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Related to the 2021 Netflix original Korean series Squid Game.

Throughout the series, we see these 3 particular shapes popping up; Square, Circle and Triangle. First we see them printed in the card that Gi-Hun receives from the mysterious man in the trains station. Next, each magenta guard in the contest seem to be wearing one of those symbols on their masks.

What's the significance of these 3 specific symbols?

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A circle, square and triangle together have long been associated with Alchemy. It relates to the mathematical impossibility of "Squaring the Circle". The Squid Game, as you know, is geared to be impossible.

Also, if you recall, at the beginning of the very first episode, they showed the squid game in action, then zoomed out on the playing field revealing a circle, square and triangle which made up the field. You can see it here at the 2:05 mark.

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From The Focus - Squid Game: Invitation card's meaning & logo explored

The shapes on the invitation card may be reminiscent of the PlayStation logo, but it definitely is no reference to the console.

The circle, triangle and squares are actually letters of the Korean alphabet, written in Hangul, the Korean writing system.

The circle is the letter ‘o’, the triangle is part of the letter ‘j’, and the square is ‘m’, so side by side, it reads ‘O J M’, which are the initials squid game in Korean, which is read as
Ojingeo Geim (오징어게임)

It’s hinted in the opening sequence of the show, where the squid game floor markings in episode 1’s flashback seamlessly transform into the title.

It may just be coincidence it looks like the PlayStation logo… or maybe not

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Even Microsoft noticed the similarity…

There's always season 2...

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From https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1445524219136151564

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    I have to downvote this for now. It looks like you just did a web search and copied stuff over. The significance is more than the cards they handed out. But each of the guards had the symbols and there was for sure a hierarchy based on those symbols. Not talking about that or even a symbol prominence makes this answer more like a yahoo article that includes tweets as info. It is a far far reach that someone would infer from the first two letters of one word and the last letter of another.
    – blankip
    Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 21:17
  • @blankip While I agree more information will certainly improve this answer - "It’s hinted in the opening sequence of the show, where the squid game floor markings in episode 1’s flashback seamlessly transform into the title." seems to be a lot more than an inference from first two letters of a word and last letter of another.
    – TCooper
    Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 22:57
  • That being said, a lot of good information here: radiotimes.com/tv/drama/squid-game-symbols
    – TCooper
    Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 23:00
  • @blankip the question was ‘what is the meaning’ not anything about suit ranks or hierarchy. As I don’t read Korean I’m rather at a disadvantage to anyone who does.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Oct 13, 2021 at 5:52
  • Maybe I'm just reminded of Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott, but in my mind when I saw that I assumed that the more sides to the shape the higher the rank. Circle being the bottom with zero sides (I know that certain aspects of Maths don't agree with a circle having 0 sides), Triangle next with 3, and finally Square with 4.
    – Nikos Hidalgo
    Commented Oct 28, 2021 at 11:39

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