Suggestions for Monero logo .ai file on Press Kit page

[Thunderosa]

1. The .ai logo file has quite a few unneeded vector points. It's a matter of craftmanship, but it also means that .svg files based off of it are more bloated than they need to be and the files can sometimes be more difficult to work with.

2. I would suggest offering the logos in .svg instead of Illustrator. Everyone can work with an .svg

3. I would suggest including the white background behind the logomark by default. A designer can always opt to remove it when they want it to be transparent. Consensus seems to be in favor of encouraging the "white M."

4. There are some minor typography issues in the logotype. This suggestion is more subjective, I've always loved the Monero logo, but in working it I have found that sometimes it can be a bit "wobbly." With a bit of kerning and some subtle adjustments I think it "locks into" the whitespace and sits on the page better.

I've shown the edits here visually: https://static.monerooutreach.org/img/Monero-Logo/Monero-Logo-Edits.jpg

Logomark Changelog

1. White background
2. Corrected alignment of the M
3. Removed unneeded points

Logotype Changelog

1. Kerning
2. Made the O's perfect circles and thickened slightly
3. Redrew the R with perfect circles to get rid of that slope on the top of the R
4. Aligned the mark and the logotype vertically. The previous design rested on the grey lip of the Monero logo.
5. Removed unneeded points

Edited Logo Files https://static.monerooutreach.org/img/Monero-Logo/Monero-Logo-Edited.svg https://static.monerooutreach.org/img/Monero-Logo/Monero-Logo-Edited-WebVersion.svg

[erciccione]

Thanks @Thunderosa. Fine for me to change the logo if you think it worth it. I will add the updated versions soon.

[Thunderosa]

I think the first 3 items on the list are fairly straightforward,

4 is my opinion, I do think the small typography fixes on the logotype are worth doing. I don't think it's urgent. I don't know if it's a consensus thing or not, I think it's more a of craftsmanship thing than a "change" but you'll be able to decide that better than me.

I'm able to help out with production on all the files if you'd like,...some of the files don't need to change.

[erciccione]

I misunderstood your comment, i thought the 2 files you posted were the replacement for the 2 versions of the logos. I don't really know much about this, so, let's see what people think about it. Fine for me to replace what we have with new versions, if they are more convenient.

[Thunderosa]

The two svgs are the final product of all 4 suggestions. If consensus is to not fix the logotype, I can roll that back to just address the stray points and put in the white background. The first svg is "normal" as a master working file. The second is the same except optimized for filesize for online usage.

When a decision is reached, I can make you the whole group of files ready to go.

[SamsungGalaxyPlayer]

I 100% agree on the first three. The non-white version is used far too often (including on the @monero Twitter account). Also, SVG files are much easier to work with. They even work in Office.

Regarding the logomark:

I can't tell the difference between the new and old icon. It looks like you simply straightened out lines everyone assumed were already straight. I'm fine with that.

Regarding the logotype:

I'm more reserved at changing the font, since I'm not sure what is best. I tried, for example to stretch the font to both rest on the grey and to be centered (while removing some left white space), and it's too stretched. Only the center frame is updated in the photo below:

I'm not sure if shrinking the font and losing slight readability, "presence," etc. is worthwhile in the current version.

@Thunderosa, can you try to increase the font size of the final Monero logotype to be approximately the same height as before, cutting some of the left white space if needed? I think my concerns would be addressed if the font is just as readable as before. Then we can have a discussion on whether aligning to the grey or center is best (I don't think I have a strong opinion, and it seems we can't have both as I demonstrated above).

[Thunderosa]

First, there's something wrong with the jpg of the edits that's in your comment. The updated version is heavily distorted. The font is not shunk, the x-height was carefully preserved.

(sorry, I missed that it was an edit. I love the logo the way that it is,..I really don't have any desire to go exploring. I just wanted to give her some love.)

