Manim Notebook Logo Uplift

[Splines]

Current Logo

I love the idea that our Logo is created using Manim itself! However, I also see the shortcomings that come with Manim not being a design tool like Figma or Adobe Illustrator.

What I like about the current logo:

• Pick ups the "M" in LaTeX font
• has a notebook in it
• is simplistic
• is created with Manim itself!

What I dislike about the current logo:

• White shine is cut-off at border
• Logo is not in square format (1:1)
• While the logo is simplistic, in the center there's just too much going on with many different lines crossing since the notebook itself has no fill
• Only strokes are used such that no area has a bit more fill to stand out.

New Logo proposal

I'm not at all an experienced designer, so this is the best I can come up with 😅 What do you think about it @bhoov? I do have it as SVG available.

I tried to:

• Have the theming of the "Notebook" prominent by recreating a good-old spiral book
• Give a teaser of Manim Cells via stylized "code blocks"
• Have a catchy background to stick out in the VSCode Marketplace
• Have it in format 1:1 and go for a circle as cut-off mask as is common on the Marketplace as well as on multiple social media platforms

Here the logo proposal as well as how it could look like in the VSCode extension tab.

[bhoov]

Hi @Splines! I'm in favor of doing an uplift on the existing logo. Here is the main design goal I had with the original:

On first glance, it should be clear that this extension is for the (distinctly styled) 3b1b videos. The original logo accomplished this by screenshotting (I know, such a cheat 😅) a custom scene made in manim where a big "M" is made central.

Some note about the updated logo:

• The "code block" was not clear -- on first glance, I did not realize those were intended to replicate the code cells of our extension. Additionally, I do not think this design feature is visible when the logo is quite small, as in the extension bar.
• At first glance, I do not notice a connection to 3b1b's videos or even other Manim-esque logos online (e.g., the ManimCE logo). The color palette with the white background would not be familiar to me.

The new logo is visually a clear upgrade over my previous version, but maybe we can push it to be more "manim" like?

[Splines]

Thanks for the feedback, I will work on it based on your suggestions and make a new proposal.

[Splines]

@bhoov What do you think about this more simple version that emphasizes the M:

Then maybe for a header:

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The color palette with the white background would not be familiar to me.

While I agree that some familiarity to the existing Manim ecosystem is good, I think we can go for our own color palette. Maybe that's even better as to not confuse people and make them think it's for ManimCE with their dimmed green, blue and red tones.

For familiarity: the M itself is typeset in the LaTeX font (CM10 I guess) and that is the same used in the ManimCE logo as well as in the font for the header image in 3b1b's Manim.

And then the question is also: what is "Manim"-like branding? There is some branding for ManimCE. There is not really a branding for ManimGL. I.e. the "logo" is a function plot that serves more as a header image than really a logo.

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How it could appear in the sidebar:

[bhoov]

I do like it more! Perhaps the M could be a bit "bolder" so perhaps it stands out more in the small logo size? And do you think there is a way to put a "notebook" association into the logo in an elegant way? No stress if not, we can definitely run with the current version.

[Splines]

Perhaps the M could be a bit "bolder" so perhaps it stands out more in the small logo size?

You're right that the M could be a bit bolder. Unfortunately, the standard LaTeX \textbf{M} looks kind of ugly and makes it a lot wider:

That's why compared to the previous version, I've removed the inner stroke to have a bigger white or reddish area, then I additonally added a kind of drop shadow to further increase the fill area. How do you like that one?

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And do you think there is a way to put a "notebook" association into the logo in an elegant way? No stress if not, we can definitely run with the current version.

I wish I knew an elegant way to do so but I didn't find one... Note that I have a Noun Project subscription (for the icons, and they can be used comercially), so if you find a nice notebook logo there, that could also be a way.

But the logo got too crowded all the time I tried to incorporate a notebook, which is why I went to the more simple version. E.g. this one is inspired by the placement of the shapes in the Manim Community logo, but I had to scale down the M, the whole Logo doesn't fit into a circle anymore and I don't like it too much...

[bhoov]

I see. Between the two, I say let's keep your original notebook logo with the displayed cells. From your attached screenshot, it looks like other extensions have the simple latex M as their logo (e.g., math-snippets).

What do u think?

[Splines]

When you link to the images, I cannot open them with the error "This private-user-images.githubusercontent.com page can’t be found".

As a combination of the two logos, what do you think about this one?