Sarah Clarity Studios

Chapter 2: Hazard / Compliance Pictograms

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Hazard / Compliance Pictograms for Mecha Concept Artists

Hazard and compliance pictograms are the “safety UI” of a mech’s surface. They’re not decoration and they’re not optional flavor: they communicate where a machine can hurt people, where people can hurt the machine, and what procedures keep both alive. In games and films, they also do a second job: they make complex machinery feel real, scaled, and operated by organizations that have rules.

This article is written equally for concept artists working on the concepting side (defining factions, roles, and what hazards exist) and the production side (building repeatable, sheet-driven decal systems that surfacing and 3D can apply consistently). We’ll focus on pictograms, numbers, decals, and hazard logic, and treat them as an information hierarchy that must survive distance, motion, grime, and lighting.

What “hazard” and “compliance” actually mean on a mech

A hazard pictogram warns about a physical or procedural risk: heat, crush, rotation, voltage, radiation, pressurized systems, toxic fluids, explosive propellant, sharp edges, and so on. A compliance mark is a statement that the machine meets a rule or that a procedure has been followed: inspection stamps, service intervals, torque specs, load ratings, pressure ratings, grounding points, lockout steps, and certification plates.

For concept artists, the important shift is to see hazards and compliance as operational storytelling. If your world has logistics, maintenance, and safety culture, the mech will show it. A corporate security chassis will be label-heavy and standardized. A rebel field unit might have a few urgent warnings stenciled by hand and improvised tags. An elite manufacturer might have subtle, clear-coated icons integrated into the paint system.

Information hierarchy: hazards have tiers too

Hazard graphics need hierarchy just like faction livery.

The top tier is “keep clear” communication that reads at speed: large warning bands around exhausts, rotating joints, recoil zones, and high-energy emitters. The next tier is “what kind of danger” icons that read at medium distance: crush, hot surface, high voltage, radiation, laser aperture. The next tier is procedural instruction that reads up close: “LOCKOUT BEFORE SERVICE,” bleed valves, grounding points, torque values, lift-point diagrams, and access arrows. The lowest tier is compliance texture: tiny serials, inspector stamps, manufacturing plates, and revision tags.

A mech becomes noisy when you treat every warning like a headline. Your job is to decide what must read from far away and demote the rest so it supports believability without stealing attention from silhouette and primary livery.

The core principle: warnings must attach to real mechanical logic

A hazard icon looks credible when it sits exactly where the hazard originates. Hazard stripes on a random armor plate read like costume. Stripes around a turbine intake, a hinge pinch point, or an exhaust manifold read like a maintenance department trying to keep people alive.

Concepting-side rule: whenever you add a pictogram, you should be able to answer, in one sentence, what physical thing causes the hazard and who is exposed to it. Production-side rule: the icon placement should line up with the mech’s rigging and animation beats, so the “danger zones” stay consistent when the machine moves.

Shape language: design pictograms to survive distance and grime

Pictograms succeed when they are simple, high-contrast, and consistent. A good icon is readable even when it’s half-obscured by dirt, scratched by wear, or blurred by motion.

Use strong negative space. Avoid thin strokes that vanish when scaled down. Prefer a single focal shape with one modifier rather than multiple tiny details. If your faction’s general graphic language is angular, keep icons angular. If it’s rounded and industrial, keep icons rounded and utilitarian. Consistency matters more than cleverness.

A practical constraint is to design every pictogram so it still communicates at “thumbnail size,” because that’s effectively what many players see at mid distance.

Standardized grammar: pick a “warning system” and stick to it

In real-world safety graphics, danger is often encoded through a combination of symbol shape, border, and color. In a fictional setting, you don’t need to mimic any single real standard, but you do need a consistent grammar.

One useful approach is to define three levels of severity and map them to a small set of visual rules. For example, your world might use a high-contrast band for “keep clear,” a bold icon plate for “hazard present,” and a small instruction stencil for “procedure required.” If you also add a consistent “header bar” or corner notch shape for hazard labels, the entire mech surface starts reading like a real industrial ecosystem.

On the production side, this becomes a mini style guide that prevents different artists from inventing new hazard conventions every time they touch an asset.

The hazard library: the set you’ll use most often

Most mecha need the same core hazard categories, because they share the same physical realities: heat, electricity, pressure, motion, and energy. A strong hazard library includes pictograms for hot surfaces near exhausts and heat sinks, pinch and crush at hinges and sliding armor, rotating parts at fans and gimbals, high voltage near power distribution, radiation or ionizing emissions near reactors, laser apertures at targeting modules, pressurized vessels at accumulators, and flammables or propellant near fuel and munitions.

It also helps to include “human interaction” icons: no step, no handhold, lift points, rescue cut points, emergency release, and grounding points. These are the icons that communicate that humans really work around this machine.

When concepting factions, you can choose which hazards are culturally emphasized. A safety-forward organization will label every pinch point. A ruthless faction might only label the areas that risk damaging the machine, not the crew.

Numbers as compliance: when digits become story and function

Numbers are not only unit IDs. On hazard and compliance layers, numbers often communicate limits and procedures: maximum load, pressure ratings, service interval counts, torque specs, battery voltage classes, temperature limits, and part revision IDs.

