In my struggle to make this end of the year at work more exciting, I was looking as usual at the forum, and remembered that last year during the same period the competition for the safecoin logo was closing. It is a bit late to join in, and of course I do not intend to contend with the winning submission.
Rather than focusing on a logo, I tried to imagine what a safecoin symbol (or a Unicode character typed with a keyboard) could look like. For such a symbol to be adopted, it should of course be distinct from other currencies, but also simple enough to be handwritten, scalable in size, and easily associated to a keyboard character.
First idea is a simple twist on the traditional USD symbol: changing the vertical bars to horizontal and separating them with a blank space to mimic the ‘equal’ sign. I hope we have something that conveys ‘fairness’, without eyeing too much towards the communist side
The fact that it is really close to the USD symbol would also make it easier to be understood and remembered by the general public.
The second try is directly inspired by one of the bitcoin symbols, ’ Ƀ '. The horizontal bar resting on the bottom tip of the S could somehow evoke a scale (at least this is what I wish to see ^^), and if so should communicate the idea of stability and balance.
I did not hear about Safecoin until after the logo was chosen. Like many others, I did not get a chance to participate in choosing the logo. In my opinion I like your designs better, but that is just my opinion.
Seems to me a Sine-wave would be great as it’s universal cosmic basic, wherefore infinity, Thus a sideways S It could have a half circle line down the center with dome on each “pole” representing Earth - equator, tropic of cancer, tropic of capricorn which embodies the Sun. That’s all I got. To me it shows movement, the natural perpetual motion of life.
I want to put in as many wholehearted votes as one person possibly can for the S under an equal sign as a currency symbol for SafeCoin!
Kudos to the person who thought of and suggested this.
It says so much. And everything it says is a fit with SafeCoin.
It “capitalizes on” the impression the already has on so many people at least in the west, if not in other countries where English is commonly spoken and studied, and where movies and other media make people aware of the as a symbol for money in general.
It’s simple.
The two characters are available in every font and so the symbol can be easily created with text tools in image-editors.
Gotta say, I’d vote for the first one too, kinda looks like the S and the ‘F’ too with the =
It works on so many levels and looks like money to me. Kinda like hybrid of £ and $.
Are we going to allow democratic consensus to rule from the outset? Can we collectively call for another vote, even if it’s been voted on or competed for in the past?
Well done to the op anyway, if it doesn’t get used I’ll be personally disappointed ;).
I think it’d be OK to strike two lines directly through a solid S, rather than break the middle of the S line up so it doesn’t cross through the = sign.
Especially when handwriting it. But font designers could go either way when they decide which way best fits the font.
The dollar sign sometimes has two vertical lines, though it usually (especially with handwriting) has just one.
I offer two alternatives that might be easier to write by hand whilst also being quite legible onscreen.
The modified uppercase letter ‘A’ of course references back to David’s ants metaphor.
I would like to contribute to this topic. My idea for the currency symbol is based on these thoughts:
It should be easy to distinguish from other currency symbols, in particular from the . It should therefore not be based on an uppercase S. It is too easy to get confused by -like symbols, especially on small screens like a cell phone. The above example image of “1,234 $ have been transferred to your wallet” (example) looks kind of dangerous to me.
The principal form of the logo of the SAFE Network is a Delta shape. Specifically in a simplified form it is a Delta with rounded corners. So, I wanted to use the same symbol that is the logo for the SAFE Network to be used for the SAFE Coin currency symbol. A Delta with rounded corners.
It should have the traditional vertical bar or bars that currencies typically have ($, £, €).
From this basic idea I have derive 9 slightly different variations. Here is the PNG image. How can I post an SVG file so that other people can build upon this idea if they like to play around with it?
The Delta shape is in fact Maidsafe logo. As of yet the SAFE network does not have one. I suspect though that Maidsafe is working on this in parallel, has topics on logo/currency-symbol have not harvested a single ‘like’ from the team.
Today I thought about currency symbols a little bit more. Most currency symbols have a height-width ratio of about 2:1 (I just measured the $ symbol on 2 common fonts). The above Delta symbols are close to 1:1, i.e. they are a lot wider than most currency symbols. Hence I have create 2 additional columns of variations that are more narrow, as to be more similar in height-width as other currency symbols.
the impression the 
