Logos Design

Before getting into the design process, let's start with the context of why the names came to be. The names were the idea that one of the team members came up with; by typing into a prompt using ChatGPT, they provided a list of names that involves a mining game where its players mine for monetisation, and that's where "Profit Pits" and "Quarry Minds" Inc. stuck out the most, leading to what each name must represent:

• Profit Pits (when each extracted resource is worth money or profits) is the name of the game.
• Quarry Minds Inc. (where each miner must enter the caverns or mines with the optimistic outlook of a diligent worker) is the game's fictional company logo.

Logo 1 – Profit Pits

With Profit Pits, the design resulted in 2 variations.

Fig. 1 – Profit Pits Logo variation 1

Fig. 1 – Profit Pits Logo variation 2

The Helmet

In terms of the helmet, it was designed by using three layers on Adobe Photoshop, where the first layer is to trace over and colour an image of a 3D helmet model, the second layer duplicates the flat colour to be decimated (using its Polygonal Lasso Tool) and darkened to create shading, and the third layer is set empty to create toning.

For the layout, the first design (see Fig. 1) has it hanging on the letter P, and the second one (see Fig. 2) has it scaled up but covers part of the text. The reason there are 2 variations goes as follows:

• Design 1 (Fig. 1) – to convey the player's day's work done at the mines to rest.
• Design 2 (Fig. 2) – To illustrate to the player that it is crucial to arm yourself with the helmet in order to begin mining in order to turn a profit and have whatever it takes to be of use to the company.

Text

The text is written in the font Haettenschweiler, portrayed as a sophisticated headline, and the colour schemes are:

• Green – Convey the incline of the profits and the colour of a banknote.
• Brown – Colour of the caves and the particular minerals discovered.

Similarly to what was described under the helmet:

• Text 1 (Fig. 1) – features the "P" in "PROFIT", which makes it easier to see the helmet, and is maintained at the same size as "PITS", which serves to warn the player that they should investigate the mines.
• Text 2 (Fig. 2) – upscales "PROFIT" and downscales "PITS" lettering to suggest that the player's life is less significant than the amount of revenue that must be made.

Which then came down to picking the second logo (Fig. 2) for the game, as explained on the second bullet point under its respective headings.

Logo 2 – Quarry Minds

Colour Palette and Font

As seen in the accompanying draft design (see Fig. 3), the original goal of the Quarry Minds Inc. logo was to develop a colour scheme that would symbolise the colours of an ore (see Fig. 4). In particular, the word "MINES" (later changed to "MINDS") had a smaller weight on the stroke/border, which caused it to blend with the mountain. The team said that this made it difficult for the visually impaired to read, and different colour palettes must be used to depict the variations.

It came down to choosing the ideal version based on the input. In order to convey a corporate message from the fictional company to the miners (the players), the text font had to be kept consistent in Copperplate Gothic (Bold), and the Moderna font (shown as "MINES" in Fig. 3) was excluded. As a result, Fig. 6 presents a much darker colour palette, using grey shades of two minerals: coal and iron ore (Fig. 5), which were used on the mountain with a pickaxe and the text, respectively.

Fig. 3 – A draft logo of the fictional company logo.

Fig. 4 – The colour palette of uranium ore.

Fig. 5 – Shades of grey for coal and iron ore.

Fig. 6 – Quarry Minds Inc.'s final logo design

Mountain and Axe design

In a similar fashion to the helmet (see Figs. 1 and 2), the same method was done for the mountain and the pickaxe (Fig. 6).

References:

• bariacg (2021) Mining helmet 3D models for download | TurboSquid. Available at: https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-model/mining-helmet (Accessed: 06 May 2025)

• Vergeles, A. (no date) Mountain Images – browse 35,270,072 stock photos, vectors, and video, Adobe Stock. Available at: https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search?k=mountain&asset_id=317761488 (Accessed: 07 May 2025).

• dimdimich (2018) Pickaxe vintage isolated on white background. 3D illustration., iStock. Available at: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/pickaxe-vintage-gm967674060-263928947?searchscope=image%2Cfilm (Accessed: 07 May 2025).