Twelve symbols, and every one of them points somewhere

Twelve lantern symbols in a loose grid, no two the same orientation: profiles, Fresnels, parcans, floods, one follow spot. Each is a simple plan-view outline — a small circle marking the body of the unit, a wedge jutting off it. Beside each symbol, small, a channel number: 1 to 12.

Every wedge points somewhere different. That's not a graphic effect. That's the drawing doing its job.

What is a lighting plan symbol, and why does it have a wedge on it?

A lighting plan is drawn from directly above, looking straight down at the bars and the stage, and from that angle the single most useful fact about a lantern — which way it's actually aimed — can't be shown as a picture of the fitting, because from above almost every lantern looks like the same short cylinder.

The wedge solves it. A simple triangle leaving the circle stands in for the beam, so a plan reader glancing at a bar of twelve identical circles can tell in an instant which one is lighting the downstage apron and which is aimed hard into the wings, without needing to see the actual lantern.

Why do profiles, Fresnels, parcans and floods each get a different symbol?

Because the shape of light each one throws is different, and a plan needs to say so at a glance.

A profile has a hard, focusable edge and its symbol usually shows that focus point; a Fresnel throws a soft-edged wash and its symbol is rounder and plainer; a parcan is a fixed, unadjustable beam and reads as the simplest shape of the set. A follow spot's own symbol looks different again, tied to the aperture it uses to shape its own beam rather than to a fixed throw. A rigger scanning a bar doesn't read the symbols one at a time — the shapes are different enough to tell the mix of a rig apart before a single number is checked.

Why do the symbols look deliberately crude rather than accurate?

Because a plan gets drawn fast, often by hand on the day, and read later by someone on a ladder with a torch, not sitting at a desk.

A precisely rendered lantern would take longer to draw and no easier to read in bad light than a rough circle and a wedge — the whole vocabulary is built around speed of drawing and speed of reading, not resemblance to the actual fitting. Crude is a feature of the system, not a shortcut taken against it.

What makes a good version of this design?

Varying the wedge direction with a reason behind it — a spread of angles that would make sense on one bar, rather than symbols rotated purely for visual variety, the way a channel selection reads as one cue rather than a scatter.

A believable plan has some units aimed straight down, some raked to one side for a cross light, maybe one turned almost sideways for a special — the variation should read as a rig somebody actually designed.

Who owns a symbol vocabulary like this?

Nobody. Circles, wedges and the convention of drawing a rig from above are a shared drafting method, not a design any one person or company holds.

A specific software package's exact icon set, or one venue's own house symbol library with its name attached, is different — a real, identifiable version of either is licensable the ordinary way. Twelve generic symbols and invented channel numbers need nobody's permission.

How is this different from a full lighting plot with a title block and a cue called on it?

That's a different document doing a different job — a complete record of one show, built around the moment a cue is called.

This is the vocabulary underneath it: the marks any plan is built from, independent of any single production, title or cue number. A rigger recognises circle-and-wedge the same way whichever show, or whichever theatre, drew the page.

Does it print well?

Very — hard-edged circles and triangles are close to the simplest artwork a print process sees, and a loose, irregular grid avoids the density that reduces a real plan to fuzz at this size.

Cream is the natural ground, since most plans are drawn on pale paper; charcoal for the symbol lines and channel numbers, red kept for a single detail worth picking out rather than spread across all twelve. Keep the wedges short and the circles a fair size, and the vocabulary stays legible.

How do I get one made?

Describe your rig at JustOG — which lantern types, how many channels, and how the symbols should be laid out. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the shop.

Twelve wedges, twelve directions, and not one of them pointing the same way as its neighbour.