A New Tartan

There is a special joy in designing something new that still feels old. A coat of arms has this property: rooted in tradition, yet reinterpreted through the choices of its bearer. A tartan, too, does this. And today I have the pleasure of sharing that I have registered a new tartan with the Scottish Register of Tartans.

The James Howard & Family (Personal) tartan was officially recorded on 27 May 2025 under registration number 14,834. The thread count is as follows:

DB/36 DY4 Y8 DY4 DB36 B28 LB20 W/80

The process of registration was straightforward and thoroughly enjoyable. The staff at the Scottish Register of Tartans were courteous, prompt, and genuinely enthusiastic, a real pleasure to work with throughout.

The colors in the tartan were drawn directly from my personal coat of arms. They are not symbolic in isolation, but rather serve to carry forward an existing visual identity, a textile echo of the heraldic tradition. For readers interested in tartans, I recently wrote a guide to designing a tartan, which gives some context to this kind of cross-medium design.

You can view the official registration at the Scottish Register of Tartans.

Here are the colors used in the preferred palette:

• White – #FFFFFF
• Light Blue – #1959B9
• Medium Blue – #154C9E
• Dark Blue – #103A79
• Gold – #FEE46E
• Dark Gold – #AC8800
• Light Yellow – #FFF1A1

These colors place the tartan in aesthetic kinship with several other traditions. Though modern in execution, it avoids the digital glare of contemporary designs and instead finds common cause with:

• Regimental tartans, especially those with ceremonial function and military lineage, where dark grounds and gold accents imply formality and order
• House tartans, used by armigerous families to extend their heraldic identity into textile form
• Diaspora tartans, where visual references come from flags or civic heraldry rather than clan or geography
• Academic and ecclesiastical tartans, whose palettes suggest dignity, scholarship, and service

While this tartan is intended for personal and family use, it was designed with an eye toward structure and formality. It is not rustic. It is not improvised. It is meant to wear well in silk or fine wool, in sash or scarf, or on days of significance.

This tartan is registered for personal and family use. It is not affiliated with any clan or organization, and it is not in general circulation. That said, friends and extended kin are welcome to wear it respectfully, particularly in connection with heraldic or ceremonial occasions.

At present, this is the only variant. I may develop a dress sett in the future. But for now, I am quite pleased with this result: a modern tartan grounded in old ideas.

You can view the official registration at the Scottish Register of Tartans, or see it below.

Or you can download the PDF here.