Movement Pictogram Sheet
A pictogram sheet for anything with a repertoire — a sport, a craft, a working loop — where each figure is drawn at the one instant that names the move. Five fields.
We made two examples: nine instants from Vibary's working loop and fifteen from skateboarding. The sport fills its grid because its moves have distinct body shapes; the working loop does not, so the count reflects the activity itself.
Each figure is drawn at the one instant that names the move, and you can recognise it without a caption. The colour system holds: every torso one colour, every leg another, and exactly one limb in the accent colour doing the work. If your activity does not have fifteen clearly different poses, ask for fewer: at fifteen you get variations on the same gesture, while nine works well.
Generated for this library
Input
Activity building an interface by describing it
Moves describe · generate · scrub · trim · tweak · compare ·
reject · copy · paste · run · catch · fix · publish ·
share · start again
Colour torso indigo · legs navy · acting limb ochre
Returned 1 sheet · 16:9 · 5 x 3 · white, no text anywhere
figures flat geometric bodies from wedges, bars and slices, a
plain circle for every head, sharp edges, no faces
instants each drawn at the moment it is named by - scrub is a
hand mid-drag along a horizontal, reject is one arm
sweeping a shape aside, publish is both arms pushing a
shape up and out
colour every torso indigo, every leg navy, and exactly one
limb per figure in ochre - the limb doing the work, so
the eye finds the action before it reads the pose
prop one rectangle throughout, its position doing the
distinguishing: beside, under the hands, overhead
verdict tweak and fix came back nearly alike, which is the sheet
saying they are one move with two namesYou fill in 5 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The activity
- 2The moves, named
- 3The identifying instant for each
- 4The equipment, and where it sits
- 5The colour zones
Movement Pictogram Sheet
What this makes
A pictogram sheet for anything with a repertoire — a sport, a craft, a working loop — where each figure is drawn at the one instant that names the move. Five fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the five FIELDS lines. Write the instants before you write anything else — that list is the design, and the drawing follows it.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the sheet.
- Test it by covering your own list and naming each figure. The ones you cannot name are the ones to redraw or cut.
What you swap
- The activity
- building an interface by describing it, the Vibary loop
- The moves, named
- describe · generate · scrub · trim · tweak the curve · compare two · reject one · copy · paste · run it · catch a jank · fix it · publish · share · start again
- The identifying instant for each
- the instant that names the move — describe: mid-gesture at a screen · scrub: hand dragging along a horizontal · reject: one arm sweeping a shape away · publish: both arms pushing a shape out and up
- The equipment, and where it sits
- a rectangle standing for a panel — beside the figure when working, under the hands when dragging, above the head when publishing
- The colour zones
- torso #5B5BD6 indigo on every figure · legs a deep navy · one limb per figure in #E8C468 ochre to mark the acting limb · heads always a plain circle in indigo
Before it runs
- Moves that genuinely differ. Fifteen names are easy; fifteen distinguishable instants are the real test, and a practice that cannot supply them should ship nine.
- For each move, the instant it is recognised at. Naming the move is not enough — a jump is unrecognisable at the crouch and obvious at the apex.
- One piece of equipment, or none. Two props per figure and the sheet becomes an illustration.
When to reach for it
When an event, a discipline or a product needs a symbol system rather than a logo: signage, schedules, category markers, a wall of what happens here. Also the fastest way to find out whether a practice has fifteen distinct moves or the same three renamed.
What changes
- One sheet of pictograms in a grid, flat geometric figures, no captions — the sheet has to work without them.
- Each figure is drawn at the identifying instant of its move, not a random frame of it, which is the difference between fifteen symbols and fifteen poses.
- Colour marks the same body zones on every figure, so the palette reads as a system instead of confetti.
- Equipment keeps a stated relationship to the body — under, beside, above, held — because for half these moves that relationship is the whole distinction.
- Two figures that read alike are the sheet telling you the two moves are one move, which is worth more than the drawing.
Pairs with
- Brand Name Typography BoardGive it a brand name, get one silent black-and-white board back — the same name set fifteen ways, in five families of typographic levers.
- Building Facade Sign LettersA name mounted as dimensional letters on a real building, photographed from the street — where the material, the wall and the light are chosen as one set rather than picked separately. Six fields.
- Event Mascot FamilyA mascot family running as a team, with the event's logo locked beneath them — every character built on the same body so they read as siblings rather than as a cast. Six fields.