Obviously there are some differences, but... well, it's the same concept. So do I chalk this one up to experience and work on something else, or is it interesting enough to do more on?
Incidentally, it does provide an interesting way of solving the font piracy problem - just embed client-specific barcodes in each font you sell:
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In terms of advancing your craft and learning, I suspect the ratio of complications/time to payoff will be poorer than average on a wacky design like this. But I could be mistaken.
Making it from scratch is enough to make it yours. There is enough room in the world for several different styles of fonts with this lined effect. I would actually counter @Max Phillips's advice—not that it is wrong or bad, we simply have different approaches, choose what works best for you—but I would never look at Pentaprism again, until you are done or stuck, and see what solutions you come up with on your own. They will probably be unique—just like your /E, /N, /R and /S.
Ed Benguiat, a phenomenal draftsman, drew/cut/painted stuff like this for PLINC, if I’m not mistaken; now the tools are quite different, but the challenges remain, and working with today’s tools opens up new design avenues to explore, which differentiate the outcome from what’s been done before.
Indeed Pentaprism is a medley of the many phototype variations on Koch’s Prisma infused with Bauhaus-like round forms e.g. for AEMNY, incl. PLINC’s Prisma series and Headliners’ Prismania.
Pentaprism comes in five styles. The basic one has 5 lines, like Prismania. The uppercase is angular (as in Futura Prisma & Prisma Graphic — but with a non-splayed ‘M’), the lowercase holds round caps (as in Bauhaus Prisma & Prisma Bauhaus). See also Michel, Aki Lines, Filmsense, Blackline.
I'm going to let it cook for six months to see if I want to polish it up at all, (I'm very happy indeed for it just to be an interesting learning exercise) but to share the fun here it is.