Cybertronian symbols and associations

As mechanical lifeforms, Cybertronians have a very different way of perceiving, processing, and associating patterns and colors. Their spectrum of vision includes ultraviolet and infrared, and their pattern recognition instincts are primed to recognize different things. Cultural associations shift throughout history and change between people groups, but there's a widespread set of symbolism that has become mostly universally agreed upon.

Pattern Recognition

Since symbols and associations come from the inherent pattern recognition of a species, the patterns a mech is made to pick up on will naturally be the foundation of symbology. Taking into account the sheer variety of senses and capabilities and functions of all the different frametypes Cybertronians are capable of, this becomes a dizzyingly broad topic. In root mode, the average person has approximately the same visual sensors. Optics and visors function slightly differently but don't have a great impact on what a mech is capable of seeing and how it will be interpreted.
The most basic pattern a mech will subconsciously latch on to is binary: on and off, 1 and 0, energy and no energy. It's a facet of their biology that they will notice on reflex in the world around them. Common foundational themes in visual motifs are checkers, alternating dark/light, dashes or stipes or blips, and texture vs smooth, all a simplified representation of binary. Deeper meaning in a binary pattern could be actually scribing out the codelines and electrical impulses a processor experiences with a certain emotion, for example.
Other inbuilt patterns that often find their way into cultural symbolism are:

• reflective surfaces (the optic is drawn to the sheen of healthy polished metal and the glint of edible crystal facets. Often symbolized through slanted panels of bright color and starburst shapes)
• basic repeated alt mode shapes (every individual is forged with a unique frame and alt mode, but they nevertheless fall into similar frametypes and vehicle modes. Simplified pictographs of common alt modes have been around for a very long time, like quadrupedal beasts, four-wheeled cars, six wheeled trucks, bikes, jets, boats, copters, and tracked vehicles)
• hands and number of fingers (two fingers on a sparkling, three on a nymph, and four on a youngling and adult. The pantheon of the Guiding Hand is five members. While five-fingered hands are often a religious or sacred motif, hands with two, three, or four fingers can often be symbolic shorthand for youth, maturity, or capability. Empurata victims being reduced to two-fingered hands deliberately implies that they are rebellious and juvenile, undeserving of their autonomy and at fault for their own victimhood)

Facial recognition

The face of a mech can have a great deal of different features, varying freely from person to person. Some have two optics. Some have four. Some have a visor. Some have goggles, screens, or face shields they can lower over their face. Some have mouths. Some have solid mask faceplates. Some have underbites. Some have biolight freckles or cheek lines. Some are empurata victims, with a single large optic set in a hollow cavity to replace their stolen face. Some have rebuilt helms after drastic injury, giving them one large central optic, four small lateral optics, and a large jaw, fabricated to be as functional as possible at the expense of aesthetic. And this doesn't even mention the kibble, crests, guards, finials, vents, and myriad other features that can appear on a mech's helm.
As a very expressive social species, mecha do rely on facial cues to help read other people, which means they're hardcoded to pick out faces. The patterns that register to them as a face aren't the same as what humans rely on. The most notable features to a Cybertronian are the helm block and the optical glow. Face shapes are variable, but a vertical shape of some sort is the first thing they'll catch. Because optic number and type is not the same between individuals, the actual shape of two optics is not nearly as identifiable as the brightness of a visor or optics in the upper part of the face. A blocky shape with a horizontal light stripe three-quarters of the way up is the most basic "face" pattern, in the same way that two dots and a horizontal line below them are the most basic pattern for humans.

A Cybertronian looking at human symbols would struggle to identify :) as a face.
With an enclosing shape like:

they would catch on much more quickly.
A symbol like:

would be more immediately identifiable, with the optic area brighter than the surrounding shape.

