I started on paper so as not to be confined by what I could or couldn’t do in Figma. After some playing around, I went to Figma and began with really simple shapes:
At this point I had a rough idea of how I wanted the T and J to connect, but knew it couldn’t be achieved by just using letters in a sans-serif font. At this point I started using lines to create the desired shape:
The first image turned out to be more what I wanted so I began to develop that idea. I knew adding an internal shadow and some more dimension would add to the monogram so I started experimenting with it.
This iteration used a drop shadow for dimension but I felt it took away from the shape and made it too blocky.
The inner shadow added the dimension I wanted both on lighter and darker colours so I knew I had achieved my desired monogram.