RobotDiagnostics - round 2: the heart
Ten variants on 01 Calm Line, 14 Pretty Cushion and 05 Kind Heart, built around one picture: a calm robot wearing a heart sticker that you glance at like a video-game life meter. The face is the same in every mark and every state - two eyes joined by a straight line, never sad or shut. Health shows in the heart instead, two ways: (a) the heart is the meter - full when OK, half when warn, broken when error, dotted when stale, each a different shape; or (b) a badge with the app's own status shapes - the heart when OK, then the triangle, the octagon with a cross, the hollow clock and the disc with a question mark.
- Distance from the references: 1 = close in spirit (calm face plus a heart on a white figure) to 5 = clearly distinct. All ten are original geometry - circles, rounded rectangles and the round-1 heart - with no Disney silhouette, oval-head-on-pear-body outline or inflated-vinyl shading.
- In the top bar only the heart or the badge takes colour (GTK's
.warning/.errorclasses); the head and face keep the panel's ink, and stale changes shape only. - File checks: all 86 files pass: symbolic files use only rect / circle / path with fills and GTK state classes; full marks use no text, fonts or raster.
Top 3
- 101 · Cheek StickerMost like the picture Zach described: the Calm Line face he picked, wearing a heart sticker. The heart stays a readable 9 px in the 22 px top-bar icon because it breaks the head's edge instead of squeezing inside it, so full, half, broken and dotted all read at a glance.
- 205 · Heart BadgeSpeaks the app's own language: OK is the heart, every problem is the exact shape the app already uses (triangle, octagon, clock, ?). Of the three badge variants it is the only one where the heart is always there, and the badge never collides with the face.
- 310 · Heart BodyThe strongest life meter: the heart is the biggest shape in the mark, so the state reads from across the room in the dock and at 22 px. Our own character, taken from neither reference.
Runner-up: 04 Heart Cushion - the best dock tile (Pretty Cushion's look with a heart), but its symbolic heart is the smallest of the meter variants.
Heart colour - rose, coral, or the app's red
Recommendation: rose #f483a5 for the OK heart, with the app's own amber and red only on the
warn and error hearts. Measured against every error red the app's skins set (29 of them, light and dark:
), coral is dE2000 3.2 from #ff6a5c - a dark skin's error red, the same colour
at a glance - so a coral OK heart would sit next to coral-red error badges in the app. Rose is at least
14.0 from every one: it still reads as "heart", never as "error". The app's red as the OK heart makes OK and
error the same colour and leaves only the shape to tell them apart.
The trade-off. The top-bar icon is symbolic, so it is never red when OK whatever the brand colour:
GTK paints it with the panel's ink and colours only the .warning / .error parts, which here are only the
heart or the badge. A red brand heart is therefore safe in the top bar; the risk is the full-colour mark - the dock,
the window icon, the app header - where a red heart sits beside red error octagons all day and trains the eye to ignore
red. Red is also the classic game life heart, so it is the most game-like option. Rose keeps the warmth of the first
reference's heart and the second reference's pink, and gives up a little of the "game heart" punch.
#f483a5nearest app error red
#ff6b6b at dE2000 14.0 - clearly not an error red; vs the default skin's #c83e32: 26.6#ff7a6bnearest app error red
#ff6a5c at dE2000 3.2 - the same colour as an error red at a glance; vs the default skin's #c83e32: 18.4#c83e32nearest app error red
#c83e32 at dE2000 0.0 - the same colour as an error red at a glance; vs the default skin's #c83e32: 0.0All 10
Cheek Sticker
Calm Line's cushion with a heart sticker on the cheek, breaking the lower-right edge. The heart is the life meter.
Close in spirit to both references (calm face, small heart sticker), but a rounded-square cushion with no body, arms or oval head; the sticker sits on the cheek, not the chest.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-01-cheek-sticker.svg · brand/logos/r2-01-cheek-sticker-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-01-cheek-sticker-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Crown Heart
The life heart sits on top of the head, like the heart floating over a game character.
The game read comes first; the references never put the heart above the head.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-02-crown-heart.svg · brand/logos/r2-02-crown-heart-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-02-crown-heart-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Chest Heart
Head and shoulders with the heart on the chest - the second reference's layout, redrawn.
Closest. Same idea as the second reference (head over shoulders, chest heart), so it borrows the most; kept original with a rounded-square head, a flat-based bust and a centred heart - no oval head, no inflated pear body.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-03-chest-heart.svg · brand/logos/r2-03-chest-heart-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-03-chest-heart-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Heart Cushion
Pretty Cushion's teal tile and white face, with the life heart below. The tile stays teal; only the heart moves.
An app tile first; face and heart are generic parts laid on it.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-04-heart-cushion.svg · brand/logos/r2-04-heart-cushion-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-04-heart-cushion-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Heart Badge
A corner badge: the heart when OK, the app's own triangle, octagon, clock or ? when not.
A notification-badge idea; the robot is only the calm cushion face.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-05-heart-badge.svg · brand/logos/r2-05-heart-badge-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-05-heart-badge-{warn,error,stale,unknown}[-symbolic].svg
Heart Head
The head is the heart; the calm face sits on it and the status badge appears at the lower right.
Distinct: a heart with a face, no robot silhouette at all.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-06-heart-head.svg · brand/logos/r2-06-heart-head-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-06-heart-head-{warn,error,stale,unknown}[-symbolic].svg
Bare Heart
Bare Metal: the face glyph and the heart glyph side by side on black, one line weight; the heart is white when OK.
Clearly distinct: two terminal glyphs, nothing soft.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-07-bare-heart.svg · brand/logos/r2-07-bare-heart-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-07-bare-heart-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Pretty Pink
A soft pink tile, white head and shoulders, chest heart; the status badge sits on the tile corner like an app badge.
Close in palette and layout to the second reference (pink ground, white figure, chest heart); a square tile, a cushion head and a cropped bust keep it original.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-08-pretty-pink.svg · brand/logos/r2-08-pretty-pink-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-08-pretty-pink-{warn,error,stale,unknown}[-symbolic].svg
Life Row
Three hearts under the face, counted like a game's lives: 3 OK, 2 warn, 1 error, dotted when stale.
Distinct: a game HUD with a face, not a character.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-09-life-row.svg · brand/logos/r2-09-life-row-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-09-life-row-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg
Heart Body
The head sits on a heart-shaped body, and the body is the life meter.
A chibi of our own: cushion head on a heart. Shares the 'heart on the body' idea with the references, not their shapes.
Size ladder - 16 · 22 · 32 · 64 · 256, plus the 22 px symbolic
Top bar - beside the chip
Dock tile
Health states - the face never changes
Real GTK 3.24 Gtk.IconInfo.load_symbolic output of the shipped -symbolic.svg files at 22 px (left of each pair) and the same pixels at 3x, nearest-neighbour (right).
brand/logos/r2-10-heart-body.svg · brand/logos/r2-10-heart-body-symbolic.svg · states brand/logos/states/r2-10-heart-body-{warn,error,stale}[-symbolic].svg