LangChain, the leading open source framework for builing generative AI applications, asked me to explore a variety of logo directions to replace their distinctive parrot and chain logo, currently made up of iOS emojis. This case study explores how the start up could evolve their visual identity while retaining the recognizability, accessibility, and charm of their current logo.

Almost all logo directions retain LangChain’s existing logo structure of a separate bird and chain. This decision was made to ensure that LangChain could still be referred to as the iOS emojis, and thus users would still be encouraged to use those emojis to refer to the company across Twitter, Github, etc. For this same reason, the parrot is always colored green and is always standing to the left of the chain.

The logo above is inspired by the work of Susan Kare, who designed the first Apple icons in the early 80s. The direction plays into LangChain’s recognizable iOS emojis and harkens to the early beginnings of the tech world with a hint of humor and self-awareness.

This logo uses sharper corners and lines inspired by many of the monospaced typefaces used in coding editors. However, it’s overall effect is warm, humble, and familiar. Certain aspects of the parrot were inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs — in a way, the LangChain logo acts as a hieroglyph, with the parrot representing “Lang” and the chain representing “Chain.”