I released Gomoku on September 25, 2006, as a commercial display typeface. It was an experiment in chunky slab serif design, conceived as a freeform exercise rather than something drawn from a specific source. The letterforms were broad and heavy, with a cut-out appearance that made them feel almost handmade.

One of the unusual aspects of Gomoku was its layered construction. Alongside the main foreground font, I included an optional background layer to add depth and texture when the two were combined. This effect was straightforward to implement and didn’t pose technical problems, but it offered a way to give the typeface a playful, collage-like quality.

Gomoku was designed solely for display use, suitable for posters, headings, or short bursts of bold text. I haven’t seen it used in notable projects, and it remains more of a design experiment than a widely adopted font. The only revision came on June 18, 2021, when I updated the set by removing deprecated characters, refining outlines, and adjusting vertical metrics for compatibility.