Helix icon/logo brainstorming

[cessen]

In #279 @pickfire suggested that we might want a logo for Helix at some point. I figured it couldn't hurt to open an issue for people to toss some design ideas around.

I don't think this is in any way urgent, so let's just have fun playing with ideas. No pressure, no real hard goal yet. And then at some point in the future, when we're actually ready for a logo, we can use this issue as a resource.

[cessen]

Here's one idea I had. Just a sketch of the basic idea, not a fleshed out logo.

[archseer]

I've been liking these type of double helix designs:

https://thenounproject.com/term/dna/57372/
https://thenounproject.com/term/dna-helix/1122681/
https://thenounproject.com/term/dna-double-helix/285077/

There's also a few cool ones on dribbble. I wanted to commission a logo initially but didn't have the budget

[robinvd]

What is the budget range required for a commission?

[DrZingo]

My contribution. Since purple is the default theme, I think the logo should be that too.

[DrZingo]

My doodling for a logo.

[CBenoit]

I really like these:

[PabloMansanet]

This is my favorite so far. It reads like "HX" and can't be easily confused with an "A" like similar ones. Reproducible, simple and clean.

[pickfire]

Yeah, those @CBenoit showed feels like xh. I also like the one that looks like disk on the right.

[DrZingo]

Some more doodling yesterday.

[sudormrfbin]

I really like this one - you can see the whole name, the x looks like a helix, and a nice splash of colors that match the default theme (the shadowed purple is a very nice touch ! ):

[kirawi]

I like it too, I think it could be polished a little further though. The helix pieces are disconnected, so I think getting that resolved first would make it look a lot better. I also think you might want to look at a different font, because that one doesn't really fit the logo. Feel free to explore further, there might be an even better design out there waiting to be thought of.

[DrZingo]

It's only sketches until we can boil it down to which one to further fix. Polishing, colors etc. is the final step. The font is easy to switch for whatever we want, I custom designed the font in 20 minutes. Here are some more (and a quickfix of the last one).
When I know which design you want, I will do all touch ups, and create svg files for scaling etc. Remember that a logo can be one way, and the icon a part of it.

[pickfire]

I still prefer the one @PabloMansanet like, looks like hx. Any of the new long one with words doesn't look as nice at least to me.

[cessen]

There's something I like about the flow of @DrZingo's more recent ones, but I like the simplicity of @pickfire's favorite. I wonder if we can take the "flowiness" of the former, and apply it to the latter.

[DrZingo]

Here is two examples of how you can create a profile. I have to point out that I am not expecting you to chose any of my suggestions, I just have happened to appointed myself as logo creator by chance.
The background purple in the default theme does not fit good at all on dark, you can barely see it, and looks almost black on light background (lower right).

[cessen]

@DrZingo:

I just have happened to appointed myself as logo creator by chance.

Honestly, you're doing an amazing job. My first attempt looks like crap by comparison. And I've been really impressed by how you've been taking on everyone's feedback and iterating. So as far as I'm concerned, by all means, appoint yourself. :-)

[DrZingo]

Revisiting gradients vs solid colors

[PabloMansanet]

Still feel the last one is best (by the way, I love the color split you did, gives it a lot more volume). Solid colors make it a lot easier to reproduce too.

As for the letters, they look great, but:

It may just be me, but the overlapping of the I and the X makes the gap between the L and the I appear a bit too long comparatively, to the point my first reading was "HEL 9" in roman numbers. I wonder if this can be solved with some kerning magic without making it feel crowded? It may just be me, in which case disregard.

[archseer]

@DrZingo

These are pretty great!

I like the top icon, but it could use some curve tweaking to make it look sharper. For the text itself I quite like Inter Bold that's used on the website: https://helix-editor.com/

Icon color wise, try:

fg: #ffffff bg: #281733
fg: #a4a0e8 bg: #281733
fg: #a4a0e8 bg: #ffffff

I also had a few more saturated purple colors #6F44F0 / #7958DC derived for the : helpbox.

The website also uses a subtle radial bg in the middle, from #281442 to #281733 that might suit as an app icon background. For the site itself, I guess just the icon as #fff might work, it would match with the header text.

Here's also a swatch of colibri colors: https://archseer.github.io/colibri.vim/swatch.html

[pickfire]

What about this?

[pickfire]

Or this.

