The Cycle Orbital Logo - and its sibling

Do you like The Cycle Orbital Logo? I hope so. There is more to it than is immediately apparent, though the proportion may seem pleasing...

The Golden Section

The two letters are contained within the rectangle which is built from the ratio 1:1.618, aka Greek letter Phi, or the Golden Mean/Golden Section. It has been known of since early history, and lies behind and within famous buildings and images in all cultures. Think Pyramids, Mona Lisa, Beijing's Imperial City... it's a very long list.

Nature's building block

More importantly, Phi is also related to the Fibonacci series and is a key mathematical building block for patterns in the natural world.

Follow Euclid, and make your own logo

Phi is easily obtained using Euclidian geometry: all you need are compasses, protractor and straight edge. Martin substituted a bike wheel and pump, and drew the basic logo with a bit of driftwood in the sand on the South Ayrshire coast, one-handed, filming it with the other! Not perfect, but not a lot of people can do that...

eQ and CO

It became clear CO Cycle Orbital and its older sibling eQ - an equinox idea - could and should be linked. eQ's golden section logo, a ® Registered Trademark, is integral to the philosophy of eQ. eQ logoIt's also a reason why this website has adopted the spring-autumn colouring of the equinoxes. Cycle Orbital was given a make-over by consultant designer Christine Ayre (c@christineayre.com) for the launch of this site, and for the spring equinox 2022, she turned her attention to eQ, shown here.

The visual punch for CO was achieved by creating substantial geometric C and O letterforms to house the full Cycle Orbital name, which is rendered in the modern font Tondo – chosen for its accessibility and rounded strokes, highly reminiscent of bicycle wheels.