Numerals Critique

AbiRasheed
AbiRasheed Posts: 238
in Type Design Critiques
Hi,

Just started working on this awhile back and would like some feedback on what could be improved or if anything looks wrong, etc, etc.

Cheers!

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Comments

  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 639
    Very nice! All I can say is time to make some letters?
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    Nice! I would consider a seriffy terminal at the top right of 5 so the top reads more like a 7-like horizontal rather than a 6-like swoop. 
    Did you try a serif on 9, like 6’s?
    Watch that the more essential hairlines don’t get lighter that the thin more decorative bits (for ex. middles of 3 or 5). 
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    @Jasper de Waard  Yeah if I have the patience for it there might be letters too hah. Thanks for the feedback!

    @Craig Eliason Yeah I do have an alt.9 with a serif like that to address spacing issues because some of the ones facing each other bump into one another so I did a 9 and an alt 4. As for 5 though I think I tried something like what you suggested previously but just to be sure do you mean this?  Just a rough though.

    If it's this I think the reason I scrapped it was because there was too much going on the upper left but if you think  I should keep it then I'll redraw it. Also yeah I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping with hairlines. I should really be using a stroke but duly noted! Thanks for the feedback! 

  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    Yes, that's pretty much what I meant but maybe you were right to dismiss it.
  • Wolf Böse
    Wolf Böse Posts: 35
    MRW i saw those numerals: "bow wow chicka bow wow"
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,992
    I love these. My only suggestion is to make the size of that little teardrop on 4 match the other little teardrops. I hope you decide to turn this into an entire typeface!
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    Beautiful and exotic! I would prefer eight and zero to be less zany, though — the eight with a top more like the bottom, rotated and scaled down so that there is a hairline on both sides, and the zero with an oval counter, not teardrop, which is presently too “six-ish”, for my taste.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    edited July 2018
    Top right teardrop on 7 should perhaps go up higher to the cap line (the way bottom left of 2 reaches the baseline).
    Give more weight to those changes in direction in the middle of 3 and 5 (compare acute angles of 2, 4, 7). 
    I’d try a more symmetrical 8 as Nick suggests, but maybe also one with a hairline only on the top. 
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    @James Puckett thanks! I've decided to do the letters too. For the serif I did match them like you said at the initial stages of the design but I thought it made 4 look a little less in weight like it was hanging by a thread while the other numbers had some chunkiness to it? No? I'd rather it match the others like you advised.

    @Nick Shinn  I made changes to the counter in 0 to be more oval. Not sure what you meant for 8 but something like this for the top? 
     
    @Craig Eliason Can you point to where I need to add weight in the middle for 3 and 5? Also I did have those teardrops match to the cap height but I realised it made it look super weird like tentacles on a snail and tad top heavy.  

    Thanks again guys for the feedback, really appreciate it.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    AbiRasheed said:
    Can you point to where I need to add weight in the middle for 3 and 5? 

    I mean the direction reversals circles with red seem weak compared to those circled in green.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    These make me so happy. Can't wait for the letters! :)
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    edited July 2018

    @Craig Eliason ooh okay. Let me know if this one works.



    Just FYI though. The rules I had in place for the design was to only pair a small hook to the large teardrop  and not a large and large together so what I did here with 3 & 5 kinda breaks that rule. Maybe it's okay I guess if it works? Thanks again craig.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,186
    Much improved. You need a different logic for stroke reversals like this than for the small hook shape.
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    @John Hudson I agree but while designing some of the letters I kinda salvaged it. I'll update soon so I can hear yours and everyone else's thoughts on that. Thanks for the feedback!
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    Update on the letters. I'd like to get some feedback from you guys before I continue any further. I'm kinda slow on this now so I've got only a few letters done. Just a brief idea of what I did and why. Going by the numerals I should've stuck to a reverse contrast but I decided against the idea because I wanted to try something more neutral so it has more usage. It's a cross between fatface and reverse contrast. I've upped the hairline stroke weight for the letters and I'll be adding that to the numerals as well eventually. I've sort of simplified the stroke reversal as John Hudson calls it to just a thick stroke for the letters and also salvaged the smaller serif to be used for some letters. Some of the teardrop terminals from the numerals will be added to the uppercase but I haven't figured out which yet. Appreciate any feedback, thanks!



  • Matthew Smith
    Matthew Smith Posts: 89
    Really digging everything so far! It's very interesting to see how the characteristics from the numbers are translating into the letterforms.

    The capital _A_ feels a bit light. I'd also be interested in seeing the left side be more exaggerated similar to how the stem of the _4_ appears. You may even be able to play with keeping a serif on the top left side.

    The dot of the _i_ is really fun, but I think it could use some vertical volume. It also feels off centered (too the left) because of its structure. More volume may help resolve that.
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    edited August 2018
    @Matthew Smith Thanks for the feedback! I made some changes to A and the tittle. Let me know if this works. I dropped the xheight for 'i' a tad bit to accommodate more of the tittle. Given the general x-height I've set for the typeface is slightly huge I can't give the tittle any more weight unless I increase the ascenders or I dunno if there's another solution without having to increase space. But the problem is if I do increase it then it kinda loses some of that chunkiness I was aiming for in a fat face as it would end up with a lot of negative space. But if you guys think it's not working then I might have to increase the cap/asc height. 


  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    Very beautiful! I think the xheight is too high. Especially when I compare /h and /n and look at the flat dot of your /i
  • AbiRasheed
    AbiRasheed Posts: 238
    edited August 2018
    @Arne Freytag sorry never got back to you, yeah I'm considering increasing it but for the moment I'm just trying to finish what I initially had in mind for the design and see how it goes. Upping the xheight would drastically change the design so saving it for the last. cheers and tx for the feedback.


    Update: I've been having a hard time trying to figure out a /T that works. 
     Is this T going in the right direction? I absolutely hate it that it has very little counter space but increasing it a tad bit makes it too wide. Tried to reuse elements from E and F but it's still looking weird so I'm in a bit of a pickle here. I also tried changing the arm to something of a traditional triangle but it was starting to look too different from the rest. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this. The easiest solution would've been to do a bottom heavy /T where it has a tail curving to the right sort of like caps in blackletter but I avoided it because it looked too ornamental.

    Thanks!

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