If you scatter numbers without meaning, you get “random tech texture.” If you define a handful of numeric conventions, you get believable machinery. For instance, lift points can have load ratings that correlate with the mech’s scale class, or hydraulic accumulators can have pressure markings that align with your mechanical design language.

On the production side, this becomes a reusable number sheet with consistent typography, spacing, and formatting rules, so the digits look like they came from the same manufacturer.

Decal physicality: painted, stenciled, vinyl, or clear-coated

Hazard and compliance marks should obey a physical model. Stencils often look monochrome and slightly imperfect, with overspray or broken edges. Painted hazard bands tend to chip with the base coat and wear at corners. Vinyl labels can lift and tear, collecting grime at edges. Clear-coated prints stay crisp but scratch through, especially on high-contact plates.

Choosing the physical model is both art direction and worldbuilding. A field-maintained mech will have stencils and paint. A premium manufacturer might integrate icons under clear coat. A paramilitary unit might use standardized vinyl plates applied during inspections.

In production, the physical model tells surfacing how to handle normals, roughness contrast, and wear masks so decals don’t float unnaturally on top of materials.

Placement logic: where hazard graphics should and shouldn’t live

Hazard graphics should live on “service-readable planes,” not on the most chaotic geometry. Broad plates near the hazard are ideal because they act like signs. Place the icon near the hazard, but on a surface that stays visible during common poses.

Avoid placing critical warnings on highly articulated zones where they distort or disappear, unless the warning is specifically about that articulation. For pinch-point warnings, it can be effective to place a small icon on the moving part and a matching icon on the stationary part, so the danger reads as a relationship.

For compliance plates and serials, choose areas that feel like real inspection targets: inside access doors, near maintenance hatches, on inner thigh panels, or on the back of a torso where technicians would stand.

“Keep clear” choreography: hazard zones that help animation and VFX

Some hazards are not just labels; they are staging tools. A recoil hazard band can define the space behind a weapon. A hot exhaust warning can clarify where heat haze and soot should accumulate. A “rotor arc” keep-clear band can suggest the sweep volume of moving parts.

When you align hazard zones with action beats, you get a design that supports gameplay and cinematics. Animators understand where contact should be avoided. VFX knows where emissions belong. Level design can stage cover and interaction around those hazard volumes.

Compliance storytelling: inspections, revisions, and authority

Compliance marks are a chance to show the bureaucracy of your world. Inspection stamps imply routine checks. Revision tags imply upgrades and changing specs. Certification plates imply manufacturers, vendors, and regulated industries.

In a grounded pipeline, you can invent a few believable recurring patterns: an inspection stamp format, a revision label format, and a manufacturer plate style. Then reuse them across the fleet. The audience reads repetition as authenticity.

Be careful not to make compliance marks too loud. They are usually Tier 3–4: close-up rewards, not primary read drivers.

Designing a hazard decal kit for production

To make hazard pictograms survive into the shipped asset, treat them like a kit.

Start with a core sheet containing hazard icons, arrows, “NO STEP / KEEP CLEAR” stencils, lift point marks, grounding symbols, cut-point indicators, and a small library of numbers and units. Keep icon stroke widths consistent and ensure every icon has a clear silhouette.

Then create placement rules: where keep-clear bands go, which plates must remain quiet for legibility, and which hazards are required for each mech role. A siege unit might require recoil and blast warnings. A reactor-driven unit might require radiation and high-voltage warnings. A flight-capable unit might require intake and downwash warnings.

Finally, create variants: clean factory, field-worn, winterized, night-ops low-contrast, and damaged. Variants prevent every mech from looking like it rolled out of the same paint booth yesterday.

LOD and readability: what to keep at distance

At distance, small stencils become noise, but hazard bands and large icon plates can still help readability. The trick is to let the macro hazard language carry the far-distance story while micro text collapses into subtle material variation.

On the concepting side, test your design at three zoom levels and make sure hazard elements don’t turn the mech into confetti from far away. On the production side, plan for how micro decals can be baked into roughness/normal or simplified at lower LODs.

Common failure modes (and how to fix them)

One common failure is “hazard stripes everywhere.” When stripes become fashion, they lose meaning and overwhelm the silhouette. Fix this by restricting stripes to true high-risk zones and using quieter icon plates for other hazards.

Another failure is icons that are too detailed. If the icon needs the viewer to be close to understand it, it’s not an icon—it’s an illustration. Fix this by simplifying down to one primary shape plus one modifier.

Another failure is inconsistent typography and icon style across assets. Fix this by committing to one hazard style guide and one shared decal sheet.

Another failure is placing warnings on busy panel breaks and greeble. Fix this by reserving quiet plates near hazards, so warnings land on readable surfaces.

A repeatable workflow for concepting and production

On the concepting side, begin by listing the mech’s real hazards based on its design: heat sources, pinch points, rotating volumes, power distribution, pressurized components, and emissions. Decide which hazards must read at speed and which are close-up flavor. Sketch a small icon family that matches the faction’s graphic language and do quick distance tests.

On the production side, convert that into a hazard kit: vector-clean icons, consistent numbers, arrow systems, and stencil text. Provide a placement diagram and a rule sheet that explains required hazards by role. Include variants and a decal physical model so surfacing can integrate wear and roughness correctly.

When hazard and compliance pictograms are treated as a system, they stop being “extra decals” and start becoming part of the mech’s functional identity. The result is a surface language that reads fast, feels real, and stays consistent across a whole fleet.