[DrZingo]

@PabloMansanet I'm happy to try with other fonts, give me suggestions. Take a look at dafont.com for fonts.
@archseer Instead of guessing which background you ment I did both. I also made a sketch with harder bends. Give me a link to Inter for dl, I found more than one which was the wrong font.
@pickfire Yes I think some type of the disc-like is quite cool, but how cool is it in 10 years? The same goes for gradients (even if you can easily get rid of gradients in the future). Less is more, and I think we are on to something with the simple HX that both says the command and looks like a double helix/dna. Simple, works for everything from print, striping, stickers, screen, small, large.

More sketching:

[DrZingo]

Upper left is the old one we used (with a bit rounded corners) and Inter Bold upper case. The other three is 30% gray #b3b3b3, and #A4A0E8, with the font Inter Bold lower case (taken from goolge's site), with a bit of kerning. I think this one looks great. Wait an hour before you decide if you like it, as we are used to the more narrow one now. It also works on many backgrounds, like purple, white, black, dark themes, and light themes.

[archseer]

I like the first one here (& the two color black-white one next to it)

The text here is great, but I prefer the sharper icon (no soft corners).

One idea: make the horizontal line a bit more narrow? That way there's some distinction between the curve and the ladder: https://thenounproject.com/term/dna/3928/

[pickfire]

@DrZingo I like the shape in the old design, especially when the HX is very proportionate. And I like the colors more in the new one, it looks more relaxed to my eyes.

[DrZingo]

I like the first one here (& the two color black-white one next to it)

It is not black though, it's #281733. Colors look very different in text and plates, and depending on background/surrounding colors.

The text here is great, but I prefer the sharper icon (no soft corners).
One idea: make the horizontal line a bit more narrow?

Should I go on with the narrow or the wide logo? I definitely like the wide one more, and it scales better too.

I like the shape in the old design, especially when the HX is very proportionate

Give the new one some time. You will probably like it more after a couple of hours.

[archseer]

Yeah I mean #281733 as helix black :)

I think the narrow logo looks better (it fits a lot nicer into the black square), but with the "ladder" part even narrower than the curve. The wide one is too wide proportionally to the text.

[teenjuna]

These look like icons I would click just for the sake of it. Very good! I personally like variants with one color more. Looks very simple and elegant.

[jakenvac]

just a quick update. ive not abandoned this work, just been super busy. I'll get back to it as soon as I get some free time

[jakenvac]

Sorry for the delay with this stuff. I managed to get a bit of time on the logo, not sure I'm too happy with these but I took the section you mentioned and played around with it.

I think I got the colors reversed by mistake, but that's an easy fix so focus on the shape aha.

[jakenvac]

Here's some more sketches I did. Not a huge fan as they're pretty noisy at small sizes but I think I like the concept.

[jakenvac]

Some more sketches. Another concept I like but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I'm struggling to come up with designs that look good when they need to be in high contrast/single color.

[jakenvac]

Okay, I think I'm done for today. It's been fun to get back into this. Feedback, as always, is very welcome!

I'll never stop pushing for the cutive font ;)

[EpocSquadron]

I like the second one quite a lot!

[jakenvac]

I've been working on an icon for my mac dock. Maybe it'll inspire some ideas from others.

[stappersg]

I like https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12832280/163197870-2971bc8c-e2aa-467d-b0ee-c863d86beca9.png

and what I real like is having any logo at all. 😉

[jakenvac]

@archseer do you have any thoughts about any of the deigns above? I'm happy to keep iterating but your thoughts would be really useful. <3

[Omnikar]

I'll never stop pushing for the cutive font ;)

It does look very nice 👍

[archseer]

Sorry for the delay with this stuff. I managed to get a bit of time on the logo, not sure I'm too happy with these but I took the section you mentioned and played around with it.

I think I got the colors reversed by mistake, but that's an easy fix so focus on the shape aha.

@jakeHL Can you give me the svg of the top right one and bottom left one here to play around with a bit? I think that's my current favourite. I like the softer corners on the bottom right one too but it feels a bit too round, maybe a smaller border radius.

[jakenvac]

Sure thing, I'll dig it out later on 👍🏻

[fvacek]

The colors on this look really nice (especially combined with the subtle contrast and shadows), kudos @fvacek!

I got a few color combinations I like:

Leaning towards the right one.

These feel a bit departed from the default theme palette ? Or it might be just me sweat_smile

The left one is based on colibri colors (https://archseer.github.io/colibri.vim/swatch.html), the other two are slightly modified since the colors were either under or oversaturated.

It was bugging me that the rounded corners weren't consistent so I ended up fixing them. Also included a few other sketches I'd done as well as a word mark mockup. Sorry if this is considered spamming, I've not done graphic design for a long time so I'm having a lot of fun.
edit: forgot to embed the fonts into the svg.

