1998. The Sumatra logo derives from nautical and navigational imagery, such as a sextant, astrolabe, or compass. It’s also suggestive of a gyroscope, but is not a literal translation of any of these objects. This logo imagery is used to elicit the idea of a vast, unexplored environments as well as to recall the renowned navigability of the product. The “axis” suggest cartesian planes, and the arcs communicate motion/animation about a point of origin. The rough, hand-drawn character of the lines lend it an asiatic quality, in keeping with the graphic design of our other product logos.
— Charles Migos, User Interface Designer
eX-SI
ICE, scripting, and other tech stuff about Softimage aka XSI
eX-SI 
A complete explanation of the former Softimage Logo. I’ve always wondered what the actual meaning of the logo was.
The new logo is a Origami “S”, pretty self-explanatory.
Do you have any idea who (as in: what designer, which firm) did this, as I assume this wasn’t necessarily based on a doodle by Chinny, for instance? It’s still a thing of beauty, obviously, way stronger as a logo than the current one.
😀
The designer was Charles Migos (now at Apple). He also did the graphics for DS and XSI.
Was he “in-house” at the time or was he hired “externally”?
He was in-house.
How’s the arm healing, btw?
The arm has healed perfectly. Luckily the fracture allowed for that. Thanks for asking.
BTW: I’m getting a lot of “Sorry, this comment could not be posted” errors. Not always, obviously. but increasingly often.