Mill Computing, Inc. Forums The Mill Markets Mill Logo

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  • Dave Yost
    Participant
    Post count: 4

    I think we should hold off making a change until we can get someone who knows the logo business to come up with something.

    Windmills and waterwheels are not apt. We are not a wind energy company or a nostalgic back-to-basics company.

    “Mill” is going to be tough to do well because of these problems of the word Mill leading off into areas that are not computers or not state-of-the-art.

    Itโ€™s fine to retire the box logo tho. We donโ€™t need a new one anytime soon unless a totally great one falls in our lap.

    The name comes from Babbage, who separated his design into two parts he called the mill and the store. Anyone have a primary reference for what Babbage actually wrote?

  • LarryP
    Participant
    Post count: 78

    Windmills and waterwheels are not apt.

    The name comes from Babbage, who separated his design into two parts he called the mill and the store.

    I’m not expert at etymology or Babbage’s work, however I strongly suspect that Babbage’s use of the word mill for part of his invention was due to its strong connotations as the ur-machine (where “ur-” means original/earliest.) And the origins of the word mill trace back to mills for grain. Thus, I’m not sure that a logo based on a windmill or a water-wheel is such a bad idea. Since wind has connotations of speed, a windmill-derived logo might be a good way to go.

    • Alan Dartnell
      Participant
      Post count: 2

      Babbage’s use of Arithmetic Mill and Store would more likely not to have been inspired by water or wind mills but by early factories, in particular cotton mills, or perhaps more just as the place where numbers get ground together.

      The term mill used to be normal in British usage before being displaced by CPU. For example my university’s KDF9 would report the “mill time” used for each job.

      • Ivan Godard
        Keymaster
        Post count: 689

        That’s the usage we had in mind when picking the name. Now a picture ๐Ÿ™‚

  • NDxTreme
    Participant
    Post count: 2

    OK, yes I do have to much time on my hands.
    You are free to you this however you wish, either as an idea, a giggle, a what not to do, whatever.

    Enjoy.

    Logo idea?

    • Ivan Godard
      Keymaster
      Post count: 689

      If you really have too much time on your hands, then send us a resume :-)

  • David
    Participant
    Post count: 32

    I had this logo idea at the time that this thread was made, but didn’t have time to execute it.

    The strokes of the letters evoke a transition between two states of the belt.

    It could naturally use some stylizing, but I like the concept.

    • Dave Yost
      Participant
      Post count: 4

      I rather like this!

      I’d like to see some color, for example green, for energy efficiency.
      Maybe the boxes could just be squares with no border and a little air between them.
      I don’t like this color attempt, but it’s interesting. Can you post a layered file to make playing around with it easier?

      Dave

      mill logo draft

      mill logo draft

      • This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Dave Yost.
      • This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Dave Yost.
      • jan
        Keymaster
        Post count: 3

        I like this one too. And without the borders even better. Simple, and has the advantage of incorporating the name, and startups need name recognition anywhere they can get it. And the two rows of eight blocks can be subtly incorporated into a lot of designs and layouts even without the name and hopefully eventually be recognizeable.

        Don’t know if I would like color in it. All the really good logos don’t depend on color. And I still remember when Deutsche Telekom tried to trademark the color magenta.

      • Dave Yost
        Participant
        Post count: 4

        ideas:

        more air around the boxes so they read from farther away.

        d i g i t a l didn’t need much air because their blocks were a dark color.

        Many, maybe most, of the great logos use color. Can’t really think of one offhand that doesn’t.

        mill logo draft
        mill logo draft
        mill logo draft

        Heh. Do you see the optical illusion? ๐Ÿ™‚

        • This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Dave Yost.
        • This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by  Dave Yost.
        • jan
          Keymaster
          Post count: 3

          I still think the first reiteration

          is by far the best.

          The one where the text is in the middle looks far too much like ancient greek columns.

      • David
        Participant
        Post count: 32

        I don’t have any layered file. I made it in JavaScript, so its semantics can be modified directly.

        http://www.white-flame.com/mill-logo.html

        Save the source and play with it, in particular boxSize and height.

  • abaum
    Participant
    Post count: 1

    I like the concept a lot. I won’t comment on color, spacing, outline weights, or aspect ratio should be- I have no strong opinions there,but the concept is great.
    Other wacky options:
    – add more boxes to the right,
    – make them fading
    – make them tilted so they look like they’re falling off the edge of, say, a belt.

  • APainInTheAss
    Participant
    Post count: 4

    I like the design of NDxTreme, but I think it is a bit too complex.

    The thought of David is quiet nice too, if you know what it stands for. If you are not involved with the mill in any way, I’m afraid it says too little and in my opinion it lacks recognition value.

    I do like the spirit however and I’ll see if I’m able to think of something myself.

  • Lourens
    Participant
    Post count: 3

    Had a bit of fun with Inkscape, and figured I might as well toss it on the pile. I don’t think logos have to explain anything, in fact, very few have anything to do with what the company does. But if you squint, you can see bidirectional instruction streams, a belt carrying items, and a family of processors in this :).

    Large/hi-res version.
    Inkscape SVG for modifying.

    • APainInTheAss
      Participant
      Post count: 4

      These look awesome!

    • APainInTheAss
      Participant
      Post count: 4

      Laurens, I still think the designs look nice. But after I thought about them for a bit, I feel like I have seen something like it before… Which might just be me having things run through me head, but I am not sure why I feel like I recognize them.

  • APainInTheAss
    Participant
    Post count: 4

    I have some ideas myself, they are not the best and kind of prototypes.

    1
    2
    3

    The last two need a bit of work with the cpu design thingy bit. I just got a simple electron microscope picture from google, but a design like the one used by NDxTreme on the wings would seem like something soothing. The first use a bit of colour, but they are just basic ideas. There are design here I think I like more already, but I leave that up too you guy.

  • Dave Yost
    Participant
    Post count: 4

    The logo must not try to look like a windmill or watermill or any other kind of mill other than a Babbage mill, to avoid misleading the person looking at the logo.

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