While the idea of a caliper design seems nice, I just think it takes away from what the logo should be...
simple and easily recognizable.
To-wit, I think that the current logo design elements can be retained in such a way that doesn't 'reinvent' FreeCAD's brand, improves its simplicity yet be much more aesthetically appealing overall. Regarding splash screens, I feel like it's a pretty trivial complaint, the current selection is pretty simple, not ugly on the screen, and shows module loading progress. I'm neither in-favor or against your proposed change in that regard.
Just as an example, here's a logo refresh concept I was tinkering with last year when there was a massive argument on the forums about the logo. Added bonus is I designed it inside FreeCAD, because I'm a super-nerd.
- logo_idea.jpg (140.73 KiB) Viewed 2316 times