring.
• Busy base. A row of separately outlined cloud puffs looked like bubble wrap (the self-test hit this again with puffs() defaults); use one merged cream billow (merge: true) in the centre and ink lobes with punched holes at the sides.
• Flat cloud sausage. Equal-height puffs in a row read as a bolster; make the bank a mound, tallest under the hero.
• Wordmark too small. A 13-letter word at the default width came out with a 33-unit cap; widen to --max-width 320 before shortening the words.
• Crown reads as balls or a mushroom. Plain circles for foliage; build clumps from bump rings with ink curls under the top bumps, gouges up from the bottom and the two-tone offset (puffs()).
• Roots or lines read as scribble. Free diagonal shapes; lay them out as lanes with vertical tangents (gstep), like a git graph, with nodes.
• Subject melts into the sun. Keyline missing on a lobe or handle; every silhouette shape goes into the keyline group.
• Wordmark looks typed. A system font in <text> changes per machine; build the wordmark with wordmark.mjs. Only the 12.5 px tagline may be <text> (Georgia bold, tracking 2), as in Ship It.
• Wordmark letters fold over. A corner radius wider than half the inner width makes cream slivers inside round glyphs; wordmark.mjs clamps it, so keep custom glyphs within it too.
• Lockup off centre. The scale was applied without re-centring; compute cy from the emblem top and the tagline baseline (card() does).

Examples

• examples/ship-it.svg: rocket lifting off a cream billow, terracotta nose and porthole ring with a </> glyph, teal band, sand fins; carved shadow down the right of the body; wordmark at scale 0.95 with a <text> tagline.
• examples/open-source.svg: old tree on a dark knoll with pale boulders; crown of two-tone leafy clumps; roots as git-graph lanes with cream-and-teal nodes; grass tufts in the splash; wordmark scale 0.74.
• examples/debug-club.svg: big magnifier offset left so the sun shows as a crescent, a carved beetle in the glass, grip with ink bands and a teal collar; ink spikes, braces and chevrons in the splash; wordmark scale 0.84.

Workflow

Commands run from the skill folder (Playwright must resolve for render: npm i -D playwright-core there or globally).

1. Brief: name the subject, pick ONE hero object that says it, and write the wordmark (1–3 words) and a three-beat tagline with • separators.
2. Hero: sketch its silhouette in 3–8 big shapes; decide how it breaks the sun's circle and what sits at its base in the splash band.
3. Words: node scripts/wordmark.mjs "WORD" --tagline "A • B • C" --prefix xx- to see the scale and cap height. If the cap is under 38, rerun with --max-width 320; only then shorten the words.
4. Block: write a generator (card.gen.mjs) that imports emblem-kit.mjs by absolute path. Silhouettes first (they feed the keyline), then fills, ink shade, pale streaks, splash, gulls. Use K.card() for the shell.
5. Render: node scripts/render.mjs card.svg card.png.
6. Sheet: node scripts/render.mjs --sheet sheet.png examples/*.svg card.svg. Same weight of ink, same palette share, same lockup size?
7. Zoom: node scripts/render.mjs card.svg z.png --zoom x,y,w,h --scale 6 on the keyline, the carving, the splash holes and the wordmark joins.
8. Critique on the five criteria in references/craft.md (character drawing = the hero object's construction). Fix and re-render; expect 3–4 rounds.
9. Lint: node scripts/lint.mjs card.svg --prefix xx- --palette style.json. It should pass with no warnings.

Verify

• Only the seven palette colours appear; lint --palette prints no WARN.
• Cream full-bleed card rect, square corners.
• A terracotta sun disc r 86–88 sits behind the hero, and the hero breaks its circle.
• A cream keyline about 7.5 px wide separates every part of the hero from the disc.
• Every hero shape has a 3.6 ink outline; shade is ink wedges or crescents, light is pale streaks.
• No gradients, opacity, hatching, textures or filters.
• The scene ends on one hard horizontal edge, with an ink splash band, punched cream holes and flung drops.
• 2–4 gulls, none touching the hero.
• Teal appears once or twice, small.
• Wordmark is paths from wordmark.mjs, cap 38–53 lockup units, centred, at most 310 px wide; tagline 12.5 serif bold with •.
• Lockup centred vertically: equal space above the emblem and below the tagline (± 6 px).
• The subject reads at 1x without the words.