Other parts of the helm serve to catch attention too. The movement of the mouth during speech is only partially to shape the sound that the vocalizer produces, it's primarily for expression via body language and to draw attention with motion to the person speaking. Mecha with mask faceplates have no mouth to move, which doesn't affect their speech, but they are more likely to divert body language to the brows, helm position, shoulders, and hands to emphasize what they are saying. Helm crests and paneling help differentiate different mecha from one another, often creating unique silhouettes between individuals. Finials and antennae wiggle and facial biolights flash to draw the optic to the face. Each part is another building block in a Cybertronian's pattern recognition to catch and pay attention to another person's face.
They do have an uncanny valley response. Simplified or abstracted facial forms are one thing, but seeing a near-Cybertronian face that isn't quite right is very unsettling. Some mecha react with unease, some get genuinely upset or even violent.

Living vs nonliving machines

Similar to facial uncanny valley responses, Cybertronians do have an instinct for picking out what vehicles, mechanimals, tools, or other types of machines are a living mech in alt mode, and what is an artificially constructed, nonliving device. It gets slightly harder with mechanimals, as a beastformer in alt mode can sometimes look identical to the mechanimal species of their beast mode, but small clues in the kibble will give it away. Similarly, mecha develop an eye for figuring out what alt mode a person has just by looking them over in root mode. Modern size classes help differentiate between alt mode and machine, as many people will have alt modes within a tighter range of sizes/mass levels than the variety of constructed machines. The distinction between person and machine is very strong for a Cybertronian. They have never considered themselves simply artificial robots, so the ability to discern between living and nonliving is a natural and important one.

Color

The most common natural colors, and thus color classifications, on Cybertron are:

• oranges (rust, orangey metals, molten lava)
• pinks (most energon and similar crystals, weather patterns like sunsets)
• purples (dead or low-grade energon and similar crystals, purplish ores, the night sky)
• blues (blueish metals, the daytime sky, common chemiluminescence)
• teals (oxidized metal, certain types of energon, natural electrical discharge and ball lightning)

Aside from these, many variations of greys, creams, metallics, and dark muddy colors show up in Cybertron’s natural landscape most often. There are quite a few individual words for shades of grey, near-blacks, near-whites, and desaturated colors that look close to greyscale. Yellows and reds are fairly common in ores and metals, minerals, and weather patterns, although sometimes classified as derivatives of orange. Greens don’t show up very often outside of green minerals and certain luminescent phenomena like the aurora borealis, and cyans or blue-greens like oxidized metal will almost always be classified under teal instead. Moonracer, for example, will often be described as teal instead of green, but Megatron is described as green.
The saturation of a color as well as the texture of the material or atmosphere of the light will affect how a color is perceived and classified. The most obvious example is very desaturated colors, and greys in general, on matte material. The frame of a dead mech will lose its color and finish within a day of death, so anything of a similar look will automatically be associated with sickness, decay, and death. The glinting metallic grey of polished silver and steel or the gritty grooved grey of raw ore won’t have this association, even if they are technically the same color. Particularly striking or common color/texture combinations like matte grey have their own words, distinct from the simple color word.
This is difficult to accurately represent from a human standpoint, but Cybertronian optics see some ultraviolet and some infrared colors as well. They see more infrared than ultraviolet, and quite a few of them have a vague form of thermal vision as part of the visual data their optics receive. They can’t consciously switch it on or off, and it isn’t easy to mentally isolate. Visually detecting heat is just the same as visually detecting blue and orange. Unlike humans, Cybertronians are often forged with different abilities between individuals. Some mecha have a broader range of vision than this, some have narrower, some have different types of colorblindness where one or a handful of particular wavelengths of light don’t register in their optics.

