|
Young describes the context in which the design was developed, and the motivations that drive decisions to completion – ranging from a client's desire for "something bolder still," to thorough discussion of the limitations of a Bodoni.
...Possibly the result of never drawing a typeface or the percevied barrier a mouse creates between the hand and work on screen, it's rare that designers take such care and liberty to modify type.
And I should note that John's idea of "good" handwriting was not akin to that of our school teachers in respect to being "neat" and traditional, but more interested it seemed in the energy and personal style of the handwriting.
... CP: You work on a wide range of kinds of typefaces (scripts, display, text, novelty), and I know that you've said that this is very important to the way you work as a type designer.
Cyrus Highsmith, design, interview, type
Typographica’s fourth annual review showcases the best in new typeface design. Twenty four of the world’s brightest graphic and type designers selected their favorite font releases of the year.
This rightness comes in part from an especially assured use of the Dwiggins inspired visual trope of a round curve and cut curve on the interior lines of the letterforms.
...But I think in time designers will come to appreciate the solid reliability of it’s design along with it’s quiet novelty that draws and maintains the reader’s attention.
What makes me so particularly fond of Taz and other de Groot typefaces is the care with which they are made, and most of all, their excellent spacing and kerning. ... Spacing must be one of Luc(as) de Groot’s obsessions, not only expressed in the actual work but also in presentations and interviews which repeatedly emphasize the need not only for kerning pairs but for kerning triplets (thanks to OpenType, this is possible now).
One typical downfall of type designers is to assign a connecting-style ‘r’ as the primary character in a font containing mostly letters which are not expected to connect.
...Nevison Casual has, as its original alternate, an orderly nonconnecting ‘r’ but numerous other lowercase letters in the font are simply too rowdy to let it do its job.
Where the majority of ornamental type begins with a typeface onto which swashes and decoration are added, the typeface Restraint, designed in collaboration with typographer Ross Mills, was built inside-out. The characters themselves have been defined by the negative space of the ornament, as if the letterforms are just a lucky happenstance.
In other words, I’ve been craving a font who likes to party but who can also help out with the dishes.
... Editor’s Note: Like Eric Olson’s Stratum (2003), Purista is a thoughtful 21st century nod to early 20th century geometric grotesques like Eurostile and Bank Gothic .
While there is a hint of grotesk, it does not simply copy but is truly a reflection of the present — type made in and for the digital age (of course!).
... While National is only the second retail typeface from KLIM it has already been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the TDC in Typeface Design 2008.
Thomas Huot-Marchand, the designer, goes to extreme lengths to explain these details, but the first thing I did was to print a page from the PDF specimen provided.
... Some of the tricks employed look familiar: the tops of stems bent backwards to open up joins and very explicit counters were measures I employed when I designed FF Meta , which was to be used at 7pt and below by the German Post Office.
Flaunting unexpected loops and twists, this core cast of characters (f, t, w, Q, B, M, W, R) playfully traipses above and below the baseline with a sweet exuberance. The lowercase ‘f’ puffs out its chest with exaggerated aplomb, and ‘t’ splits into a script stem reminiscent of a table — grab a cocktail and pull up a chair to watch the show.
It seems to be an experiment that tries to find out how far you can go when reducing the contrast, even making the serifs heavier than the main strokes. It seems that Eduardo Tunni tried to compensate for the additional weight from the serifs by giving the regular a rather light appearance, which is a pity.
Be it the pairing knife or the mezzaluna, the fish fillet knife or the meat cleaver – all of the same incising family but formally different and individually crafted for a specific set of tasks.
... Dos Santos said that he originally set out to create an array of neutral typefaces that could work together and achieve an invisibility – lacking in details that would distract from the content.
Mark took his initial inspiration of the Fleischer Brother’s Superman cartoon series and greatly added to it, giving us a rich, full-featured design more useful than most typefaces like it today. Thanks in part to Mark’s use of OpenType technology, and especially his use of stylistic sets, you can think of it as an old school body with a new school engine.
I had judged Greta by its letters, and it was not until I saw the type as the text face in “Dwell” magazine that I came to see its brilliance.
... The most obvious success of Peter Biľak’s new Greta Text face is that it is extremely legible at small sizes, even with ascenders that are generous for a newspaper type.
|
