Every mark
we tried
The Compaytence logo exploration, grouped by family. Each mark in the versions that exist: the gradient where one was built, then color, black and white.
Six families
Similar marks sit together, whatever round they came from. The chapter opens on its lead, then each part lists its marks with the round and date they were made.
What each column is
The color column shows the mark on the ground it was made for, dark or light. Black is the house ink on white, and white is on the dark ground. A gradient appears only where one was actually built; the dashed box means none was.
37 of the marks are exact geometry, either true vectors or marks drawn in code, so their black and white versions are clean cuts. The rest are AI renders. For those, the black and white versions are silhouettes keyed from the render itself, which shows the shape faithfully but is not a redraw. Any of them can be traced to a vector if it is chosen.
Andrea's 8 entries come from her two concept documents of 3 September, at the settings she sent. Each appears standalone and as the C in the name, where the shipped wordmark has its C removed and the mark set in its place at the measured cap height.
Two renders in the source folder are corrupt files and are left out, as are two device mockups that repeat a concept already shown. The refined edition, monograms only, is at the front of the book.
The C
The namesake. A letter has been on the table since the first afternoon, and it is where the work stands now: the Aperture C measured, traced, rotated and given its gradient, with Andrea's fold and globe alongside.
The first monograms
Round 1, generated in Higgsfield. A glowing C on a dark tile.
The segmented C
The team's three-arc C after the July finalists were sent back, made dimensional, then drawn to exact geometry and locked as the app tile.
Institutional frames
Six flat marks from the same brief, built on the bank formula: a containing frame, repeated units, no rounded corners.
The Aperture C
Naye's interlocking crescents, refined by Trevor in Photoshop, traced to a verified vector, then measured in round 26 and given six gradients and five stances.
The Folded C
Jake's isometric ribbon, flattened, segmented and given its terminals, then Andrea's version: half the weight, rounded ends, creased into planes.
The Globe C
A world inside the letter. Etched-line globes in three palettes, Trevor's Photoshop redesign of Naye's concept, OpenArt's dot globes, and Andrea's version with the real 3,027-point landmass.
Other letterforms
The C's that went another way: cut, knocked out, chevroned, linked, routed, ledgered, and the spirograph family forced to read as a letter.
“maybe it isn't like a C… like the mouth opens up.”
The Link and the Knot
Merchant linked to the banks. Two interlocked links became an asymmetric link, then a woven crest, then a circuit, and carried the July finalists into the team vote.
The Link
The abstract runner-up from the services round, then six flat styles that fixed the glow-on-white problem.
The asymmetric link
Rounded where the links lock, tapering to a point at the outer ends. One edge sharp, one round.
The knot and the crest
The woven knot as an emblem, recut at a refined weight, and the two-tone colorway that became the standard: one link in the wordmark blue, the other white on dark and black on light.
The digital crest
The crest and the link rebuilt in a digital register.
The link in glass
The same story in the aurora material: frosted rings, a Mobius, a rosette.
“my favorite is the woven knot crest”
The Orbit
A world, with money circling it. Trevor's first pick, sharpened from a soft dot to a square node, made solid, then drawn to exact geometry in two weights and approved.
The Orbit
Round 2, the abstract set. The only mark that was flawless as an icon and beside the wordmark on both surfaces.
Sharpened
No center dot, thinner strokes, less glow. The square node is what turned it precise.
Solid sphere
What if the sphere itself is solid. More presence, more premium.
Drawn to geometry
Sphere in the wordmark blue; ring white on dark, black on light. Both weights approved and saved.
Cousins
Two later marks that carry the same rails-around-a-world construction.
“too playful / childish, needs to be more like a bank”
Globes, spheres and motion
The global-payments story without a letter: exchanges, meridians, swirls and eclipses, then the solid sunrise spheres and the glass ones.
Abstract and global
Round 2. Flat two-tone marks on a solid ground.
Sunrise spheres
Not glass. Solid, colorful, embossed spheres with a sunrise glow on one side.
Glass
The aurora material on a swirl, a clasp and a sphere.
Symbols from the services
The literal lane: approval, routing, protection and access, drawn from what the company actually does.
The check, the flow and the coin
Round 1's service icons: approval, converging rails and a pay token.
The shield
The Vault from round 1, developed in round 6. A C knocked out of a solid shield adapts to any surface on its own.
Key, growth, network, gateway
Round 7's fresh set, abstract to literal. The Key was the champion; the Link (chapter 2) was the pick.
Tiles
Andrea's reference was the Apple Shortcuts icon: two overlapping gradient squircles. Five takes in the brand palette, and the first unanimous panel verdict.
Two tiles
Round 17.
