I’ve been thinking about redesigning my blog’s logo icon for a while now, but didn’t find a moment so far to spend much time on it. Finally, a few weeks ago I thought I had nailed it down and came up with this simple icon…

I was happy with this icon for so many reasons. Most of all it is simple. Simplicity is always something I try to achieve in a logo design and it’s often the hardest thing. Circles are my favorite shapes in general. The geometrical style of this icon is exactly what I was looking for. It’s also ideal to create a favicon from. The three circles also have an underlying meaning because they represent the three different directions I would go with my new blog (yes, I’m working on this). The number three is always nice to work with, geometrically speaking. The icon kinda reflects my love for colors as well, as it does remind you a bit of the typical RGB model where three circles overlap each other. There wasn’t really anything negative about it. I was convinced. Until I bumped into a very similar icon.

This will not be my new icon after all

Guess my happiness didn’t last very long. After seeing this icon it’s clear I can’t use my icon as it is now and I need to either completely redesign it or at least modify its shape so it doesn’t look similar to this icon. This is actually the second time something like this happened. Without my knowing I create something that looks scarily similar to what somebody else has created. Then again, this shape is really simple, it’s just three circles after all. The other situation had the same problem, so simple that you wonder if anybody else hasn’t thought already of this idea. Luckily I was able to change things in time. There are of course these other situations as well where people take my design, change a few tiny details, but definitely not enough to call it being inspired, and claim them their own.

Who’s behind the other icon?

For people who wonder where I saw this logo, well stupidly I don’t have the URL anymore I’ve been searching and searching in my NetNewsWire’s feed archive and couldn’t find it, sigh. It was via via, I’m 90% sure it was via Graphic Hug, you know how it goes and I didn’t think of saving the URL. Anyhow I can assure you it is out there, so for me it means I’m back to the drawing board.