Recently, Xiaomi spent the equivalent of 7 billion VND to design a new logo for its brand. There would be nothing remarkable if the new logo of Xiaomi looked almost identical to the old one, just with rounded corners. This incident has garnered significant public attention, with most expressing surprise that such a simple logo could be worth so much.
And recently, BKAV CEO Nguyễn Tử Quảng also spoke about logos, or more accurately, the icons of Bphone. He believes that behind Bphone’s icons lies “core technology” that allows BKAV to create more complex rounded corners than the “Superellipse” shape, which designer Kenya Hara applied to the aforementioned 7 billion VND Xiaomi logo.
To demonstrate the superiority of Bphone’s icons, Mr. Quảng even compared Bphone’s icon with another phone brand. Although he did not directly mention it, it is not hard to recognize that this is the icon currently used by Vsmart on VOS.
“The image below shows the enlarged icon of Bphone and that of another brand. Pay attention to the rounded corners and especially the junction between it and the straight edge, you will notice the difference.One side has jagged rounded corners, the junction is clearly distinguishable, while the other side has seamless rounded corners that are almost UNDETECTABLE at the junction, as the curve transitions smoothly to straight.
Achieving this result is no simple feat; it is the result of a research and development process by BKAV’s graphic design team. And I take pride in having directly participated in guiding us to possess the CORE TECHNOLOGY to design such rounded corners!
If you don’t believe it, anyone in graphic design should try it to see how difficult it is and how high the chance of failure is. I must also say that this type of rounding is much more challenging than the Superellipse shape mentioned in recent days, along with the story of the 7 billion VND rounded corner.
The reason it is more difficult is that the Superellipse has at least been defined by a clear mathematical formula, by French mathematician Gabriel Lamé, and intuitively, you know that it does not have the CHALLENGING junction between curved and straight edges.”
Mr. Quảng acknowledged that the icons from the first versions of Bphone “were not quite right.” After that, he requested the design team to improve, however, BKAV’s team gave in and said, “We have done our best,” according to Mr. Quảng.
At this point, BKAV CEO decided to step in directly. He enlarged the icon and noticed the jagged edges and the junctions were not smooth, “creating an uncomfortable effect that is hard to define.” After researching other smartphone brands on the market, the BKAV team concluded that all brands’ icons faced this issue, except for “Brand A.”
Although they found the cause and consulted the design of “Brand A,” the BKAV team still could not find a solution. Mr. Quảng confirmed that this was “a major concern for the entire design community worldwide,” not just BKAV.
“After weeks of reporting various options, including studying how Brand A managed their rounded corners, we still haven’t found a solution. It turns out this is a MAJOR CONCERN FOR THE ENTIRE DESIGN COMMUNITY WORLDWIDE, not just for our design team. The design team found many forums discussing this issue, with some teams going to great lengths to interpolate Brand A’s rounded corners into an extremely complex mathematical function.
Still adhering to the principle of “Not addressing the essence, not getting to the root of the problem,” I do not accept the proposed solutions above, and in fact, the design team has tried these formulas but with no success. The rounded corners have improved but still do not feel truly “smooth.””
Somehow, Mr. Quảng managed to find a method to achieve icons with smooth rounded corners like “Brand A,” solving a problem that he had previously asserted was “a major concern for the entire design community worldwide.”
“Once again, I had to step in, directly analyze and guide the method for the design team. The results, as you know, we have now possessed the CORE TECHNOLOGY for designing divine rounded corners that only a few companies have.”
Unfortunately, BKAV CEO did not share the method for creating the icons with “divine rounded corners.” And according to what Mr. Quảng described, it seems the design community worldwide will continue to have headaches as they have yet to obtain his solutions.
At this point, Mr. Quảng continued to emphasize “core technology,” stating that a company must invest to create differentiated values compared to the plethora of products from other companies.
“So there you have it, R&D is like that, it exists in every aspect of our Smartphone development and is quite fascinating. To research a process, technology, or even a small secret requires investment in effort and money. But the results yield a DIFFERENCE compared to other products. You, as Bfans, can feel the difference of Bphone, which comes from the hundreds, thousands of things we have done like this.
To obtain good technologies, you either R&D it to own it from the CORE, which is costly but truly yours and can be reused multiple times, or you pay to buy it, which is expensive but still not yours. But what can you do? If you can’t R&D, you have to buy it.”