Marsa Serif — type design critique

Czl Lebleu

Hello everyone!
My name is Cécile (czl) Lebleu. I'm studying solo to be a type designer. I'm new here, although I've been a reader for quite a while.
I would like to get your critique and opinions on one of my first two typefaces — the other is a text sans, which is still in construction, and will include Cyrillic and Greek. But that's another story. Coming soon
Marsa is a display serif face, with Caps and Small Caps. Mostly a design exercise, trying out shapes and mixing styles. I was inspired by Roman inscriptionals, and sleek, tall shapes from the past century.
It supports basic Latin, with lots of accented characters, a capital Eszett, Thorn, Eth, etc. Please take a look at the attached PDF.
It will be available for free once it's ready.
Thank you in advance for any feedback. I know, "it's already been done", but I think it has a nice personality

Ofir Shavit

Very nice work, with personality and delicacy.

Few things I notices...
R' is too dark
A' seems too short
O' (and round sides) and S' are spaced to much.

Something bothers me with the vertical contrast. The thin strokes in U' N' X' etc' are thinner than the horizontal strokes, so you basically have 3 stroke weights (Thick vertical, thin vertical/diagonal, and horizontal) somehow distributed unevenly resulting in disharmony and causing some letters to pop up and some fade.

James Puckett

The letter widths and ductus disagree with each other. You've mashed up the incunablula and modern eras with Times and an S right out of a Renaissance rationalist mathematical construction diagram. I don't see any concept, purpose, or unity.

But don't let any of that discourage you. It's a good first effort that taught you a great deal. Don't finish it now. Think of it as a sophomore year project. Go on to other things, learn more, and come back to this In a few years if you still like it.

John Hudson

As mentioned in another recent thread, the most important thing in learning to design type is learning how to look and see. This is one reason why I recommend, as a first exercise in designing type, not trying to create something new but, instead, making a faithful revival on some historical letterforms, to help you learn how to look at letters and understood how they relate to one another. Without this understanding, you won't be able to look at your own work and see whether it is working.

I know there is an impetus to creating and releasing a  font, but I also recommend undertaking initial studies, revivals, and exercises without the idea that you will release them. There is a great deal of helpful freedom in being able to take an idea as far as is helpful to your development as a designer, and then putting it away and moving on to something that will help you move further. If you have in mind that you must complete a thing so it can be released, you will waste a lot of time that could be spent learning the next lessons.

Chris D

One of the things that helped me start seeing the subtleties in letterforms, was to take two similar looking designs and overlay their glyphs to see what differences were hidden to the eye. Even just overlaying two /O shapes can reveal so much about their forms, and help educate you about the similarities (and differences) amongst the various classifications.

Something I noticed in your design is that there's similarities in places that could benefit from differences. Eg. the terminals of /C and /S are too similar, to the point they distract when you read the text. Take a look at how other serif fonts handle these letterforms differently, and see if you can apply those learnings in your work. "Nocturne" below, is a nice example of how serifs are handled differently on each form:




Good start though.

Czl Lebleu

Thank you all so much for your feedback! I'm still thinking whether or not I should keep going with Marsa — for now, though, it's resting. And thank you for pointing out what I need to work on. Invaluable advice!

Chris D

Resting is never a bad thing! You're welcome.