Finding
the line.
How Meridian got its mascot. It's one mirrored line, like the ⌘ key opened at the top, with a head. It took nine rounds, each a live board I reacted to, and every drawing on this page is the real one from that round, still running.
A logo, a mascot, or both
I don't want to get lost in the sea of agents that all look the same.
Grokbot nails it here by doing almost a bit like it makes it look 3D even though it's not, just by the way the eyes work.
It was one line that just curves in such a way and it was mirrored. That was really beautiful.
- Replace a logo that was only fine: a ring, a vertical line and a dot.
- Stand apart from agents that are a round body with two eyes. I like Grok Bot. Dots and Muse are fine.
- Look 3D without being 3D, the way Grok Bot does it, but without copying it.
- Live in 2D first. A 3D version can come later.
- References: a one-line ⌘-like curve I'd seen and loved, Pokémon, GOTCHA by Work Louder from my Stash, and the Clicky keyboard logo made from two keys.
Show it live, react, go again
I direct the work and Claude Code draws and codes each round. Every round was a board in Meridian with numbered sections, live options and a recommendation, and it opened with two lists: what I need to know and what I need to decide.
Board
Each option drawn live in the browser, so it moves, blinks and turns the way it would in the app.
Three sizes
Every option close up, at full size and at 22 px, the size it would live at in a list.
React
I dictate what I think while it plays. My words are quoted on this page as I said them.
Log
Each call goes into my Notion decision log in my own words, marked as trying, decided or dropped.
New round
Once I've seen a board it stays as it was. The next round is a new board, so every step is still there to look at.
At full size, two eye styles can differ by a few pixels. I started asking for this in round five and it changed my calls more than any description did.
How it changed
Each round answers one question. Underneath are the options on that board, running on that round's own code, then what I said and what I decided.
The same mood, seven rounds
From round three the head stayed. Pick a mood to see how its face changed from round to round. Something's wrong only exists from round six.
The set so far
The butterfly with a head, folding back into a standing line when nothing needs me. It faces forward, tilts now and then, and leans toward you when your pointer comes near. Shown here with the Pen eyes.
On day one it's a ball. As it learns me it grows its top wings, then its bottom wings. Drag to see it grow.
Flat is the main logo. Turned is for the splash screen, the site and big moments, and it shows the fake 3D even standing still.
Pen or Shine
Every mood is one rounded stroke, drawn with the same line as the body. Restrained and stylised.
A solid eye with a lid, a cheek and a small highlight. Friendlier and cuter, with one extra shape, and its lids can look sharp.
I think Shine's friendlier, pens more restricted and stylised, I guess, I don't know, I really can't decide between the two of those.
What the rounds taught me
I decide by seeing
Written options never settled anything. Live boards at three sizes did, and a lot of my best calls came from reacting to something moving, like the front flip, which I hadn't asked for.
Consistency can cost expression
In round seven every face became one pen stroke. They matched each other, but they stopped looking like eyes. Rounds eight and nine were about getting both at once.
The 3D only holds if everything turns
The wings tilted in perspective from round one. In round five the eyes slid flat across the head and broke the illusion. Once they sat on the head like a ball, the spin and the flip read as one body moving.
Standing apart narrows the choices
Avoiding the round body with two eyes kept pulling me back to the line. It's also the main reason I'm torn on the eyes, because the cutest option is the one closest to every other agent.
- Choose between Pen and Shine.
- Live with it in Helm, Meridian's inbox, behind a test switch for a few days.
- Find where I saw the original one-line design and check this isn't too close to it.
- Later: a 3D version, and growing up once there's something for it to learn.