Crypt type

Nick Cooke
Nick Cooke Posts: 200
in Type Design Critiques

Some of you may have seen this on Twitter recently: "Something old but surprisingly modern in development". 
I have been developing it further; making the Thin weight more condensed to fit with the style of the inscription, and a couple of extra weights, a Regular and Bold. There was some comments about the style of the G and g, so I produced an alternate style for those, (original style on the left, 2nd image), but having lived with it for a while now I am quite used to the original style and I think it fits perfectly.
Any comments regarding style, proportions etc?

Comments

  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    edited October 2019
    What about an alternate /g with the same structure as the original, but the bowl goes down to the baseline (or at least the descender goes as deep as /p/q/y)? It's maybe the depth of it more than the unconventional structure that my eye gets hung up on.
  • Claudio Piccinini
    Claudio Piccinini Posts: 681
    I usually love all of your work, but it seems something was "missed" in your redesign and digitization, I find it too "regularized" and cold, while the original is very warm.
    This kind of curves can be very tricky, as they can be mistaken – this goes for superelliptical forms as well. And I would definitely keep just the original /g or at best a one-storey /g, dropping your usual lovely "hallmark" /g which here seems a bit out of place. :-)
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    Also, /m feels too wide and the boldest /w too cramped.
  • Theunis de Jong
    Theunis de Jong Posts: 112
    edited October 2019
    The only other descender in the original, the /p, is very modest. Could that be a reason for that short /g? (Which I like, by the way.)

    If you agree then the other descenders might need following suit.
  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 645
    edited October 2019
    In metal I have seen a similar /g and short descenders in fonts which were cast large on the body. It's different, but I like it.
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 200
    Craig Eliason said:
    What about an alternate /g with the same structure as the original, but the bowl goes down to the baseline (or at least the descender goes as deep as /p/q/y)? It's maybe the depth of it more than the unconventional structure that my eye gets hung up on.
    I think that idea for the alternate /g works better Craig. The first alt /g I created wasn't very successful and didn't really fit in. Original /g in Hedwig, new alt in Gatterburg. I also widened the Bold /w.
  • Nick Curtis
    Nick Curtis Posts: 118
    I find it quite lovely as amended. I hate you for finding it first.
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 200
    Nick Curtis said:
    I find it quite lovely as amended. I hate you for finding it first.
    Er... thanks?
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    Overall, very stylish and warm IMPO.
    I would make the tail of the /g somewhat more undulating, like a tilde, and I would try a version of the font with rounded corners. The tail of the /G should perhaps be more pronounced. The hood of the /a can perhaps be less wide in the lighter weights. Also, I think the bolder weights should be more spaced out in proportion to the lighter ones, despite the tall appearence and the negative space inside the letters. This rule should not be followed to the... uh... letter.

    This is probably based on some (newspaper?) font from the era, does anyone have an idea which it is?
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 200
    I think the lighter weights should be more spaced out than the bolder weights. I brought the tail of the G in a bit so the space between it and the following letter is not so big. I like the sharpness of it, and don’t think rounded corners would add anything. Why do you think it’s based on a newspaper type? I can see why you would think that, but why would a monumental mason base their lettering on newspaper type?
  • Adam Jagosz
    Adam Jagosz Posts: 689
    edited January 2020
    Short descenders to remind that life is short. This indeed looks gravey! Except for the right Geography, which is completely lively.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited January 2020
    Nick Cooke said:
    Why do you think it’s based on a newspaper type? 
    The font looks very similar to a font in a 19th century newspaper I saw somewhere. Of course I could be mistaken.
  • Helmut Wollmersdorfer
    Helmut Wollmersdorfer Posts: 212
    Stonecutting. No wonder I couldn't find it in specimen catalogs. The style looks familiar for me, because you obviously took the picture in Vienna. Similar style was used in books for title-pages at this time. But G and g are very special.
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 200
    The photos were taken in Austria Helmut, but in Salzburg, not Vienna. 
  • Helmut Wollmersdorfer
    Helmut Wollmersdorfer Posts: 212
    Oh, the name of the family is still known. And I grew up in the neighbourhood of Zwölfaxing and Pellendorf (two small villages near Vienna) where the person in the first line was landlord in the 19th century. So I assumed that they must be buried in Vienna.

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