Second,...the goal was to change as little a possible while fixing the typography issues. These are indeed very subtle things. I did all these edits back in the fall of 2018 and sat on them because it didn't seem that important to address. Now seems like a good time to bring it up, with obvious edits needed anyway.

Here's an amplified version of the logotype change log. Here we are only talking about the text.

Kerning - It never should have left the shop unkerned. Kerning is the spacing between specific letters, each letter hugs the next differently,..kerning is the process of addressing what each letter wants so that the whole word appears even. The O's in the original have slightly too much space,...the N and the E were also drifting a little. The goal is that the logotype locks into a matrix of whitespace, I don't think the existing version does that.

Made the O's perfect circles and thickened slightly - This is a bit more subjective. The font that the logotype was based on is Century Gothic which is a geometric font. The O's in the existing Monero logo are not geometric. Adding a tiny bit of weight was my preference as the O's seem slightly anemic, which is trait of Century Gothic.

Redrew the R with perfect circles to get rid of that slope on the top of the R - The R is weird, it's like the designer redrew it. It has a slightly weird slope that I tried to fix,..I left the other edits by the designer intact. Just as a note, E is the other letter that was redrawn from the font.

Aligned the mark and the logotype vertically. The previous design rested on the grey lip of the Monero logo. - This one is very subjective and doesn't matter as much. After spending time with it,,...perfectly aligning the text to middle seemed to rest better than aligning it to the lip. The goal is that the mark and the type are a cohesive unit,...I think the designer was trying to make it a unit by lining it up with the lip,...but I disagree, but this is the least important edit.

Removed unneeded points - Obvious enough for Monero to put out a clean file.

[SamsungGalaxyPlayer]

On closer inspection @Thunderosa, I was talking nonsense about the heights. I notice now your version is the same height as before. However, I also noticed that your edits are narrower, allowing us to make the font larger while still filling the same width as before. I think we should consider this.

In the above example, the red space should be filled by making the font larger. This will align it with the original. Then, the purple space can be tested (not that specific size necessarily, but that area). I think some slight tradeoff to reduce white space here is warranted for a larger font; however, if no one else agrees, then I still think filling the red space with a larger font is the way to go.

Does this make sense? Make font bigger to fill red in all cases imo, make bigger to fill some of the purple space if the white space looks natural still.

[erciccione]

@Thunderosa What's the progress on this? What files do you think should be edited?

[Thunderosa]

Nothing has really changed from my perspective. My initial file has all my proposed corrections, I believe they still make sense.

I would like to again emphasize that I consider this to be an act of gardening, not a redesign. I'd be against a redesign or exploring a redesign. The goal was to change as little as possible while fixing a couple minor craftsmanship issues and widening accessibility.

[fluffypony]

I think the vertical alignment alone makes a big difference. I don't have a strong opinion on the kerning changes.

[SamsungGalaxyPlayer]

Should we revisit this?

@Thunderosa can you try making a version with only the slight change that the width is expanded to be the same as before (red), and then grow and center the height by the proportional amount (blue)? Perhaps it's also worth testing growing the front to be closer to the logo on the left (green) and then growing the height (blue) even further proportionally, though that's less important to me. All of this is just trying to maximize the readability for the space.

[erciccione]

Friendly ping to revive the conversation.

[Thunderosa]

My opinion hasn't changed from my original recommendations.

[Wataru-Watanabe]

Hello, I'm u/Wataru_Watanabe from the Monero subreddit. About 2 months ago there were some users posting Monero logo redesigns which I don't consider necessary, but as a graphic designer, I felt that the typographic part could use some improvements so that overall, the logo (symbol+font) has a more cohesive design language. I've also fixed the Monero symbol so that it has a white "M", removed the empty circle and the extra superfluous points from the .ai file on the official site, but I see that this has already been fixed by Thunderosa (I've only just now discovered this issue on github). Anyway, for the sake of discussion, I'm posting the redesign here too.