Heraldry and Japanese mon offer lessons for building visual-identity generators. European heraldry uses a formal language called blazon, with rules for field, tincture, charge, and attitude. Japanese mon, or family emblems, follow different visual systems.

Both traditions solve similar problems through structured rules. Procedural generation must represent these systems faithfully, not just pick symbols randomly. Tools like finite state machines, abstract syntax trees, and scene graphs help model heraldic grammar.

Iron Arachne is a software project that applies these ideas. The article includes a glossary of terms like cadency, marshalling, and SVG. Comparing the two traditions reveals distinct approaches to design generation.