A Better Logo

[jsimonrichard]

We need a logo that's better than the quill emoji... open to suggestions.

[jerlendds]

One idea would be to keep the quill shape or swap it out with a pencil and wrap it in <> or {} so it kinda looks like < / > with a pencil/quill symbol between the angle brackets.

e.g.

I generated the above with ChatGPT. It's not quite what I was thinking but it gets the concept across :) If you do like the idea Id be happy to whip up our own SVG version in InkScape. Also, thanks for building ProseMark! I might try taking a stab at implementing table support sometime this month :)

Another idea variation:

From Le Chat Mistral

edit:
Here's a prompt:

Generate a logo for the prosemark project: black-on-white, flat, solid-fill version, '{ / }' as the logo with / being a pencil or quill

[jsimonrichard]

I like the idea... although < / > is more of an HTML thing. I wonder if there's a way to do something similar with a piece of markdown syntax, like a # or something.

Using AI logo generation is not a bad way to prototype... I might do some of that if I can find the time

[jerlendds]

Yeah good point! Focusing on markdown syntax would be smart. Here's some variations on that idea I prototyped via ChatGPT again

# Header variation

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> Block quote variation

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Once again if any of these feel like they're a good starting point Id be more than happy to manually create an SVG version of them :) Just lmk and ofc there's no hard feelings if none of them feel right too

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Yeah, I find I use AI way more often for image gen/iterating on design ideas than code gen. Its quite useful for coming up with different layout ideas for web apps, etc. I find as long as I prime it with the context of some other pages of my app it'll mostly follow the existing design system in the generated images. Unfortunately they all still suck at generating nice looking SVGs so for logos I find I have to fallback to InkScape and my mediocre design skills to create actual vectors from the generated images haha

[lishaduck]

I liked this one, the hashes felt a little noisy imo 🤷🏻‍♂️

[jsimonrichard]

I agree that the # versions look busy, but (I think) it's more recognizable than the block quote one... here's a version that's a little less busy (ignore the spelling)

[Xoppyc]

Hey — I've been using ProseMark for my personal/pet project and think it deserves a proper logo, so I sketched a few ideas in Figma (attached).

I'm a designer, and I want to be upfront: no AI generation anywhere in the process, fully original work. I can expand whichever direction interests you, or go somewhere completely different if none of these land.

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A little about the thinking

ProseMark is two words — prose being natural written language, mark being both noun and verb without losing either meaning. I wanted to capture that idea of marking natural speech onto a surface, so I went with a quill and something to write on — either a screen (represented by the stroke itself) or a scroll standing in for your .md file.

Six of the variants shape the scroll into a P for ProseMark, which makes it easier to use across different branding contexts. There are also some rougher sketches in the corner where I was experimenting with combining the Markdown > arrow and the P into a single isometric shape.

[jsimonrichard]

I like the scroll element! Although, for me, pulling that one spiral element down kind of breaks the scroll image a bit... I wonder, would it be possible to form the leg of the P using the quill, without it looking weird?

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Just throwing another idea in the mix, leaning more on the hashtag. Although it might be a bit too blocky... all letters a built from the hashtag.

(I'm not sure how to do the M yet)

[Xoppyc]

I'm sorry for low quality, never had the pleasure to work in Ibis Paint. I think that maybe we can symbolize a "down" (part of markdown word itself and also symbilyzes a process of writing something down) and < symbol in M. Did little experiment with making Mark word straight but it needs at least bigger M to look good. Will expand on this tomorrow when get to the PC

[Xoppyc]

As it turns out you should remove selection before saving a picture

[David3Ar]

Took a pass at the logo direction: cleaner and more markdown-focused.

Tried combining:

• quills + pen nibs (looks like a plier / tool)
• minimalist markdown-inspired geometry
• scalable flat vector styling

[jsimonrichard]

It might seem like a simple thing, but I really like that font. I hope it's free to use for logos (or I'm sure we could find something similar that is)...

I mentioned something about this a while ago, but I much prefer the #-based designs over >-based designs because > seems more like an HTML thing to me, while IMO the hashtag is a much more recognizable part of the markdown syntax. Let me know if you disagree. But one of the issues we had with # earlier is that, when using quils or fountain nibs to form the logo, the end result it pretty busy. But we were using AI to generate logo ideas, so with some care I think a human artist could do a lot better.

If you have time, I would love to see a #-based logo with your style... Just keep in mind that the icon would need to be recognizable at the size of a website favicon