I Made a Logo

Scalar Vector Graphics (SVG) has been one of those many mysteries that I've only vaguely been familiar with. Picking up bits of knowledge here and there, I surmised that an SVG image was a set of instructions for how to draw the picture, as opposed to being a mapping of the color of specific pixels. SVG images, thus, could scale to any level and still be the same image. What I had no clue about, though, was what the XML inside of the SVG element was doing. As with all things, I started with a simple Google search that led me to the SVG Tutorial on MDN Web Docs. It is a well written breakdown of how to draw your first SVG image. I highly recommend this, even for those that intend to just use a painting program to spit out the raw SVG. It was a highly illuminating journey.

The first realization I had is that I retained almost nothing from the trigonometry courses I took in High School and College. I remembered the general concepts, so searching online for what I needed wasn't too painful. However, remembering the difference between sin and cos and when to use each? That knowledge is completely gone. For example - how do I figure out the ratio between the inner radius and the outer radius of the star in order to obtain a 30° angle? No freakin' clue! I guessed, and hoped that it looked good enough. If I were to put together a formal description of the logo, then I would figure out that ratio.

How could I make it better? If you deconstruct the SVG, the legs of the R and P are blunt and just happen to be covered by the circle. It is terribly ugly if you strip the circle away. As such, I feel a better way to do it would be to draw the edges of the polygon and fill it all in from there. I think a better version of the logo wouldn't have the circle going all the way around - but instead just being the curve of the R and the P. That would make those letters more distinguishable.

It was an entertaining exercise. I will probably use this logo as a temporary graphics that is better than nothing (or maybe nothing is better - I think I can still claim that I'm new to this). At some point, I think I will engage the services of someone better suited to doing this sort of work. But in the meantime, at least I got to learn something.