HM3 — round three: globe
Why a globe is defensible here. Sixty countries is one of the approved hard claims in the design spec, and the company already trades as Harrington Global on its own channel. The globe is describing something true rather than reaching for scale it does not have.
Why it is still difficult. A globe is the single most drawn symbol in commercial identity. Every panel below has to answer the same question: what stops this reading as a language selector. The raster construction at 7.2 is the only one with an answer built into the drawing rather than bolted on.
Colourways are fixed. The three that survived round one carry over unchanged here, so form is the only variable anywhere on this page.
AGlobe, drawn
Four globe constructions as real geometry, each shown alone at 74, 24 and 16px, then locked up with the Didot wordmark, across all three surviving colourways.
Meridian globe
The globe everyone recognises: rim, equator, three meridians, one taking the accent. It says sixty countries without a word, and it is the least arguable drawing in the set.
Risk. It is also the most used icon in business software. Language selectors, VPNs and shipping widgets all ship this exact shape, so it reads as a function before it reads as a brand.
Raster globe
A globe built from horizontal bands, so one shape reads as a planet and as a television raster at the same time. This is the only globe here that argues broadcast rather than merely international, which makes it the one worth drawing properly.
Risk. Nine bands is a lot of detail. By 20px they merge into a striped disc, so the small version needs five bands rather than nine, and that is a redraw rather than a scale.
Solid globe
A filled disc with the meridians cut out as negative space and one accent band across the equator. Single shape, no hairlines, so it is the only globe that survives one ink and a 16px favicon without being redrawn.
Risk. A filled circle with a coloured band through it sits close to several flag and telecom marks, and on a light ground that band starts to read as a strikethrough at small sizes.
Broadcast globe
Globe with three transmission arcs leaving the upper right, combining the two claims the company actually makes: forty years on air, sixty countries.
Risk. The busiest option here and the only asymmetric one, so it never centres cleanly in a square. Those arcs are also the wifi glyph, which round one already rejected at 3.1.
BGlobe, generated
Twelve globe concepts from a written brief, locked to the surviving colourways. Raster images, so none can ship, but they cover globe forms no drawing of mine would have reached.
8.1Meridian globe maybe
The textbook globe with one meridian in red.
Risk. Drawn well and owned by nobody, which is the trouble. This is the language-selector icon, so the red meridian is doing all the work of telling anyone it is a brand.
8.10Globe with geometric sans maybe
The steel colourway on a globe beside the wide geometric sans that survived round one.
Risk. Steel blue on a globe pushes it further toward corporate software, and the sans gives the mark no counterweight, so the whole lockup reads as an IT services firm.
8.11Globe on paper keep
Red globe, black serif, light ground. The print-native version of 8.9 and the best use of 2.12 in this round.
Risk. A solid red globe is a large area of colour on a light page, so it will dominate anything set beside it.
8.12Globe with red chip keep
Globe, then HM, then the numeral reversed out of a red square. It stacks the surviving wordmark idea, the surviving colour and the new symbol into one lockup.
Risk. Three components is one more than the mark needs, and at small size the globe and the chip compete as two similar-weight blocks either side of the letters.
8.2Raster globe keep
A globe built from horizontal bands of uneven length, so the shape reads as a planet, as continents and as a television raster at once.
Risk. Better than my own drawing at 7.2, because the ragged band ends imply landmass instead of just stripes. It is also the most detailed mark here, so it needs a coarser five-band version for small sizes.
8.3Solid globe keep
Filled disc, two meridian outlines, one heavy red equator.
Risk. The most reducible globe of the twelve and the only one that clearly survives one ink. Against it: a white circle with a red band is very close to a beach ball, and to more than one national flag.
8.4Globe with arcs reject
Globe with three red transmission arcs at the upper right.
Risk. Round one already rejected this exact arc form at 3.1 for being the wifi and RSS glyph. Attaching it to a globe does not make it any less borrowed.
8.5Globe in the aperture keep
A camera shutter whose opening holds a small red globe, folding round two and round three into one mark.
Risk. Two symbols competing inside one shape. It is the most interesting idea here and the least legible: at 24px the globe inside the aperture becomes a red dot.
8.6Geodesic globe maybe
A faceted wireframe sphere with one facet filled in steel.
Risk. Handsome, and squarely the visual language of crypto and developer tooling. Every line is a hairline, so it fails small sizes and one-ink both.
8.7Globe holding the three keep
The meridian lines bend across the sphere and resolve into a red numeral three, so the symbol carries the name rather than sitting beside it.
Risk. The strongest idea in the round and the roughest execution. The three tangles with the grid behind it and needs the competing meridians removed before it reads cleanly.
8.8Half globe reject
A hemisphere on a horizon with red arcs rising above it.
Risk. It reads as a sunrise or a wifi signal over a dome, and the horizon line adds a third element the mark does not need. The weakest of the twelve.
8.9Globe with serif keep
Meridian globe locked up with the Didot wordmark, one red meridian.
Risk. A clean, conventional, entirely competent lockup. Its problem is 8.1's problem: the globe is generic, so the serif is carrying the personality alone.