design.vecreal.com / workshop / Wordmark V valley · round 2
Brand reference · workshop · round 2 · 2026-05-12
V valley — round 2: smooth tangent + consistent legs + 0.69em option
Round 1 had two rendering bugs that made the rounded-valley variants unfair to judge: the Q-curve wasn't tangent to the incoming legs (creating a visible notch), and dropping the valley to y=36 tapered the legs (slope mismatch with the outer). Both fixed. Also bumped letter-spacing from -0.05em to -0.04em for S2 Bold (the cramped feeling you flagged) and added a V-height variant at 0.69em alongside the locked 0.66em.
What changed from r1
Rounded valley smoothness — Q-control now sits at the meeting point of the extended inner legs ((32, 32) for valley y=32, (32, 36) for y=36). The curve is tangent to both legs and rounds without the notch.
Leg taper fix on R4-D — Inner top points pulled outward (x=22 → 19.43 left, 42 → 44.57 right) so inner-line slope matches outer slope (1.75). Stroke width is constant top to valley.
Letter-spacing — S2 Bold tightened tracking at -0.05em felt cramped. Bumped to -0.04em across the whole workshop. About +1px breathing at 80–100 px display.
V-height axis — Added 0.69em as a sibling of locked 0.66em. ~4.5% taller V. The taller V shifts mass toward the bookend mark; see if it reads more or less institutional.
Markers removed from isolated-V view — the apex/valley dots were blocking the read.
Section A · Letter-spacing — current -0.05em vs proposed -0.04em
Single row, R4-A at 80 px so the difference is visible. -0.04em is the target for "ecreal" Bold; ~1px more breathing room without going slack.
Section B · V variants at 0.66em — locked previous height
Full wordmarks at 80 px with V at the locked 0.66em height. R1 and R4-A are the front-runners; R4-B and R4-D are the rounded-valley variants with the round-2 fixes applied.
Section C · V variants at 0.69em — proposed taller V
Same four variants, V scaled to 0.69em. The V now extends ~4.5% higher relative to "ecreal" — the mark grows visually more prominent on the left.
Section D · V geometry isolated — large, no markers
Same four variants stripped of "ecreal" + dot to focus on the V alone. Look at the inside vertex on R4-B and R4-D — the smooth tangent curve should now read as a clean round, not a notched dip.
Section E · Direct comparison — front-runners at both heights, 140 px
R1 and R4-A at 0.66em and 0.69em, full wordmark, no markers, large. This is the size that drives the lock-in read.
R1 ⇄ R4-A · 0.66em ⇄ 0.69em
Section F · Properly-rendered rounded variants — direct compare at 140 px
R4-B and R4-D with the round-2 smoothness and leg fixes, side by side with R4-A at 0.66em so the rounded-valley reads can be judged on their own merits now that the rendering's clean.
R4-A ⇄ R4-B ⇄ R4-D · 0.66em
Section G · Small-size readability — 24 / 32 / 48 px
Both heights, all four variants. At small scale the V-height delta and the valley refinements should both nearly vanish — that's the sign the wordmark stays itself across surfaces.
| 24 px nav / sidebar | 32 px breadcrumb | 48 px body | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R1 · 0.66em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-A · 0.66em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-B · 0.66em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-D · 0.66em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R1 · 0.69em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-A · 0.69em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-B · 0.69em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
| R4-D · 0.69em | ecreal. | ecreal. | ecreal. |
Spec summary
| Variant | Apex | Top corners | Valley | Legs | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | sharp (tiny Q) | sharp | sharp · y=32 | original (slope 1.8) | modern-tech · all-sharp cohesion · front-runner |
| R4-A | rounded | rounded | sharp · y=32 | original (slope 1.8) | warm + bookend · sharp inside · front-runner |
| R4-B | rounded | rounded | rounded · y=32 (smooth tangent) | original (slope 1.8) | curve cohesion across all 3 vertices; valley slightly shallower |
| R4-D | rounded | rounded | rounded · y=36 (smooth tangent) | parallel slope 1.75 (consistent stroke) | lighter bottom wedge · inside V opens wider at top |
Lock candidates — pick V + height pair, then dot.
Sections E and F are the read. If you still see R1 / R4-A as cleanest with the rounded
variants rendered properly, that's the call — the round-valley language doesn't add
enough to displace either. Between R1 and R4-A: R1 reads more modern-tech (sharp
everywhere), R4-A is the same sharp-inside-V but with rounded outside corners, which
softens the mark without changing the inside profile.
On height — 0.69em is the gentle "more V presence" move; 0.66em keeps the V more
recessive. The Section E direct compare at 140 px is where it matters most.
Once you call R{1|4-A|4-B|4-D} + 0.{66|69}em I'll lock and propagate.
Vecreal · brand workshop · 2026-05-12 · v-valley round 2