Dan Harkless' "Evil Logos"

Date:  

July 27, 1995

Tool:  

Aldus IntelliDraw 2.01 on a Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V running Windows For Workgroups 3.11

Info:  

At the company I worked at in 1995, we were changing our documentation platform from the Mac to the PC. On the Mac, we had been quite happy with MacDraw II as a draw tool, but on the PCs the best we had was Microsoft Word 6.0's built-in draw tool, and that was almost unusable. So, we started looking for a good package we could purchase copies of for everyone.

Besides good basic draw functions (Word's tool didn't even provide this much), we wanted a tool that was a bit more intelligent about connections between objects and such, so that changing diagrams would involve less manual labor. We ended up purchasing evaluation copies of Visio Express For Microsoft Office 3.0 and Aldus IntelliDraw 2.01. IntelliDraw was really too expensive per copy (around $125), and Visio did a much better job with the "intelligent objects" concept, so we ended up going with the latter package.

IntelliDraw was easily the more pleasurable-to-use program, however. It definitely showed its Aldus pedigree. Absolutely wonderful was the "Symmetrigon" tool, with which I drew the above picture. To quote from the Aldus IntelliDraw 2.0 Reference Guide:

IntelliDraw's unique Symmetrigon tool creates symmetrical objects with a variable number of reflection options. [...] Symmetry type can be either Radial or Mirror.

With Radial, each point you define is duplicated the same distance from the centerpoint, and the shape is composed of the number of sides or "arms" you specify.

With Mirror, each point you define is repeated on the other side of an axis (a "mirror") that passes through the centerpoint; each point is duplicated, or "reflected," by the number of equidistantly angled mirrors you specify.

Clear as mud? Well, no matter -- using the Symmetrigon was intuitive and great fun. Alas, after Adobe bought Aldus, they discontinued IntelliDraw (in mid-1996), so it's no longer possible to play with this great tool. To my (admittedly limited) knowledge, no draw program since IntelliDraw has provided a tool quite like the Symmetrigon.

The picture above, which I dashed off in just a couple of minutes, looked to me like a collection of logos for evil organizations, thus the title "Evil Logos". The one on the lower-left, specifically, reminds me of the Spectra logo on "Battle Of The Planets" (AKA "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman").

If you still have IntelliDraw on your machine, you can check out the original IntelliDraw file from which the above GIF was exported, evillogo.idw.