Brand atom workshop · placement round 3 (diagnostic)

Wordmark dot placement — round 3

You were right that the vertical movement wasn't actually happening. Below the lede, a diagnostic explanation. Then six variants showing 1px / 2px closer horizontally combined with 3 / 4 / 5 px down. All three sizes (SM 22 / LG 48 / HERO 96). A faint clay baseline ruler runs through each specimen stage so the dot's descent is unambiguously visible against where "ecreal" sits.

Why round 2 looked stuck

The dot is an inline-block with overflow: hidden, sitting inside a flex container with align-items: baseline. For that combination, the flex container computes its line baseline from each item's "baseline" — and for an inline-block with overflow hidden, the item's baseline is the bottom margin edge. So when we used margin-bottom: -3px intending to push the dot 3px below baseline, the flex container recomputed the line baseline to follow the dot's new margin edge, effectively cancelling the shift. The dot moved a fraction of what the value said.

Fix: use transform: translateY(Npx) instead. Transforms render after layout — they don't affect flex baseline calculation — so the visual shift is exactly N pixels, every time. All variants below use this method.

CURRENT · REV-3 LOCKED
As deployed on vecreal.com
dot size  0.20em
margin-left  calc(0.04em + 2px)
vertical  margin-bottom 0.005em
translate  none
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C1 · 1PX CLOSER + 3PX DOWN
Conservative horizontal, mid-aggressive vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  calc(0.04em + 1px)
translate-Y  3px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C2 · 1PX CLOSER + 4PX DOWN
Conservative horizontal, more aggressive vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  calc(0.04em + 1px)
translate-Y  4px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C3 · 1PX CLOSER + 5PX DOWN
Conservative horizontal, most aggressive vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  calc(0.04em + 1px)
translate-Y  5px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C4 · 2PX CLOSER + 3PX DOWN
Tight horizontal, mid vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  0.04em
translate-Y  3px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C5 · 2PX CLOSER + 4PX DOWN
Tight horizontal, more aggressive vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  0.04em
translate-Y  4px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal
C6 · 2PX CLOSER + 5PX DOWN
Tight horizontal, most aggressive vertical
size  0.20em
margin-left  0.04em
translate-Y  5px
SM 22px
ecreal
LG 48px
ecreal
HERO 96px
ecreal

Spec deltas at a glance

VARIANT HORIZONTAL VERTICAL METHOD
Current · rev-3calc(0.04em + 2px)(baseline)
C1 · 1+3calc(0.04em + 1px)translateY(3px)transform
C2 · 1+4calc(0.04em + 1px)translateY(4px)transform
C3 · 1+5calc(0.04em + 1px)translateY(5px)transform
C4 · 2+30.04emtranslateY(3px)transform
C5 · 2+40.04emtranslateY(4px)transform
C6 · 2+50.04emtranslateY(5px)transform
Reply with your pick — "C1" through "C6", or "Current". Next round will compare 0.21em vs 0.22em dot sizes at the chosen placement.