What’s in the Logo?

How did a triangle, square and a circle come together? Here is our story of learning, doing and design.

Before Acton Academy, the team started with peer learning experiments. Inspired by ants, it was aptly named Ant Learning. Initially, we focused on mathematics, specifically geometry for 10–13 years old. While we drew inspirations from the old (Thales, Euclid, Pythagoras) and new (Paul Lockhart, Dan Meyer, Conrad Wolfram, Salman Khan), we also drew and explored the very basics of shapes and lines:

Shien Jin doodled an odd logo on the left bottom corner of this note. He imagined three basic shapes coming together with their centroids aligned.

Geometry to Design

The next day, being curious about how such a logo might look, I made a sample using Khan Academy’s programming platform:

Obviously, the color selection was poor, but there is a reason for it. See if you can discover it?

The same afternoon, our friend Sher Minn “funkified” it. Here’s her work:

Much better isn’t it? She said she was just having fun :P.

Why an oddly placed circle background? It represents the source of energy of all life—the sun.*

Nine months later, we needed a logo for Acton Academy Kuala Lumpur, so we did some modifications.

Cumulatively, this design process took three hours, and it was driven by fun and curiosity. There was no clear intention to have a “final goal”. Well, except when we had to suit it for our website design.

The truth—this is far from perfect and is still a work in progress.

But the reason I am writing this is not about the logo, but the connection of it to some of our beliefs and practices in Acton Academy.

Learning through Curiosity 

Laura’s deepest two words of advice received is “Be curious”.

First, curiosity leads learning and doing. While seeking to understand the three fundamental geometrical shapes, curiosity leads to scribbles. Curiosity also lead to learning about the history of mathematics, mathematical constants and various tricks and proofs. Then, the curiosity to find out how a logo might look lead to programming and graphics.

Ian, a learner from Acton Academy described this process wonderfully:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8PZyehr7yY&t=102s

Second, the creative process cannot be planned deliberately. Rather, it exhibits itself through inspiration, play, curiosity, and exploration. Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar, explained this process thoroughly in his book, Creativity Inc. The key is to create an environment that embraces such process with candor, such as Pixar’s Braintrust. Our first focus at Acton Academy is to make it fun to be part of the community so that they want to belong. This leads to trust, and trust leads to… well, everything else.

Third, sharing leads to innovation. Especially when done among trusted peers with the intention of fun. The first version of the logo was ugly, but it evolved quickly. This is how ideas and work flow in a learner-driven environment, which is the essence of Acton Academy.

Geometry to Being

However, the more remarkable thing I learned was connecting the three geometrical shapes to the Japanese culture. Specifically, a painting by Sengai Gibon (1750–1837), a Japanese monk of the Rinzai sect:

The title of the painting is “The Universe”. As described by D.T. Suzuki  here:

The circle represents the infinite, and the infinite is at the basis of all beings. But the infinite in itself is formless. We humans endowed with senses and intellect demand tangible forms. Hence a triangle. The triangle is the beginning of all forms. Out of it first comes the square. A square is the triangle doubled. This doubling process goes on infinitely and we have the multitudinosity of things, which the Chinese philosopher calls ‘the ten thousand things’, that is, the universe.

Deep. Beautiful. Divine.

One might wonder, why does a Japanese monk paint such a picture? The first purpose is similar to kōan, which involves asking questions to provoke insights. The second purpose is meditation; each shape is painted with a swift, uninhibited brush stroke, expressing the moment with full intention, very much like drawing ensō.

At Acton Academy, we use Socratic methods and practice intentionality, which takes similar approaches as kōan and ensō. We believe the mission is the same too—a higher calling and a reason for being.

Three simple shapes. But they sparked a logo, a representation of the Universe, a deeper sense of being, and a comparative study of cultural practice to Acton Academy. Sometimes, all it takes is a curiosity to explore.

Eventually, everything is connected and universality exists.