During the Fall of 2014, McMaster University's Software Engineering Club (SEC) had a competition to redesign their logo. For years I'd been advocating for a change, as the previous logo was dated (see:
http://i.imgur.com/V15EXAE.jpg?1), so I jumped on the opportunity to redesign it.
My main goal for the redesign was to create a logo that was clean, simple, and modern. Since Software Engineering is a constantly evolving and rapidly changing field, I didn't want to tie the logo down to any current paradigms or metaphors, so I tried to keep the logo as abstract as possible in order to (hopefully) create something that will last.
The competition was decided by a student vote and my design won with 62.5% of the total votes!
Photoshop/Pencil/Paper
Some of my initial rough sketches. I was trying to avoid anything tied down to a particular programming paradigm or metaphor, such as the '</>' commonly seen in HTML tags, or including a monitor, keyboard, or other device in the logo. The two in the upper-left corner stood out to me as front-runners as I moved on.
I decided to pursue two designs: one which I called "Brackets" (due to its use of "curly brackets" or "braces"), and another which I called "Iron Ring" (due to it's use of the Engineering Iron Ring as a symbol). Both designs struck me as simple, modern, and relevant to Software Engineering without being too attached to one particular programming language or methodology.
For both designs, I wanted to use a font that was elegant and readable, and wouldn't look out of place in a code editor. I figured a monospaced font could do the trick, preferrably something light. After some searching, I settled on "SourceCode Pro" (available for free at https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro).
The "Iron Ring" design (2014).
I was pleasantly surprised with how well this design turned out. For those who don't know the significance, the Iron Ring is given to all Canadian engineering students upon graduation. The ring symbolizes the obligations and ethics associated with engineering, and is worn on the dominant hand to remind its wearer of these responsibilities whenever they work. Since it is only given to engineering graduates, computer science graduates do not receive the ring, and thus it is one of the biggest differences between Software Engineers and Computer Scientists in Canada.
For more information on the Iron Ring, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring
The "Brackets" design (2014).
Ultimately, this was the design that won. I decided to incorporate the McMaster colours: maroon and gray. People really liked the simplicity of this design (and maybe the school spirit?), and hopefully it proves to be a truly timeless logo that stands the test of time.
In addition to the chosen logo, I also created four "negative space" versions of the "Brackets" design. I found that the regular logo didn't fare well when used as a watermark or on noisy posters/promotional images, so these were created to serve that purpose.
An example of the logo being used as a watermark on a photo (2014).
A quick mock-up of what the new logo might look like on a promotional image for an event (2014).
