the mark, taken apart
Forty by twenty-six, three shapes, two overlaps. The numbers inside the werkstatt mark and what each one does.
The mark is a red circle, a blue square and a yellow triangle on a field 40 units wide and 26 tall. It looks casual, three shapes bumping into each other. Every number in it was chosen, and the choices are the system in miniature.
one size
The circle is 18 across. The square is 18 on a side. The triangle is 18 tall. One size, three shapes, which is the first rule of the icon set applied to the one icon that matters most. Nothing in the mark is bigger than anything else; the three differ in shape and color only.
two overlaps
The circle overlaps the square by 4 units. The triangle overlaps the square by 6. The overlaps are what make three shapes one object: separated, they are a diagram; touching, they are a logo. The overlaps are unequal on purpose, 4 and then 6, so the mark reads left to right as a sequence that tightens, the way a word does.
The order is circle, square, triangle: the shape with no direction, then the shape of the grid, then the shape that points. The triangle at the end points up, which is where an exercise a day is supposed to take you.
the triangle is not equilateral
An equilateral triangle 18 tall would be about 21 wide. Ours is 14. It is steeper than geometry would make it, and the steepness gives it lift: the apex sits above the square's top edge, so the triangle breaks the skyline, and its right foot is the mark's right edge, so it also closes the width.
The circle does the opposite at the other end. Its curve is the mark's left edge, so the mark begins soft and ends sharp.
the field
Forty by twenty-six is close to three to two, the proportion of a photograph. The width is the sum of the three shapes, 18 plus 18 plus 14, minus the overlaps, 4 and 6. The height is the circle. Clear space is 18 on every side, the one size again. The minimum size is 24 pixels tall, because below that the 4-unit overlap is less than a pixel and the shapes come apart.
color against the hypothesis
Kandinsky's 1923 pairing put yellow on the triangle, red on the square and blue on the circle. The mark keeps the yellow triangle and swaps the other two. The red circle is the heaviest color on the biggest curve, which anchors the left side. The blue square recedes in the middle, which lets the red and the yellow sit forward. The yellow triangle is the lightest color on the smallest shape, which is why the mark balances even though its left end is heavier. It is the lever again, in three colors.
Take any number out and something fails. Make the overlaps equal and it goes static. Make the triangle equilateral and it squats. Make the shapes different sizes and it becomes a diagram of three sizes. The mark is small enough to hold in your head and tight enough that it cannot be improved by moving anything, which is also a fair description of what the whole system is trying to be.