After all the heavy breathing about Emacs UI issues recently, here’s a softer, gentler Irreal take on Emacs bling. If, like almost everybody, you’re invoking Emacs from some sort of GUI you’ve undoubtedly seen the Emacs logo. I’ve pretty much never given it a second thought but that was wrong.
The Emacs logo, and others like it, don’t just happen. Someone has do design and draw it. Here’s a very nice history of the current logo and how it was developed. What strikes me is how, at the same time, it was both instantaneous and drawn out. On the one hand, Luis Fernandes could draw trial logos in just a few seconds but it took a very long time to settle on a final design and get everyone to sign off on it.
The above link is a very nice history of the design of our current logo and should give you an appreciation for a part of Emacs development that most of us never think about. Well worth a few minutes of your time.