Student Critique - Display Face

Scott Biersack
Scott Biersack Posts: 76
edited November 2015 in Type Design Critiques
Hello everyone!

Very excited to be a part of this forum. I'm currently a student within the Type @ Cooper program - learning new things about the type design world each and everyday.

We are in the process of developing our own display typefaces based on a humanistic script model.  Our type derived from our own hands as we began writing each letterform with various tools, then redrawing our calligraphy within Robofont.

In my case, I utilized a Copic Wide marker. I tried to keep things relatively condensed while hopefully still achieving the humanistic/calligraphic feel. 




I have yet to name this face and I have lots more work to do (as you can see in the attached various punctuation figures are missing). With that said, I know there are many spacing/kerning issues as well - just wanted to get the initial thoughts/feedback from established professionals like yourselves. I'd like to make this typeface the best it can be before my review!

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to view my work! 
-Scott
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Comments

  • Alvaro Franca
    Alvaro Franca Posts: 22
    Hi Scott, 
    Why did you decide to have the capital M and N be drawn just like the lower case?
    Seems like an odd choice, given the other capitals...
  • Scott Biersack
    Scott Biersack Posts: 76
    Hey @Alvaro Franca 

    Never thought about it, to be honest! I just drew what form came to mind first. Now that you mention it, I probably could draw other constructions of those letters to see how they fit with the family.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    I like this. It's the type of lettering that often looks hopelessly old fashioned to me, but there's something fresh about your take on it.
    /P/ looks very wimpy to me. Top counters of /B/ and /R/ could also be bigger.
    /D/ looks wide and /Z/ narrow.
    Is there something that could be done to make the horizontal terminals look more finished in /E/F/L/T/?
    /v/w/ look forward sloped.
  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,983
    Nice! It's got something mesmerizing to it in text blocks. I really like your solution for the tails of /J/j/y.

    I agree with Craig that the horizontals stand out, also in /Z/z. /Z is also too light.

    Unlike Álvaro, I think the blackletter designs of /M/N fit the typeface very well. In fact, I could even imagine adding some more blackletter-ish caps, e.g. descenders for /G/Y (maybe as a stylistic alternate so as not to impact the legibility of the main style?).

    The /g is very pretty! I'm not too fond of the /t, though; maybe its top could be allowed to depart from the diagonal onstroke philosophy of the other letters?

    I know you said spacing wasn't done yet, but it strikes me as very wide. The rhythm works well this way, but up close there's a lot of space between the letters.
  • Scott Biersack
    Scott Biersack Posts: 76
    @Craig Eliason 

    Thanks SO much for your insightful tips! Very very helpful indeed. I feel the exact same way about my horizontal strokes...It feels too boring almost. I'll give another go at those to make them better for sure!

    Thanks again for the help, Craig!
  • Scott Biersack
    Scott Biersack Posts: 76
    @Christian Thalmann 

    Thank you very much for taking the time to review my work! I agree with your comments regarding the /Z and /z. I'll give that another look over.

    As for stylistic alternates, yeah! I will certainly be drawing some variations. Looking forward to doing that. Just want to nail down the initial forms of course.

    Thanks for the kind words regarding the /g and the tails of /j /y! Means a lot.

    I'll be sure to fix the spacing! Thanks again for the help!
  • Jack Jennings
    Jack Jennings Posts: 151
    Be careful of jumping into alternate forms as a solution too quickly. Part of your job is to decide the most appropriate form for the quality of your typeface and focus on refining that. From the other perspective, I've never found stylistic sets to be particularly useful as as designer.
  • Scott Biersack
    Scott Biersack Posts: 76
    @Jack Jennings 

    Certainly! I'll most definitely be finessing these forms until perfection before resorting to alternate forms. The alternates would be helpful / ideal for some designers that like a bit of variety in the typeface.
  • Johannes Neumeier
    Johannes Neumeier Posts: 377
    Not a pro here, so take my impressions with a grain of salt...
    The /g looks a bit out of place. Wondering if the construction should not rather follow something like the /q and /y combined. Both diagonals in /z and /Z look very sharp compared to the rest of the characters. Of the capitals the /P /L and /T in particular strike me as very narrow. The bowl of the /P could equal more the bottom bowl of the /B instead of being the /B "minus the bottom bowl". The left bottom leg of the /x and /X could also have their stroke the other direction, like the tail of the /j, to avoid looking too much like a "swirl" - if that makes any sense.
    Like the freshness overall, curious to see where you take this :)

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