HM3 — shortlist

The numeral set as a true mathematical exponent, so the mark reads HM-cubed and the superscript carries the three M-words. Your first pick, before anything was numbered.

To do: every exponent mark in rounds two and three is this construction wearing a different face, so choosing 5.2 or 3.13 does not replace it. The open problem is unchanged: at 24px the raised numeral closes up and there is no icon inside it.

The numeral reversed out of a cap-height chip, the way a network drops a bug in the corner of frame. Picked alongside 1.1 in the same first message.

To do: this is the construction that turned red. 2.10 and 2.12 exist because the chip gave the accent somewhere to live, and 8.12 is this chip with a globe added, so it has been load-bearing the whole way through.

Wide, flat-sided geometric sans, period-correct to the 1986 first infomercial without dressing up as a costume. Picked twice, in round one and again in round three.

To do: needs a vector redraw, and the 3 has a flat squared top terminal that reads momentarily as a B, which has to be fixed before anything else.

High-contrast serif with ball terminals. Warmer and less clinical than Didot, reading as a publisher rather than a fashion house. The only shortlisted form that is already real outlines.

To do: ball terminals blur before hairlines do, so a low-contrast cut is needed for 24px and for broadcast overlay, and Monotype has to be paid before it ships.

Meridian globe in steel beside the geometric sans. The only shortlisted item using 2.11, and the only one pairing a symbol with the sans rather than the serif.

To do: I marked this a maybe, because the globe is the language-selector icon and steel pushes it further toward corporate software. Overruled, so the redraw has to earn the globe back.

Globe, then HM, then the numeral reversed out of a red square. Stacks the surviving wordmark idea, the surviving colour and the new symbol into one lockup.

To do: three components where two would do, since the globe and the chip are similar-weight blocks either side of the letters, so at small size they compete for the same eye.

8.12 with one change: a small gap opened between H and M. Driven image-to-image from the original file, so the letterforms, globe, chip and colours are unchanged.

To do: still a raster, exactly like its parent. It settles how the spacing should look, and a vector rebuild against these letterforms remains the job that has to happen before anything ships.