About The Heraldist's Headline

Staff

• Alistair Vorant

  Founding Editor

  A contrarian's contrarian who believes the entire modern heraldic establishment has it backwards. Alistair argues that corporate brands are the legitimate heraldry of our age and that the College of Arms is a theme park. His pieces provoke more letters to the editor than the rest of the staff combined. He once called the Royal Arms 'overdesigned' and had to take a week off.

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  A contrarian's contrarian who believes the entire modern heraldic establishment has it backwards. Alistair argues that corporate brands are the legitimate heraldry of our age and that the College of Arms is a theme park. His pieces provoke more letters to the editor than the rest of the staff combined. He once called the Royal Arms 'overdesigned' and had to take a week off.

• Blazon Rampant

  Standards Correspondent

  Heraldic scholar who can describe your family crest in terminology that sounds like fantasy literature and means absolutely nothing to civilians.

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  Heraldic scholar who can describe your family crest in terminology that sounds like fantasy literature and means absolutely nothing to civilians.

• Cormac Engrailed

  Civic Affairs Desk

  A retired advertising creative director who spent 35 years designing the very corporate logos he now gleefully blazons. Cormac knows exactly how the sausage is made — which rebrand was a CEO's napkin sketch, which 'bold new identity' was the third option nobody liked — and he tells all. His memoir proposal has been rejected by four publishers for being 'too heraldically specific.'

  Read full bio

  A retired advertising creative director who spent 35 years designing the very corporate logos he now gleefully blazons. Cormac knows exactly how the sausage is made — which rebrand was a CEO's napkin sketch, which 'bold new identity' was the third option nobody liked — and he tells all. His memoir proposal has been rejected by four publishers for being 'too heraldically specific.'

• Declan Fess

  Culture Columnist

  A UX designer turned heraldic provocateur who believes the shield is the original responsive design system. Declan writes about how heraldic principles should evolve for the screen age, routinely enraging purists by proposing new tinctures for dark mode. His column 'Bend Sinister' is the most-hated and most-read feature in the paper.

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  A UX designer turned heraldic provocateur who believes the shield is the original responsive design system. Declan writes about how heraldic principles should evolve for the screen age, routinely enraging purists by proposing new tinctures for dark mode. His column 'Bend Sinister' is the most-hated and most-read feature in the paper.

• Jamie Torteau

  Field Reporter

  A recently graduated graphic design student who stumbled into heraldry through a TikTok rabbit hole and now asks questions that make veterans either laugh or have existential crises. Jamie's column 'Wait, Why Though?' interrogates the rules everyone else takes for granted. Somehow got the Azure/Gules distinction wrong in their first piece and has been living it down ever since.

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  A recently graduated graphic design student who stumbled into heraldry through a TikTok rabbit hole and now asks questions that make veterans either laugh or have existential crises. Jamie's column 'Wait, Why Though?' interrogates the rules everyone else takes for granted. Somehow got the Azure/Gules distinction wrong in their first piece and has been living it down ever since.

• Maud Chevronny

  Letters Editor

  A former College of Arms research assistant who left institutional heraldry after a dispute over whether a Silicon Valley unicorn could technically bear a unicorn rampant. Maud covers rule violations, improper tinctures, and the ongoing degradation of blazon grammar with the righteous fury of a copy editor at the end of days. She has never once described a logo as 'nice.'

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  A former College of Arms research assistant who left institutional heraldry after a dispute over whether a Silicon Valley unicorn could technically bear a unicorn rampant. Maud covers rule violations, improper tinctures, and the ongoing degradation of blazon grammar with the righteous fury of a copy editor at the end of days. She has never once described a logo as 'nice.'

• Ngozi Okafor-Paly

  Institutional Memory Desk

  A Nigerian-British vexillologist and textile historian who covers the intersection of African visual traditions, flag design, and European heraldry — territory most heraldists pretend doesn't exist. Ngozi's beat is the global south of blazonry: she writes about Ashanti adinkra symbols appearing in fintech logos and Maasai shield patterns in sportswear branding with equal parts scholarly rigor and barely contained frustration at the field's Eurocentrism.

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  A Nigerian-British vexillologist and textile historian who covers the intersection of African visual traditions, flag design, and European heraldry — territory most heraldists pretend doesn't exist. Ngozi's beat is the global south of blazonry: she writes about Ashanti adinkra symbols appearing in fintech logos and Maasai shield patterns in sportswear branding with equal parts scholarly rigor and barely contained frustration at the field's Eurocentrism.

• Priya Narasimhan

  Weekend Editor

  A data scientist who left fintech to build the world's most comprehensive database of corporate heraldic elements. Priya has catalogued the tinctures, charges, and ordinaries of every Fortune 500 logo and publishes quarterly reports on charge frequency, color distribution, and what she calls 'the heraldic Gini coefficient.' She does not understand why people find her charts funny.

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  A data scientist who left fintech to build the world's most comprehensive database of corporate heraldic elements. Priya has catalogued the tinctures, charges, and ordinaries of every Fortune 500 logo and publishes quarterly reports on charge frequency, color distribution, and what she calls 'the heraldic Gini coefficient.' She does not understand why people find her charts funny.

• Seren Cadwaladr

  Public Records Fellow

  A Welsh medieval historian who traces the lineage of every corporate symbol back to its oldest heraldic ancestor, whether the connection is plausible or not. Seren has convinced herself that the Starbucks siren is a melusine and that the Apple logo descends from the arms of Newton's family. Her footnotes have footnotes.

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  A Welsh medieval historian who traces the lineage of every corporate symbol back to its oldest heraldic ancestor, whether the connection is plausible or not. Seren has convinced herself that the Starbucks siren is a melusine and that the Apple logo descends from the arms of Newton's family. Her footnotes have footnotes.

• Tobias Quarterly

  Copy Chief

  A former stand-up comedian who discovered heraldry while researching a bit about his family crest and never left. Tobias treats every corporate coat of arms as a setup waiting for a punchline. His weekly column 'Supporters Behaving Badly' reviews corporate identity through the lens of what heraldic supporters (the animals flanking a shield) each brand would deserve. HR departments hate him.

  Read full bio

  A former stand-up comedian who discovered heraldry while researching a bit about his family crest and never left. Tobias treats every corporate coat of arms as a setup waiting for a punchline. His weekly column 'Supporters Behaving Badly' reviews corporate identity through the lens of what heraldic supporters (the animals flanking a shield) each brand would deserve. HR departments hate him.