A new transitional typeface needs a name
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Makes sense, @Simon Cozens. Thanks! Lowercase g—I’ll have to check, it’s possible the spacing got out of order when I resized the glyph.0
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I find it hard to believe Reportage would sound so strange among typographers. I agree that Cerebral is often used in a non-positive sense (e.g. as an antonym to practical). Magasin is taken.
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Americans make fun of French stuff. Even many who enjoy their cheese and stuff.
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That’s why Europeans are good at reportages, whereas Americans are good at … We make America great again.
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Europeans are also good at becoming more American over time. :-)
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Unfortunately, the currently most successful geopolitical movements in Western civilisation are based on fear, fascism, racism, nationalism and most of it all, populism. A great platform for narcissists and sociopaths.1
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Regarding the name, how about:
Sanasto
Means “vocabulary” in Finnish. It’s a bit random of a language choice, but the word has a nice sound to it.0 -
What if you end up making Sanasto Sans? ;-)
Seriously: aural mood is more important than literal meaning. To me Sanasto sounds like some faceless European multinational.
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"Sinister" and "nasty" are my first associations
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"Sanasto" sounds like the name for a high-priced prescription drug that allegedly will do something to make your life better.
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Coming back to this thread I was reading your comments and my own, and like it often occurs, it all seemed a bit strange to me. It’s funny how much you learn in the span of a couple of years. My scope on type development has evolved – and so has this font. I would no longer classify it as “transitional”. I think that was never its direction, but that was my first “reading” when I looked at it back then. The design has taken a new direction and I think it has somewhat of a unique look to it… But then again, that’s the natural bias of a father in love with his child.I’d be really glad if you picked up your thinking again surrounding a name. Your thoughts were brilliant.As I said back in 2016, it is more than about marketing. I want the name to sound “right”, not for the world, but for myself. It’s been likely the longest type project I have been working on for years now, so to me it’s already become a classic in that sense.0 -
So, apparently, this admittedly very old thread got buried in the depth of archives. I don’t see it showing up on the “recent” discussion threads list. Is there a way to get it going again?0
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While doubtless Ellmer Stefan's typeface has character, and I wouldn't want to appear to be taking a cheap shot at it therefore, Essay was also used as the name for a proportionally-spaced sans-serif typestyle for the Mag Card Executive (on 88 character elements) and the Electronic Typewriter Models 50, 65, 85 and 95 (on 96 character elements). And on some other IBM equipment as well.Hrant H. Papazian said:Essay is a lame name for anything with any character anyway.
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What about fictional Russian cipher machines? So that's two movies that have to be considered.Hrant H. Papazian said:Most anything (including "reportage") with an "age" suffix will sound affected to Americans. Lector is OK, but boring; with a "k" it's passable... unless people have something against cannibals.
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A typeface is for other people.Henning von Vogelsang said:I want the name to sound “right”, not for the world, but for myself.
If the name is for you, we strangers can never find it.1 -
Nice typeface! Very approachable for a transitional. Only the /y strikes me as a bit too flamboyant.Name: How about Vogelsang? Or if you insist on a Finnish word, how about you post a selection you like and we'll tell you how they sound to us?0
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I suggested "Vogelville" at some point. :-/ I was thinking of Baskerville (ITO Transitional) but if it does need to be about Henning, "-ville" still works...0
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Authors who write stories for themselves first end up writing the best stories for the world.Hrant H. Papazian said:
A typeface is for other people.Henning von Vogelsang said:I want the name to sound “right”, not for the world, but for myself.
If the name is for you, we strangers can never find it.
I wanted to move the discussion beyond the aspect of the accusation of marketing. Naturally, any product that’s going to be sold at some point needs a name that is useful and, if possible, memorable. Ideally, a good name also transmits the values inherited by character. That’s the aim for this exercise.0 -
Do you have a font named Papaziantown?Hrant H. Papazian said:I suggested "Vogelville" at some point. :-/ I was thinking of Baskerville (ITO Transitional) but if it does need to be about Henning, "-ville" still works...1 -
Thank you. 😀Christian Thalmann said:Nice typeface! Very approachable for a transitional. Only the /y strikes me as a bit too flamboyant.Name: How about Vogelsang? Or if you insist on a Finnish word, how about you post a selection you like and we'll tell you how they sound to us?
