# A logomark system for T3

T3 ships more than one product, so the mark had to hold as [`T3.chat`](https://t3.chat/), as [`T3.code`](https://t3.codes/), and on its own in a favicon or an app grid. Nobody commissioned it. I drew it between March and May 2026 and posted the versions as they came, first in the T3 Discord and then as a [thread on X](https://x.com/gilrdb/status/2080990301208952994). The community, [@r_marked](https://x.com/r_marked), and [@theo](https://x.com/theo) told me which ones were working.

![The T3 logomark](media:t3-mark)

### Hundreds of versions, in public

There are hundreds of drawings behind this mark. Most went up the day I drew them. Most are wrong. Drawing the wrong shape is how I find the right one, and doing that in a channel full of people means someone tells me within the hour.

![The exploration canvas](media:t3-canvas-overview)

The T and the 3 want to be one figure instead of two characters standing next to each other. The crossbar of the T carries into the 3, so the pair shares a spine. Finding that meant testing how far the 3 could open, how much the terminals could shear, and how much of the T could go missing before the mark stopped reading as T3.

![Sketch passes on the canvas](media:t3-canvas-sketches)
### Feedback in the open

The first thing I posted was the system board. A mark that ships across a family has to be drawn where it gets used, so I built the cases out: the two logotypes, the iOS icon on its grid, the favicon ladder down to sixteen pixels, and the lockup on its clear-space frame. The angular version below is the one the server started calling the meat grinder.

![Logotypes, icons, favicons, and lockup](media:t3-system-board)

On 19 March 2026 I posted the application board in the T3 Discord and asked for thoughts.

![The application board posted for feedback](media:t3-feedback-board)

markr came back with the note that set up the next two months: "It still feels like there is a bit of excess space between the glyphs, I can't quite put my finger on why though." I asked whether he meant the mark or the type. The mark, he said, the t and the 3.

![Feedback on the spacing between the glyphs](media:t3-feedback-spacing)

A week later I brought the mark back heavier, on a brighter palette. markr: "Feels very heavy now, which compared to the rest of the products, feels out of place. I do like the idea with the sloping 3 though to get rid of that bug dead space." Someone else said it reminded them of a racing car logo.

![The repainted board](media:t3-feedback-repainted)

I posted a thinner version the same evening and asked whether that killed the racing car. It moved the problem instead of solving it: pushing the 3 away reintroduced the gap, and not connecting the two made the mark look heavily unproportional. markr relayed what Theo had said about the iteration: not sold on the weights, or on the shape of the 3.

![The thinner test and the reply](media:t3-feedback-thinner)

By 31 March I was posting frames nine at a time. One reply read the fourth and the last as Ws, which is what happens when the crossbar shears too far. markr thought the direction was closer to right, since Theo had not liked the angles in the old logo, so the fix for one problem kept reopening another. "Mixed feedback on lots of them makes me go into all kinds of directions," I wrote. markr: "design by committee".

![Nine frames and the replies they drew](media:t3-feedback-frames)

On 5 May the angled 3 got its verdict, secondhand: "I also like the angled 3, but Theo didn't 😭"

![The angled 3, and the verdict on it](media:t3-feedback-angled-3)

Some passes went angular and mechanical, with the bowl of the 3 squared off into facets.

![Weight and angle tests](media:t3-weight-tests)
![Ghosted comparison grid](media:t3-ghost-grid)

### Color came last

Pink belongs to T3, but the mark had to survive without it. Every candidate was judged in white on black first and only then given the palette.

![Color passes on the canvas](media:t3-canvas-color)
![Colorway tests](media:t3-color-tests)

### Refining the drawing

The last pass is invisible at a glance. I thinned the joint between the crossbar and the bowl, pulled the bowl tighter, and squared the terminals so the mark keeps its rhythm at favicon size.

![Before and after refinement](media:t3-before-after)

On 13 May I posted the two curves side by side. markr: "I feel insane but those changes made a difference to my perception...."

![The pinched curve against the smoothed one](media:t3-feedback-curves)

![The mark rendered in light](media:t3-render)

T3 has not adopted any of this. Every version is still public.