Synapse

DATE	May-October 2018
INSPIRATION	Brain synapse diagrams
RELATED	Scarab Heart Monitor

Similar to Scarab, I used some brain synapse diagrams I saw in a museum as the inspiration for this script. It went through a couple of different iterations before I landed on the final look but I love how it came out. I decided to use the phonetic names for the sounds rather than basing the script on letters, so theoretically if I added more hook elements it could be used to write any language or accent. So for example, the name of the sound "b" at the start of the word "bear" is voiced bilabial plosive. If you're not familiar with the phonetic names of the consonants, here are a couple of charts to have a look over.

Synapse is written in clusters, with each word branching from a single point on the phrase stem and each syllable forming its own cluster within from that word point. Syllables are written using a combination of vowels and consonant "hooks". The initial consonant of the syllable is marked with a black dot at the end of the hook. Here's a breakdown of the word "hello":

The core element of each syllable is the central vowel. There can only be one central vowel shape and there are specific shapes for diphthongs.

The first element of the hook tells you whether or not the consonant is voiced.

The second element tells you the position of the consonant.

The third and final element of the hook tells you the quality of the consonant.

Development

As mentioned above, this script is based on these brain synapse diagrams. I really liked the branching shapes and thought it would be interesting to do some sort of branching writing system with a Kanji aesthetic.

I started pulling shapes I liked from the reference pictures and trying to workout a direction. My first attempt wasn't doing it for me; the shapes were too complicated and the end result was bunched and messy. I decided to switch gears and try going for something more similar to Ogham.

I still wasn't happy with it. I knew there was something in this synapse concept, but I hadn't figured it out yet, so I shelved the script for a few months. When I came back to it, I decided to go back to the shapes in my first version but tweak it so that each hook would be made of multiple interchangeable elements.

This was miles better than what I'd had before. The clusters were still there, but they didn't look nearly as messy now that I'd stretched the shapes out into syllables. I'm really glad I went back to this script, it's super cute!