Chess set-- learning as I go #1: First steps

I decided to create a chess set in which the pieces would be the ‘names’ of each piece—I’m pretty new to woodworking, so this is a learn as I go process. I’ve started by doing some basic prototyping of the ‘pawns’

Here’s the first go at them—the ‘real’ ones will have some sort of symbol at the top, to make the board easier to ‘read’. They will also likely be thinner, and won’t be made out of scrap plywood, which splinters and misbehaves when futzing with the scroll saw (note the malformed ‘w’).

I tried a second prototype, but didn’t like the lack of distinction between the ‘a’ and ‘w’, but used a few ideas in the final template. Here you can see some early sketches, the second prototype, and final template:

I doubt I’ll go into this level of detail here with each piece, but I thought it interesting to show the initial process. I’m just using a scroll saw to do this work.