The Rachna mark
A leaf that learned to write
Our mark is one line. It begins as a leaf, the life we study, and ends as a pen nib, the work we write and build. This is the thinking behind it: its meaning, its geometry and how the mind reads it.
A · Meaning
Two ideas, held by one line
Rachna (रचना) means creation: to compose, to make something with care. A lab that creates has to hold two things together, life as people really live it and the discipline to study it honestly. The mark draws both, and the line that joins them.
- 01
Leaf · Life
Food, learning, safety, money, wellbeing: the everyday things we study. The leaf keeps the lab human, never cold.
- 02
Axis · Method
One line from the tip of the leaf to the tip of the pen. One standard of evidence, one Rachna account, many products.
- 03
Nib · Craft
Where research becomes something written down and built. We observe first, write what is true, then build.
Read from top to bottom, the mark is our method: observe, understand, build.
B · Genesis
Tracing the form
The mark was built in six steps. Each adds one idea to the last, so nothing in it is decoration.
- 01
A point
Every piece of work begins with one observation.
- 02
A circle
Around it, the world we study: people and their everyday lives.
- 03
A drop
Two curves rise to meet the point. The circle becomes a drop: water, a seed, the start of growth.
- 04
A leaf
Given weight, the drop becomes a leaf, the living thing we care for.
- 05
A line
A vein runs through it and keeps going past the leaf. What we learn has to go somewhere.
- 06
A nib
It ends in a pen nib. What we learn is written down, then built.
C · Geometry
A blueprint for proportion
Nothing in the mark is arbitrary. Every number here is measured from the master drawing, 301 by 528 units.
- 1The golden cut
1 : 1.64
From the tip to the widest point, against the widest point to the base. Within 1.4% of the golden ratio, 1.618, long used in art and architecture for forms that feel balanced.
- 2A right-angled tip
89.2°
The two curves meet at almost exactly 90°. Sharper would feel aggressive; blunter would lose the point.
- 3One diamond
9 : 5
The nib is a single diamond, nine units tall for every five wide, its points sharpened to 58°. Its top point rises into the base of the leaf, so the pen grows out of the leaf instead of sitting under it.
- 4A measured leaf
5 : 6
With its stroke, the leaf fits a 5 by 6 rectangle exactly. Its lower half is an ellipse, almost a circle: 0.93 tall for every 1 wide.
- 5Fibonacci heights
3 : 5
The nib is three fifths of the leaf's height. Three and five are neighbours in the Fibonacci sequence, whose ratios close in on φ.
- 6One stroke
x
Leaf and axis share one weight, x = 40 units. The mark is 7.5x wide and about 13x tall, so it sits cleanly on any grid.
D · Perception
How the mind reads it
A mark is seen before it is understood. These are the findings from perception research that shaped what people feel in the first second.
Soft above, sharp below
People everywhere match a rounded shape with a soft word and a spiky shape with a sharp one. The leaf reads as warm and safe; the nib reads as exact. Care and rigour, in one sign.
Köhler, 1929 · Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001
Curves feel safe
People prefer objects with curved contours to the same objects with sharp angles. The outline you meet first, the leaf, is all curve, so the first feeling is calm. The only sharp point sits at the end, where precision belongs.
Bar & Neta, 2006
Symmetry reads as order
The visual system finds mirror symmetry almost at once and takes it as a sign of structure. One vertical axis makes the mark feel stable, which matters for products people trust with their money, learning and safety.
Wagemans, 1997
The eye follows the line
Gestalt psychology calls it good continuation: the eye follows a line to its end. The axis runs from the tip of the leaf to the tip of the nib, so the mark is read in the order of our method: observe, then write, then build.
Wertheimer, 1923
Two halves, one page
White space is part of the figure. The vein divides the leaf into two open halves, like the facing pages of a notebook. Nothing inside the mark is hidden.
Rubin, 1915
Ink on paper
Black on white is the highest contrast a screen can show, 21 to 1, so the mark stays sharp at 16 pixels and on paper alike. It carries no colour of its own, so every product keeps its own.
WCAG 2.2 contrast ratio
E · Dimension
One mark, every angle
Drawn in dots, the same way we draw the lab's sphere, the mark becomes an object you can turn. From every side it keeps its character. Turn it all the way and one thing remains: the line.
That line is the part we never change. Products, colours and screens move around it; the method stays.
- 0°
- 15°
- 30°
- 45°
- 60°
- 75°
- 90°
F · System
Built to be used
A browser tab, an app icon, a printed page. The mark has to hold at every size, so its rules are few and strict.
Every size
One weight and no fine detail, so the mark reads from 16 pixels up. In a browser tab it sits inside a white circle, which works on light and dark themes alike.
Room to breathe
Keep a clear space of 2x on every side, twice the stroke weight. Nothing else enters it: no text, no edges, no other marks.
Two colours
Black on white, or white on black. No gradients, shadows, outlines or extra leaves, and never stretched, rotated or recoloured.
Look closely. Write clearly. Build carefully.
The leaf is the people we build for. The nib is the research we do for them. The line between them is our promise: research that turns into technology for people.
Sources and method+
Measurements are taken from the master drawing of the mark (301 × 528 units) and rounded to two decimals. The psychology describes how people tend to see shapes in general; it is the reasoning behind our choices, not a test of this mark.
- Köhler, W. (1929). Gestalt Psychology. Liveright.
- Ramachandran, V. S., & Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synaesthesia: a window into perception, thought and language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(12).
- Bar, M., & Neta, M. (2006). Humans prefer curved visual objects. Psychological Science, 17(8).
- Wagemans, J. (1997). Characteristics and models of human symmetry detection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1(9).
- Wertheimer, M. (1923). Laws of organization in perceptual forms. Psychologische Forschung, 4.
- Rubin, E. (1915). Synsoplevede Figurer (Visually experienced figures). Gyldendal.
- W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, contrast ratio.