Color symbolism

• Orange
  • change, segmentation/being part of a larger whole, resignation, waiting and anticipation
  • rough, flaky textured orange looks like sickness and rust
• Pink
  • life and love, danger and risk, sustenance, bounty and plenty
  • glossy, shiny pink looks like new potential and reward, as in the smooth bright facets of growing energon crystals
• Purple
  • peace, loyalty, energy, accomplishment/fulfillment, endings
• Blue
  • neutrality, singularity/outstanding traits both good and bad, regality, mystery and opportunity
  • a deep shadowy blue like the darkness of the Sonic Canyons looks like allure and danger, risk and reward
• Teal
  • energy and speed, good health and happiness, intimacy, surprises, jealousy
  • vivid bright teal liquid looks like the glow of healthy innermost surrounding the spark, very personal, intimate, and full of life
• Yellow
  • anger, passion/high emotion, war, lack of caution, speed/flightiness, admiration, twitterpation
• Red
  • fear, trustworthiness but also fallibility, anticipation and readiness, sudden joy, sympathy, warmth
• Green
  • curiosity/caution, irritation, scarcity/wealth via rarity, tiredness, uniqueness
• Grey
  • neutrality, ease, cool tempers and levelheadedness, compassion, variety and potential
  • as mentioned above, matte grey looks like sickness and death
• Black
  • calm, inattention, justice, finality, void or lacking
  • a glossy polished black looks like sensitivity and delicacy, as in the fine finished surface of obsidian easily marred with a scratch
• White
  • spirituality (not goodness/purity, just spiritual and supernatural things of any moral bent), curiosity, deliberation and careful detail
  • white light, specifically, is associated with possibilities and a universal wholeness

All of this symbolism has developed through social tradition, and is often used in visual design, but applying it to a person's appearance is annoying, rude, and inaccurate. Paintjobs are hardcoded in frames from forging. The only coded color changes that occur are by childhood relationships with guardians and siblings strong enough to sync sparkfields and shift paint colors to match their family to some degree. Once they reach adulthood, their paintjob is set, although decals and paint washes can act like tattoos or tanning beds, augmenting a person’s natural colors. Judging an individual according to their paintjob is somewhat along the lines of judging someone according to their horoscope sign.

Symbolism

• Sparks
  • the most important part of a mech: the first thing to develop in a hotspot, the power core of the frame, the thing that gives them life and personhood
  • perhaps the most common symbol in Cybertronian culture, a simple circle is the most basic representation of the spark
  • nested circles are specifically care and affection, commonly showing the feelings of a sibling or guardian relationship
  • intersecting circles in pairs or threes, like ∞, show deliberate affection and intimacy, as in an Endura relationship
  • the usual colors to represent a spark are pink for energon and teal for innermost energon

by blurrito

• Crowns
  • with the sheer variety of Cybertronian frames, plenty of people have helms that look like crowns naturally. The specific concept of a golden jeweled halo to wreathe the head comes in imitation of what Solomus is said to have looked like, the deity in the Guiding Hand associated with wisdom, passion, and leadership. Crowns are therefore more of a passive prayer to channel his dignity and authority by looking like him, rather than a display of wealth and beauty

• Matrices
  • the Matrix of Leadership of Prima is the most famous, but hardly the only Matrix. All of the later Matrices were however modelled after this original Matrix, and thus began a repeated visual theme of a hexagon within a circle, usually with protruding horns or handles. There are a great many variations of this of course, and some particular styles are shaped like particular Matrices. They are always symbols of leadership of some sort, usually political or religious

• Intimate gestures
  • due to the variety of anatomy Cybertronians are created with, not everyone is capable of the same gestures of affection. While a kiss is most often a sign of familial or Endura affection, mecha without mouths can only bonk people with their faceplates. This is in fact an accepted gesture of affection, as is touching foreheads or receiving a kiss from another mech with a mouth. So a more generalized symbol of affection and intimacy is close faces, not necessarily focused on mouths, in fact more often touching foreheads. Handholding is another, in some cultures on the same level of intimate as a kiss, making clasped hands a second common symbol

• Unicron
  • a spooky bogeyman, Unicron is usually a dark story whispered at night to scare people rather than a visual symbol. Most often, it's represented with other stylizations of decay, like rust, digital corruption, and stripped metal. More abstracted symbols include broken circles like a ruptured planet and shattered spikes like a fractured crystal. Sometimes, groups or associations will adopt Unicron's name to use the terror of its reputation. The underground crime syndicate the Minions of Unicron have their own gang brand, and Megatron has been trying to come up with a logo for his Knights of Unicron band for awhile. He's mostly settled on a horned helm for now

Heraldry

• Guiding Hand
  • a series of specific cultural and religious symbols have sprung up around the Guiding Hand throughout history, with Primus accruing significantly more. Each of them has an insignia, along with the aforementioned five-fingered hand symbolizing the whole of the pantheon together

