Prologue

I have been meaning to figure out a way to include any in-progress projects I have made so far, but I wasn't sure how to execute it.

I initially had the idea of documenting them when I'm done with said projects, but I realised that my motivation to jot down anything after something is done becomes zero.

It also feels like a tall order to include a process journal entry when something is finished; it's like there needs to be a solid introduction, challenges, workarounds and closure, not unlike how I draft my writings on Medium. I don't want that. I want it to be a raw, slapdash approach so that I can throw on whatever ideas I have on it and share it as is, be it inspiration or a place to speak my mind.

I don't also want it to be like an accountability thing, where once I said something I want to do, it becomes a project that needs to finished. Whether or not anything that comes out of me here is finished is up to me. And yes, writings found here would also be unpolished. If you find any weird sentences or grammar mistakes here, it is what it is; draft-like and psychobabble-adjacent.

With that said, here's something I've been working on that I'd like to share.

Triangles

I saw that people have attempted multiple iterations of these chubby, Russell Square-like typefaces in FontStruct that's very angular and full of personality. A couple of them are based on the AMD logo; notably the 'a' symbol beside its wordmark. The concept was rather simple, for it requires not a huge measure of tweaking to see where the triangles and straight strokes are placed and look right in a glyph composition. Despite this easiness, it allows for a lot of dynamic movement when the glyphs are together as words (see sample above).

It's with these low-stake proposition that I feel capable of having a stab at this "AMD"-esque typeface design myself. It was not long before I realised that I couldn't get too carried away with putting too much triangles on one glyph so that it becomes too sharp; it needs a bit of straight-edged bluntness to keep the balance between letters.

One of the most evident example of this case is in 'r.' If no square bricks are placed beside a triangle, it ends up becoming too sharp and light on either strokes, losing its visual balance. While triangles give personality, the squares give colour and weight for a glyph to stand by itself.

The orientation of the triangle also plays a huge part in how a glyph poises itself. If the triangles on all terminals faces too much towards the same direction (like the third 'a' glyph), it looks like it's about to fly away. That would be a cool idea in itself. But for this current iteration I'm going for, I'm trying to get the glyphs to move visually but not fly away, more to "oscillate" within the space its given with triangles of contrasting directions.

I had a great struggle with 'K.' It requires many triangles to recreate the slants, but I can't overwhelm it with too many opposing orientations or intersections while maintaining its legibility.

It's even harder to keep its center balance since the assigned vertical space is four bricks tall; an even amount which either requires a brick to be nudged to the center point (which I don't want because none of the other bricks from other glyphs are doing that) or a compromise to make either the top or bottom diagonal stroke shorter/stubbier.

I ended up going with the last approach, which is to add a square notch in an otherwise filled giga-triangle on the 'K' as it doesn't look too busy and flows smoothly towards the lowercases.

Right now, 'M,' 'T,' and 'W' are still looking very raw and unpleasant. I still have lots more to work on them.

Before I end this, I'd like to commend on this album cover design by Perfume for their Triangle Tour. I like the confetti sprinkling of colours, the way the triangles ripple and glitch in different ways alongside square pixels, and how the letters on 'Perfume ⊿ Tour" seem to grow and shrink between themselves, which in this case works really well in this composition. I don't think it will hold itself so prettily if the lettering were to be as one solid colour.

Triangles are great, even on a sandwich. •••••