Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on a new transitional typeface, which I initially called “Essay”. I really liked the name at first. It reflected my idea of a font made for longform reading. I wanted to express some qualities I was looking for in a font coming from a classic background, but made entirely for screen reading.
Essay has already been used in 2014 by Ellmer Stefan, for a really nice serif font family with a lot of character published by
TypeTogether. So I was wondering if you can help me finding a new name. I have included a specimen as PDF for you to study the characteristics of the new font. A lot is missing yet and spacing needs some work. So far I only have the basic latin glyphs, a few special characters and an early version of the numbers. Review and critique of the type is of course welcome, but if you see it and it inspires you for a name, I am really grateful for you input.
From my perspective, the typeface lies in between Baskerville and perhaps a hint of the spirit of Frutiger’s Meridien. Lately I haven’t seen anything like it, but I am happy for suggestions of other comparisons.
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Hmmm, something with "inter". Maybe "Interalia".
I guess "inter" conveys transitional; and it's sort of a nod to meridians. Plus it just sounds nice. We have a showerhead made by Interbath, and I enjoy saying it in a dramatic way. :-)
BTW: namecheck.fontdata.com
I feel this new typeface is closer to Baskerville than a Meridian serif, but that’s just a feeling. It’s a modern interpretation. Thanks for the “inter” suggestion, but I am not fond of it. There are too many reminders in other categories, such as intercom, internals, Internet…
Vogelville?
Naming is more than marketing. This is my child, as any typeface design is a child of every type designer who created it. We want that child to have a character and we feel it has unique skills. We want its name to express these things. I felt that this is something I could ask for help with the type designers community, since you all are more experienced than me. Some of you have an enormous knowledge about type design and type history. Although I have been working on a few font families, I have yet to officially release them.
Besides the main question, as I said in the original post, I am open to critique of the typeface design as well.
I was unhappy with the shapes of the numbers 3 and 5, so here is a new version. I feel the stroke width is uneven yet, but it’s all early progress.
Is the /g perhaps a bit too small? And does the /t dip a bit too far below the baseline?
Regarding the spirit and historical heritage, I admit I am uncertain how to classify the typeface. I originally felt reminded of Baskerville because of the belly of the lowercase a, but now that it has evolved, other than a strong contrast, there are not so many touch points with a real transitional design.
Thanks for the name suggestion too. I was playing around with names of British cities and villages, or thinking of something related to seafaring in the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. As a family name, Steinmetz seems like a specific pointer in one direction and I would rather like it to be more free-thinking than “carved in stone”. In many ways your suggestion is creative and I value it.
The more I’m looking at suggestions, the more I see the problem here: you are all trying to meet a vague idea that spooks around in my head. So it’s probably a good idea I just sit down and brainstorm for a few more names myself, and then ask you for your opinion about them.
I think one of my inspirations, in the back of my mind—and this is something only now I become aware of—was this Caslon 540 cut that seems quite far away from the original Caslon cuts. I love the strong contrast (often reflected in modern display serifs) and the elegant “authority” it radiates.
(Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caslon#/media/File:Caslon_540.jpg)
(Image source: Kris Sowersby)
I have already begun making a list of potential names. Ideally I would like the name to refer to or be loosely associated with long-form journalism, storytelling, essays and short stories.
Mlac
Tnatsnoc
Elbats
Christian made comments about some letter shapes (lowercase g, for an instance) and I improved them accordingly. Thanks for your help, Christian. I also reworked some of the weight of the triangular serifs, as they seemed heavy and too emphasised. Spacing and kerning is an ongoing process. I haven’t even started to look into hinting for Windows yet. The number 3 still doesn’t feel right (too thin too) and generally, numbers and glyphs are not harmonic yet. There are also no different weights yet and no Italics, but the Regular cut of the typeface is coming along well.
I think I have the finalists. Lecteur is my favourite so far, it’s French for “Reader”. In German, “Lektor” refers to a professional, usually hired by a publishing house, to accompany authors with their script. The common opinion is that they proof read texts, but their work extends to making structural and even logical improvements and suggestions.
I have the feeling the word Lecteur is relatively easy to read and say for people coming from various language backgrounds. There is a clear latin link that indicates the direction of “reading”, but aside of that, it’s easy to pronounce when your mother tongue is English, French, Italian, Spanish or Dutch.
What do you think?
Not all French words are automatically affected. But "-age" generally makes for a joke here.
I think Avenir is a good name, Univers is great, but Medirien is indeed sort of meh (especially considering how much presence the design has/had).
And is it me or is the /g spacing a bit loose?