Logo & favicon proposal

[dyogurt]

Hello everyone, I would like to propose a new logo and favicon for Makie.jl.
@piever mentioned that @musm was talking about this on Slack.

I do not know the concept or story behind the current logo so take my suggestion with a grain of salt if it's going in a weird direction. Nevertheless, I would very much like to help you have a new logo :)

Feel free to leave feedback or other suggestions.

Logo concept

The maki-e technique and plot related nature of the package are expressed as sprinkled gold dots (scatter data) with a smooth fitted line. The Julia component appears as a red sun and colourful leaves (a natural motif is usually used in maki-e), a call back to the 3 shapes of the current logo.

Dark version for light backgrounds

Light version for dark backgrounds

Font

I used Space Grotesk, an open source font that includes an interesting uppercase "M", much like the current logo.

Favicon

It would be used at a very small scale so it keeps only the Julia coloured "nature" motifs (sun, leaves) and the cup shape.

[musm]

Pretty good! Do you plan to post SVGs, I'd like to tweak around parts of it.

[jkrumbiegel]

Very cool! I like the plant with the curve plot stem, that's quite clever. I'm not so sure about the bowl, I know it's connected to the japanese technique, but still :)

[dyogurt]

Thank you both for the feedback :)

@jkrumbiegel I share a similar filling towards the cup, I used it because of its distinct shape. Because maki-e can be done in multiple objects we can choose one that makes more sense. For example, a box (squircle) can be associated with some package related messages—"makie is ready to use 'out of the box...'"; "makei is a tool-box..."

Box version

Besides changing the cup to a box I made it so "makie" comes before the graphic element, like in the current logo.

@musm you can access the SVGs files trough this Dropbox link, let me know if it's not working.
There should be 4 layers:

• favicon
• logo light v2 (the box)
• logo light v1 (the cup – hidden layer)
• logo dark v1

I prefer to work only in the light version for now and do a dark one once all the details are settled.

Idea

If the logo can be made in code (beyond my skills) it could be used as a nice little challenge for the community :) For example, people can be invited to edit the code to make their own version of the box/cup—different plots, colours, natural motifs, etc.

[musm]

Many thanks @dyogurt for the svg:

Here is my current proposal, building of your great design.

I wanted to simplify things and keep it more fun. I felt that the rigid font didn't quite feel right and went with something more 'playful'. The glittering gold was a great idea and built on that and used it as glitter throughout the font, where the glitters represent the 'i' dot exploding. The flower petals were abused but created a nice visual design around the gold sun and I decided to use them around the sun. Finally, a paint stroke is the backdrop, which I think gives it a more natural feel. I'm not 100% convinced that the petal are required:

Update:
After sitting on this I agree that the above design is too 'busy', instead I think the following logo with just the petals, is a better proposal:

[jkrumbiegel]

While it looks kind of nice, I don't think a brush stroke like that is good for a logo. It only resolves well in large size, and is kind of lost at a smaller one. I much prefer simpler geometric logos that work well at favicon size as well.

Just for comparison some other plotting library logos:

ggplot, not great but not too bad

matplotlib, too cluttered and no clear idea

matlab, this actually works very well at small size

plotly, this is also nice and abstract, with clear design

I'd focus on a design that works very well at small size, because that's what you usually see. That can then be embellished if necessary for larger sizes.

[jkrumbiegel]

This is what I just came up with. I went with the golden squiggly line plus scatter markers, which I liked, but simplified the rest more so that it works also as a small logo. I'm partial about the golden i dot, that was a last second idea ;)

[musm]

@jkrumbiegel really attractive design.

I tweaked around your design with an update to the font and logo elements to give it 3D depth and additional visual interest.

[ffreyer]

It would be good to change the font color to something that's decently visible on dark themes as well I think. Maybe one of the blue tones or a gray?

[musm]

@ffreyer the only real solution to that is to have two logo a light version and a dark version and ensure that documenter.jl uses the correct one depending on the user selected theme setting. I related issue is : JuliaDocs/Documenter.jl#1573 (my personal opinion is that the developers of the site should be able to set their own user defined theme preference, IMO I'm not a fan of the user selectable theme setting respecting OS level theme preferences)

[ffreyer]

This is just a quick test, but picking some blue out of the circle as the font color is pretty visible on white and the dark theme color...

[mschauer]

There is something nonsensical about the curve... it seems to avoid the points and not being attracted by them. A Largest Squares Regression curve?

[jkrumbiegel]

Haha I knew someone was going to point that out. It's just an artistic choice

[juliohm]

I am preparing a presentation where I would like to include a logo for the Makie project. Did you converge on an official logo? All the options above look really nice. Just wondering which one I should add to the slides :)

[jkrumbiegel]

Did you converge on an official logo?

