Initial sketches for Pages logo

[beepdotgov]

Opening a ticket to track the early work on the new logo for Pages. We’re beginning with some pencil-and-paper sketches of possible shapes for the new mark, which we’ll iterate on until we’re ready to move them into Figma for refinement.

Ensure this issue has a clear Definition of Done in the Acceptance Criteria list below:

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] We’ve identified some sketches that are worth transferring into Figma for further exploration.

[beepdotgov]

Met with @sknep to review some very early pencil sketches. It was fantastically helpful!

Here are some quick notes on what we’d like to see reflected in the next round of sketches.

Let’s explore these a bit more:

• Hexagon outline
• The overlapping “panes” pulled from the cloud.gov cube
• The bookmark accent/shape
• The pen nib (this felt really interesting; spend some time on this)
• The “wreath around the star” (per below: maybe not with leaves)

Let’s see less of:

• The flame
• Feathers/quills
• The “P” letterform
• Leaves

We also discussed:

• Let’s keep the hard-angled corners of the Cloud.gov cube
• A thing to keep in mind: Pages is there to support people with multiple websites, multiple web presences — how can our brand communicate scale and trust?

This was really helpful direction; I’ll get to work on round two!

[beepdotgov]

Had another fantastic review session with @sknep, where we looked over a lot of concept sketches. These are available in Figma. As we discussed today, I ended up moving into Figma earlier than expected, but these are still very much sketches.

I’ve pulled together a few of the directions we felt were worth pursuing in the next round:

Please note: These are not final candidates! These are just the directions that felt most promising to us today. Our final logo might very well look different.

A few notes from our discussion:

• Generally:
  • Angular is worth leaning into — the more rounded treatments felt less successful. Let’s keep things, as we discussed, “nice and sharp.”
  • Centering the pen nib against a background shape works better than offsetting it.
• The various bookmark treatments got an immediate (and positive!) response.
  • The bookmark with the star knockout (above) was a favorite among these.
• Can we experiment with using the nib as a knockout against some shapes?
• We’re curious to see if the pen with an inlaid star would work on smaller sizes; it may not, but let’s check that out.
• Would love to see more work on the folded edge of the stacked pages. The angle on the current treatments (especially the curved one) doesn’t feel quite right, and needs revision.
• The stacked pages feels like a very strong candidate — if we can’t find a better/stronger option, we’ll be glad to land there.
  • Can we try incorporating the star somehow?
• The intersecting planes with the gray overlap (above) feels really interesting — keep playing with that. (Can we incorporate a stylized/abstract nib somehow?)

I’ll aim at getting some more revisions done for Thursday. Onward!

[beepdotgov]

Just had a great follow-up conversation with @sknep about the latest round. (The boards we walked through are, as always, in Figma!)

On the call, we walked through iterations on the concepts we looked at last time, which I’ve been referring to as: the pen, the stack, the facets, and the bookmarks. Here are my notes from our discussion:

The pen

• The first option on the first row is the favorite treatment on this slide.
• The border experiments on the second row aren’t right for Pages; we can leave those aside.
• Similarly, we agreed we can skip the pen nibs with the inset star; feels like too much, and the shape doesn’t reduce well.
• Would still love to see a more angular / less rounded shape for the pen nib, if possible.
  • Idea: what if we used option 3 in row 2 against a solid background? (Note: that’s the favorite pen nib shape.)

The stack

• Of the options with page curls, the bottom center one is the favorite.
• The star-enabled options are the clear winner here! Among those, the bottom two are the faves.
• The book (and book-ish) options are nice, but we’re going to move forward without them.

Facets

• Let’s iterate on the fourth pen+paper treatment a bit more. Maybe knock out the pen nib (filled, not outlined), and see how that looks? And if any other treatments come out of that experimentation, great!

Bookmarks

• The solid shapes feel like the better direction.
• The options in the second column are our favorites; let’s move forward with those.
  • Can we shorten up the ribbon a bit? Let’s see how that looks.

This was such a great discussion. I’m going to run a couple of these revisions past @sknep before our group review on Friday, but I think we’re in great shape!

[beepdotgov]

Had a great conversation with @kfoley-18F, @sknep, and @hursey013 today, reviewing some candidates from the last ~week of work. (Here’s the link to what we reviewed in Figma.)

On the call, we walked through iterations on three directions: the pen, the stack, and the ribbon. Here are my notes from our discussion:

The pen nib

• Doesn’t feel immediately recognizable as a pen nib. Maybe adding a stylus could help? Worth iterating on this a bit more.
• It does feel pliers-y, which could hypothetically be a good candidate for future products

The stack

• Feel like a great connection with static sites: a bunch of files, collections of stuff, &c.
• The lower “sheets” on the stack are a little reminiscent of a military insignia’s stripes; let’s iterate on that a bit more.

The ribbon

• A nice association with sites, and publishing — you bookmark something you produce with this platform
• “A bookmark” could also be a little too reductive: our product is more than that
• Could provide some nice extensions for other sibling brands, potentially; other ways to “extend” the cube
• Question: could adding a line on the right strengthen the association with the cube? Just to finish off the effect.

(A last-minute idea that came out of our discussion: hexaflexagons, which I’d never heard of before! It definitely got my mind spinning with ideas.)

Thanks, all. This is truly some excellent feedback, and I’ll be iterating on these options next week. We’ll reconvene after the holiday to review.

Thank you again!

Thanks, all!