These left two are getting very close! The corners bother me a bit because they look a bit shorter than the body so it looks oval. Could you try making the ends a bit more like https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1372918/166686132-c68e97f9-7331-4c17-8914-096b6f872395.svg ? I also wonder how it would look like if the lines were a bit thinner (we could try one more loop)

I know this is a bit of a boring choice, but I'd pair it with Inter rather than a sans-serif font, we already use it on the website and I'm also about to use it as the UI font on the webgpu frontend.

It's similar to this one.

[rockhazard]

Here's my go at the Helix Editor logo project.

Concepts:

• Simple: I often prefer monochromatic designs with no gradients. This helps ease of fitting into various contexts and also helps people do their own design work for their systems even if they aren't adept at graphics. They won't have to remove as much to get what they want from the design. I think non-gradient designs probably age better as well.
• The X: I think there is a lot of power in accentuating the X in HELIX. It evokes experimentation, adventures and goals (like a X marks the spot on a treasure map) and in my design it hints at a double helix. Some users may see more in the shape and what I did there. It also does double duty as the desktop icon by itself.

[archseer]

@jakeHL Sorry for bumping this, but can you send me the svgs when you have some time? I think I'll settle on that top right one since it seems like it's simple enough that we can use it at different scales

[jakenvac]

Hey, yes sorry, I forgot to post in here. I can't find the svg anywhere but I'll get it remade in the next hour or so.

EDIT: @archseer here you go man. sorry for the delay!

[archseer]

Thank you! Helix now has a logo 🎉 I've also mentioned you in the README, I hope that's ok: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix#credits

https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/blob/master/logo.svg

[jakenvac]

I'm so happy, a milestone in helix's identity aha! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to contribute! For the sake of completeness, and I'm sure it goes without saying, all copyright on all of my logo submissions belongs to the helix project! 😄

[braindefender]

One issue with the logo that bothers me is that it is non-squared. Almost every other editor icons fits in square icon size without cropping and other compromises. So I made my own variant that align with same «vibe» of original though it is more «generic».

SVG Transparent / 512px Square / 512px Squircle

[archseer]

For the favicon we just center aligned the logo so it fits nicely into a square.

[teenjuna]

@braindefender I really like it!

[stappersg]

On Thu, May 18, 2023 at 08:51:57PM -0700, Nikita Shirokov wrote: ... that it is non-squared, so I made my own variant

Make a merge request. Long version of "Make a merge request": * Acknowlegde on * It should be more symmetrical * So I made it that way * Here is the proof * Now it is in this closed issue * Make some extra effort and make what in the github.com world is called a "pull request" * Take care of the change request as you would do with any other request you have Regards Geert Stappers Might have missed that there is already a MR -- Silence is hard to parse

[jakenvac]

One issue with the logo that bothers me is that it is non-squared. Almost every other editor icons fits in square icon size without cropping and other compromises. So I made my own variant that align with same «vibe» of original though it is more «generic».

SVG Transparent / 512px Square / 512px Squircle

This is really beautiful! Had you shared this before the logo design was finalized I think we could have bounced some really nice ideas off eachother!

For anyone who wants a square icon with the official logo, here's what I've been using inline with the macos icon guidelines.

[braindefender]

This is really beautiful! Had you shared this before the logo design was finalized I think we could have bounced some really nice ideas off eachother!

Thanks. I really like how this logo came out. Do you think that my variant can become a new project logo?

<designer-talk-mode-😆>
As reddit commenter mentioned, your variant twists like a DNA, and it is more or less associated with evolution in editors world.

But Helix is different to Vi/Vim/Neovim/... in select/action way of editing. So the flipped spin direction can be seen as a representation of this difference.

Also, letter h of hx in flipped version is kinda more readable (in smaller size it is more obvious).

</designer-talk-mode-😆>

[jakenvac]

Thanks. I really like how this logo came out. Do you think that my variant can become a new project logo?

That's a question for Archseer. However I'm not sure it would be good for the "brand" to change logos so soon.

[archseer]

I agree, while I appreciate the alternative we're sticking with the current logo. It's not perfectly square, but not all logos are square :)

[TeriyakiBomb]

@braindefender this logo is just straight up better - More readable, better at scale, more unique - this would be a good branding move for a major release (As someone who has designed desktop app icons for big, similar user bases) I'd be worried less about changing and more about the identification gains, which matters most at the end of the day. Deno just changed their logo entirely ;)