Either way, once the decision was made to go with the Mayan language symbols, it was up to Visual Designer Ryan Meinerding to execute the design for both physical props and what a digital counterpart would look like.
He incorporated those Mayan glyphs as well as a unique set of pictograms that borrowed from symbols used by electrical engineers to create something wholly new and fitting for a next-level tech genius like Tony Stark. That man isn’t going to be happy using only the standard QWERTY keyboard! No, he’s going to develop something that works as fast as his brain and might only be usable by the man who invented it.
At the end of the day, it was a good call by Downey. It fits his character and while most people might not notice the detail, it does read on screen as future-y tech, so even if they don’t understand the mysticism nod or the electrical engineering symbols at play, it reads as a fitting piece of tech for someone like Stark.
As a funny aside, apparently Meinerding’s attention to detail was so accurate that animatic editor Jim Rothwell joked that if “the ancient Mayan tongue ever became a living language again, Apple would just lift Meinerding’s design.” Those little touches are what make me fall in love with the magic of the movies, so thanks to Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards for digging up these details for their book.
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