I don’t want to use my own name for a font, or at least I haven’t made one yet that where the name would be suiting, I think. Also, I am no Adrian Frutiger, Gerard Unger or Hermann Zapf.
Interesting you call the “y” flamboyant. When I drew it I felt it reminded me of Weiss Roman. But I didn’t look it up and now I see it’s different. I don’t know where, but I have seen this curved kind of y before – certainly in Italics of serif fonts.
Do you really think it is a transitional, Christian?0 -
I still appreciate your thinking with me. I can take all the jokes also. Please don’t take my responses too harshly.
What I’m looking for is something that transmits a bit of the elegance and the sharpness the font has, similarly like the type foundry I want to release it under. If you remember, I played with names for that one too for a while and ended up now with “Brevity”. I thought about naming this font the same, but it seemed a bit lazy. It does, however, have some of the feeling I have with this font.0 -
That’s an interesting idea. I did play with Enigma for a while, until I realised that one was taken too. And it’s not really a riddle, this typeface.John Savard said:
What about fictional Russian cipher machines? So that's two movies that have to be considered.Hrant H. Papazian said:Most anything (including "reportage") with an "age" suffix will sound affected to Americans. Lector is OK, but boring; with a "k" it's passable... unless people have something against cannibals.0 -
Henning von Vogelsang said:That’s an interesting idea. I did play with Enigma for a while, until I realised that one was taken too. And it’s not really a riddle, this typeface.I didn't mean it as an idea. In response to the possible name Lecteur, Hrant Papazian referenced Hannibal Lecter from a movie... and I commented on the basis that the Russian cipher machine in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me was the Lektor without explicitly noting it, due to the extreme popularity of that series of movie.Of course, if you do think it's a good idea... a real Soviet cipher machine, with a design based on that of the Enigma (the British did this too with their Typex) was the Fialka, which word is the Russian for (the flower) violet.0
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Even if that's true (it's arguable) it's important to remember that a font is a tool, not an end-product.Henning von Vogelsang said:
Authors who write stories for themselves first end up writing the best stories for the world.
A font does not even need to be sold for it to need a name that evokes its nature, is easy to type, and is memorable. Your users don't [need to] care about what name turns you on.
If I were famous enough for "Papaziantown" to help market the font I would probably not be making fonts... Although I have entertained a scheme whereby my serious text fonts start with "Pa"; it would be sort of an identifying label, like putting a foundry's initials in the name, but more subtle.
Yes, you should like the name. But it has a job to do.1 -
Hrant H. Papazian said:Yes, you should like the name. But it has a job to do.I can agree with that. But a name too, is a story. It conveys something. If anything arbitrary worked, we wouldn’t be talking about it.Tempting as it is, I tend to stay away from names with a megalomaniac ring to it. Like Univers, for an example.0
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Henning: Whether it is transitional or not is a question for the learnèd folk, not me.
Personally, I find its detailing quite transitional, what with the very flat serifs and the Times New Roman /e/, but structurally and warmth-wise it reminds me a lot of Mrs Eaves, while the /a/ and /g/ taste of Perpetua. Only the /y/ looks like it might have had a Mai Tai too many...
(I'm exaggerating.)0 -
Now those are workable...Henning von Vogelsang said:transmits a bit of the elegance and the sharpness
Although it also has a nice warmth.
What about Incus?
It means anvil in Latin.1 -
As a word, I really like Fialka. It has such a natural sound to it for a typeface. It seems fitting. I just don’t know how it relates to the character of this typeface. But then Rant may be right – maybe it doesn’t really matter.John Savard said:Of course, if you do think it's a good idea... a real Soviet cipher machine, with a design based on that of the Enigma (the British did this too with their Typex) was the Fialka, which word is the Russian for (the flower) violet.
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Ironically, I have named half a dozen companies and several products throughout my career. It’s the first time I am having trouble naming a typeface.
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