No, there was no more discussion than what's going on in this thread. I did however play around with designs a little more. I'm personally more fond of simple geometric logos with a few colors at most and no gradients or shadows. Here's another version where I parted ways with the dots again. I think this is calmer and cleaner than the previous versions.

[jkrumbiegel]

another completely different idea. I got some feedback that the other one could be a waterworks logo. So this one goes with the classic Julia colors and a 3d idea

[juliohm]

These all look great. I am having a hard time choosing a single one!

[jkrumbiegel]

another iteration, picking up the previous floral element a little bit. It also reminds a bit of scatter and line plot in 3D

[jkrumbiegel]

or maybe also with a triangular leaf, so we have mesh, line plot and scatter

[dyogurt]

Replies

This is what I just came up with. I went with the golden squiggly line plus scatter markers, which I liked, but simplified the rest more so that it works also as a small logo. I'm partial about the golden i dot, that was a last second idea ;)

I really liked this approach and it inspired me to rework the floral pattern (typical in maki-e) I had originally proposed. I tried to include the idea of axis plots but in a slightly different way and I kept the golden dot (love it!)

New logo proposal

Construction

The "leaves" of the floral pattern become the axis of the plot, creating a square empty space occupied by the scatter and line.

Logotype variations

The logo and logotype should work well in light and dark backgrounds, both in coloured or black and white versions.

Docs example + Favicon

My proposal for the favicon is a simple golden dot. I think it's okay to simply use an element of the logo as a favicon.

Thoughts

I want to explore the "data as gold" and the maki-e technique in my logo proposals as much as possible :) but it is exciting to see so many nice ideas and concepts appearing! The 3D one is incredible!

At some point, if we distill some concepts (eg. Classic Julia + 3D, Floral gold scatter, Improved playful typography) we could present them for the Makie/Julia community for a vote? Perhaps it will be easier to develop a more specific logo if we know which "vibe" or "style" most people would prefer? I'm new to open source so please ignore this idea if it sounds unimplementable :)

[mschauer]

Let's get this right, the stakes are high.

[jkrumbiegel]

wow that's hard to beat, especially if we did this with online voting :) MakieMcMakieFace

[mschauer]

Somehow I got distracted :-) What I meant to say was: I'd love if the ornamental Maki-e like line-stem and scatter-leaves somehow could be disrupted towards the upper-right corner showing the power of Makie, e.g. turning fractal, or some effect in demoscene tradition where the mesh or grid of the shape becomes visible. That runs the risk of creating too much detail going against a logo which works for small reproduction, but perhaps worth a try.

[jkrumbiegel]

Thanks everybody for your input and suggestions! Simon and I have decided on a new logo now after thinking about all the versions presented here, and trying out countless more designs. We have gone with something simpler than most versions here, so it works as well when it's in a smaller size, and geometric so the general shape can work in different colors. After all, a decision had to be made and the logo search already swallowed more time than anticipated, so hopefully nobody feels slighted if their ideas and suggestions haven't made it into the final version. Nevertheless, it was very helpful to see the wide range of ideas, we appreciate your input, and thanks to @dyogurt especially for getting the ball rolling here with some really nice designs!

Anyway, this is the logo, we hope you like it :)

[timholy]

I didn't participate, but I think your choice is elegant and appealing!

[cormullion]

For fun, I had a go at recreating this logo in Julia (Luxor.jl). I did quite well, but I had trouble reproducing the gradient blends precisely.

I wondered whether your blend specifications are defined anywhere (in the Makie.jl code perhaps?) Perhaps it's not possible to make similar blends in plain Luxor/Cairo. It looks like there's an additional dimension which I was unable to capture.

Anyway, I'm glad you have a new design and I hope to see it everywhere soon, attached to all the best vizualisations!

[jkrumbiegel]

Here's the ai file https://github.com/JuliaPlots/Makie.jl/blob/master/assets/makie_logo.ai

It's a mesh gradient, which I've adjusted manually so it looks pretty messy if you look at it in Illustrator. The reason is that mesh gradients have four cornered cells, which I massaged to look like a three corner mesh. That's why the gradients go across the petals.

[dyogurt]

Thank you @jkrumbiegel for showing us the final result! I'm happy the flowery nature of previous ideas made it to this version and that it merges so well with the feel of a 3D space filled with a rainbow of possibilities :) Nice work!

[musm]

@jkrumbiegel Thanks for the new logo! Is there any chance we could use the variant posted by @cormullion. The current logo, has an oddly muted gradient when compared to the more vibrant version. There is somewhat a benefit that it can be generated via Luxor, but I think my main concern are the gradients where it seems like the blending is resulting in "faded" colors.