I’ve always used and loved Electric Sheep. This dynamic, genetic-algorithm driven fractal producing screen saver has left me breathless for the two years I’ve used it so far. Since my recent dive into recursive and multi-dimensional math I finally decided to look into this thing a little further. After reading about the technology used in the fractals, I discovered the Flam3 (1992) technology used to produce the fractals has manifested itself all over my laptop already. I have a version of Apophysis running under Wine on my computer. This can be used to produce all sorts of fractal images and videos! Next I discovered there was a simpler way to generate single frame flames using two stock GIMP plugins that use the same Flam3 technology (there is a third fractal plugin, but I am unsure of its origins).

So I decided I needed to make a fractal symbol for my universal logo (think Prince, but far nerdier and less… Prince). I decided this was an amazing idea. I stumbled around with a few ideas until I found an elegant little swirl that seemed pretty stately to me. Now that I had the dimensions and coordinates I needed to make this shape, I can reproduce it in different shapes, colors, depths, resolutions and almost anything else I need. It exists on my computer as a handful of numbers specifying the shape. These can even be reused in Apophysis to generate an animation based around the shape. One of the neatest features I enjoyed was the ability to dynamically recolor the shape with various gradients and color palettes.

Here is a nice render of the shape and my first sad attempt at trying to make a catchy logo with it. More better ones to come later!