Hanky Family and HankyCode: what’s the difference?
Hanky Family is the studio and the registered mark. HankyCode is the collection. The archive is the 1970s code, kept separately for adults.
Three names, one thing each
Hanky Family is the studio, and HANKY FAMILY® is its registered trade mark (UK00004351805, classes 16 and 35). It is the mark in the margin of every print and the name a person answers to when you write about an order.
HankyCode is the collection: 311 codes in the Master, 152 of them on this site, each an editioned print. When we say “a HankyCode print” or “a HankyCode Original”, we mean the work.
The archive — hankyfamily.com/archive — is the 1970s code as it was written, kept behind an 18+ door so the history can be told without editing it.
What is trademarked and what is not
The registered mark is the studio’s. The prints are the studio’s copyright. The hanky code itself — the colours and meanings gay and bisexual men built in the 1970s — belongs to nobody, and we do not claim it. Historical codes are cited to their sources on every page. The registered symbol appears only beside the HANKY FAMILY mark, never beside a code.
Questions people ask
- Is HankyCode a trademark?
- HANKY FAMILY® is the registered mark (UK00004351805). HankyCode is the name of the collection. The hanky code itself is not owned by anyone.
- Are you the same as the 1970s hanky code?
- No. We are a studio making contemporary prints on that code’s grammar, citing its record, and adding new codes clearly marked as ours.
Sources
- Hanky Family Studio, Statement on Origin and Custodianship (June 2026)
- HankyCode Master v3 (the studio’s specification of all 311 codes)
How this was made: written by Hanky Family Studio from the sources above and the HankyCode Master v3, checked against the studio’s voice and safety standard, last built 2026-09-18.