• Primes
  • the Thirteen Primes each have their own insignia, used variously by the tribes that sprung up after them, and filtered down through their children and fellow Knights. Some historians believe these insignias were created in the likeness of the Primes' natural patterning and paintjobs, some believe it was deliberate symbolry, some believe they weren't even in use during the lives of the Primes but sprung up later. Versions of these insignias are still occasionally used in city-state heraldry

• Stratocracy
  • the regime under the Grand Architect currently uses some recycled heraldry from previous governments. Specifically, the Grand Architect carries a facsimile of the Matrix of Leadership and a datascroll of the Book of Adaptus during official events, to symbolize the fitting and functional leadership role he has taken, with religious, cultural, and political meaning wrapped up in both of them

• Faction brands
  • each of the four vigilante factions has a brand by which they identify themselves. The Elite Guard have the insignia of Nexus Prime. The Predacons have a nonspecific stylized beastformer helm modeled after their leader Abominus. The Decepticons have an adaptation of the ancient tyrant Galvatron's personal symbol, another homage to him along with the modern Galvatron's name. The Autobots have what appears to be an old symbol of Primus, but odd visions that Optimus experiences upon his untimely deaths hint that perhaps it is not Primus that this insignia refers to...

Alt mode sensors

The vast majority of mecha have alternate forms they can freely shapeshift into, which may or may not have optical sensors. All detailed and expressive visual work is done through the optics or visor of root mode, since the physical capabilities and senses of root mode are most often geared for communication, interaction, and fine manipulation of one's surroundings. The majority of cultural visual references, therefore, developed from the root mode optical sensors, rather than alt mode. The most notable exception is travel signage, designed to be easily understood with the limited visual capabilities of alt mode.
Some frametypes, like beastformers, have optics on par with their root mode, sometimes with even better visual acuity than their root mode. The majority of beastformers cannot use their beast mode optics while in root mode, but some do have the ability to retain the focal points of their beast mode optics and can actively see with both root and alt mode optics.
Other frametypes have different sensory suites. Many grounder, subterranean, and aquatic vehicle frametypes have basic nearsighted optical sensors built in to their biolights, with a small color spectrum and a particular sensitivity to lateral movement. These aren't proper optics and aren't called as such, they're meant to assist the rest of a mech's senses to navigate and avoid collisions in alt mode. Many flight and spacer frametypes, on the other hand, have basic farsighted optical sensors in their biolights. The majority of them have infrared sensitivity and are especially primed for contrast of dark and light, to detect weather patterns and airborne objects. Both grounder and flight frametypes often have cabs, cockpits, or another sort of carrying space put front and center on their alt mode, and these often have a wide array of sensors threaded through the supports and glass. An alt mode with a cab or cockpit is likely to have at least a 180° field of faint vision at their front. Vehicle mode biolight optics aren't necessarily arranged in any particular direction and do not act as a mech's primary sensors while in alt mode. Vehicle mode optical sensors in general are not consciously controlled, turning on when a mech transforms to alt mode and switching off in root mode. In fact, the cortex of the processor that deals with visual input from root mode optics is entirely different from the cortex that deals with visual input from alt mode sensors, the former associated with interpersonal instincts and the latter associated with proprioception.
Toolformers are a mixed case, although the vast majority of them do not have alt mode optical sensors at all. Those that do are most often a optical tool frametype of some kind, as in a telescope, camera, light source, etc. These optics can be very advanced, even more so than root mode optics, as they are specialized for their particular function. They're more likely to be consciously controlled and turned on and off than vehicle mode optics, and processed through the same cortex as root mode optics as well. A toolformer in root mode may have disassembled their alt mode sensors by necessity of their transformation sequence, so whether or not they work in root mode varies between individuals.

The variety of Cybertronian anatomy means that mecha have developed different visual cues to pick out faces, most importantly the brightness of optics or a visor set within a helm-shaped block.

by blurrito

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The most prominent colors in Cybertronian perception are very different from the human standard. The optic will be drawn to pinks and teals before any other color.

by blurrito