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Fun type draft

Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
in Type Design Critiques
I have started this typeface yesterday, to clear up my mind a bit. At the beginning I thought about making only the upper case set but then decided to see how it goes with a relatively standard lower case set. I quite like it.

Any feedback welcome.
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Comments

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    The lowercase could lead to just a mainstream font, but the uppercase exhibits a novel feature: centering on a line, instead of fitting within bounds. I would explore that.
  • ivan louetteivan louette Posts: 327
    Funny and interesting too. I like it a lot ! Please continue !

    ivan
  • ivan louetteivan louette Posts: 327
    Cassandre already experimented centering on a line, but I didn't find back the picture of this unpublished alphabet.

  • Niche.Niche. Posts: 86
    edited January 2017
    Looks cool ! Only thing I notice is the lower h, m, n shoulders look a little out of place where they meet the vertical. reference b/p perhaps just looks a little high ... 
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    edited January 2017
    Hrant H. Papazian said:
    The lowercase could lead to just a mainstream font, but the uppercase exhibits a novel feature: centering on a line, instead of fitting within bounds. I would explore that.
    A lot to investigate here. 
    Few tests I made by your comment led me to something that looks like Arabbed English :) (see attached file as well)

    Imagine this (with the UCs) as calligraphy!



    Simon Dunford     said:
    ... I notice is the lower h, m, n shoulders look a little out of place where they meet the vertical. reference b/p perhaps just looks a little high ... 
    Good point, thanks!
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    This is awesome.
  • Ray LarabieRay Larabie Posts: 1,358
    It's surprisingly readable. I'm getting tripped up on the lowercase a. Would it still work without the mini descender?
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    And a test with enlarged o'

  • Samuil SimonovSamuil Simonov Posts: 110
    Very, very interesting. This /o reminds me of some Moscow Metro station fonts, but I think it should be mixed with the smaller /o and perhaps /c could be sometimes enlarged as well when not next to each other.

    I wonder how Cyrillic will look when given your treatment.
  • Ray LarabieRay Larabie Posts: 1,358
    I think the bigger o makes words that start with o look capitalized...it feels like the start of a new sentence. The new a is ace.
  • Florian HardwigFlorian Hardwig Posts: 253
    Similar terrain has been explored by Marcus Leis Allion and Jonathan Barnbrok in Expletive Script Alternate.

  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    edited January 2017
    Samuil Simonov said:
    Very, very interesting. This /o reminds me of some Moscow Metro station fonts, but I think it should be mixed with the smaller /o and perhaps /c could be sometimes enlarged as well when not next to each other.

    I wonder how Cyrillic will look when given your treatment.
    I like the large o' too, it gives the text a jewellery appeal, but I guess  people would like to read it too.
    You're invited to test this treatment on Cyrillic script!

    Made some more tests... Scaled up the LC size, maybe too much, and fixed the direction of the connecting extension of all LC to the right. Also fixed the orientation of the UC to the right and added some connection extension, but I think it damaged the all-caps appearance. Looks like it is inevitable to split them to two different fonts and create a LC set to the UC and vise versa.



    The images and pdfs are from the most useful Impallari.com font testing site, Thanks!
  • PabloImpallariPabloImpallari Posts: 773
    I'm loving it. Keep it coming!

    So far, http://typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/25306/#Comment_25306 is the version I like the most.

    In Verdi22, I think the lowercase is too big, and too connected.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Ok, thanks for all your helpful comments!

    I have scaled down the LC, but only on the y axis and spaced up a bit, it might still be too wide. 
    Centred the punctuation and started working on the digits as well...
    (Check the pdf too)


  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Switched the N'M' back backwards too.
  • Jens KutilekJens Kutilek Posts: 326
    I’d try to use contextual alternates so that it’s not like some letters are always "down" and others always "up", but to get a nice alternating pattern. E.g. now the word "from" is completely made from "up" letters and it will look strange if it’s next to a word made of only "down" letters.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    @Jens Kutilek The o' (in 'from') is centred, and the only-down letters are u'v'w'y' which will rarely form a word, but alternates and contextual alternates will surely be useful here.

    Final adjustments before leaving the typeface for a while... Enlarged the vertical size of c' e' s' and added a back slab to the r'. I think it is starting to take shape.


  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Got back to it today, added some slabs and tweaked a bit. 
    Now I'm testing the width of the counters, x-height and the relation to the vertical letters (e' c' s')

    1 - Small x-height, e'c's' at x-height
    2 - Larger x-height 
    3 - e'c's' larger than x-height
    4 - wider counters

    I like best 1 and 4 
    (Ignore the (lack of) hinting issues)




    V1-4.jpg 100.2K
    V1.jpg 225.9K
    V2.jpg 238.8K
    V3.jpg 239.6K
    V4.jpg 241.7K
  • Christian ThalmannChristian Thalmann Posts: 1,897
    edited January 2017
    Can't believe I missed this thread until now. Great stuff! :smiley: Particularly the caps.

    In the LC, I feel like the /o should be wider (it looks vertically elongated right now), and some letters feel very preliminary to me (g; v–z; R). The /n/m stay away from the all-important midline a bit too long for my taste—perhaps make them narrower or allow them to dip through the midline a bit?

    Have you tried a narrower solution for /a/b/g/d/p/q? I like the intermittent wideness of the LC, but maybe that would be better achieved with longer connecting strokes between letters.

    As a longer-term goal, you might want to consider ligatures and contextual alternates to break up combinations that stay above or below the midline for too long.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    edited January 2017
    Thanks Christian! I must say it's cute with narrower LC.

    Later on I'll make a video to show you how easy and fast it is to make these modifications and tests with Fontak.




  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    I like 4.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Scaling with Fontark is executed on the skeleton while the outlines are calculated and regenerated in real time, that means that the "stroke's" integrity never damages by scaling and proportions modifications, including optical corrections, contrast etc'. The inter connection of all glyphs, the flexible glyphs selection and multiple glyphs editing lets you focus on the design related issues.

    Real time screen capture...

    https://youtu.be/1v31ojOD5Nc
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Should the Thorn be designed according to the Pp, or in case of an extreme design be defined as a self standing letter form?


  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Diverge.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Something like that?


  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Yes.
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Thanks!
  • Ofir ShavitOfir Shavit Posts: 371
    Latin 1, normal and all-caps.

    Eszett?


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