Why the "A" in our mark became a dot
The previous symbol was the letters M and A drawn in strokes. Typography is not a symbol. The new mark closes on the same gesture as the word.
Our mark was an "MA" drawn with straight strokes. It worked, but it said nothing: it was two letters, not a symbol.
The clue was in what already existed and we liked. The name ends in "autoral." — with a dot. A dot is a statement: it ends the sentence, it does not ask permission.
So the symbol came to end on the same gesture. It is a geometric M, built from two vertices that split the base. Its right half is already an A. And the crossbar of that A was replaced by the dot — the same purple dot that closes the word.
Symbol and word end on the same punctuation. They are not two pieces glued together: they are a system.
Two adjustments that are almost imperceptible, but hold the drawing up: the top of the A sits five units above the top of the M, creating an ascending rhythm and letting the A assert itself as a letter without breaking the M; and the joints are rounded, which takes away the hardness without taking away the geometry.
We tested five directions before this one, rendered side by side at the real size of the header and of the favicon — 178 px, 64, 32 and 20. Three died in the small-size test: the two-weight version lost the M, the floating bar turned into a blur at 20 px.
It is the criterion we apply to any identity: a mark that only works big is not a mark, it is an illustration.