Basic topology issue with poles distorting subdivision - etc. How to fix or work around?

Here’s what I’m working on.


For a long time now I’ve just ignored such issues but I’m really trying to improve my skill to the next level now and I’d like some help.

You’ll see I’ve got all quads, but I now have poles, vertices with more than 4 edges connecting to them. I know these are sometimes totally unavoidable, but I have a question about how to manage them.

You’ll notice in the example in my screen shot that’s circled the top of the image I have added an additional edge loop to essentially move the pole down a row so as to avoid the bulk of the distortion that it was prone to causing right along notable edge there.

However, I have the same issue in the second circled area except in this case the polygon density is less and the impact on the shape of the mesh is a little more pounced. I could conduct the same technique and add another loop with the knife tool around that notable edge to move the pole away to a less problematic area, except in doing so I begin to have a much larger impact on the topology and shape by adding such a loop there.

Is there another superior method that I can use? I’m really just practicing at the moment, so if your method is a little bit more about some fundamental principal to follow to avoid such issues I’d love to learn so I can remake this model in accordance with those principals.

I’m fine re-doing it, but I want to do it cleanly and ideally.

Well this is essentially the way to go… maybe think about edge sliding a bit inward ? Like this: