I finished another Art Nouveau Revival: WF Maria Theresia. Check it out!

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)
Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) Posts: 213
edited February 2020 in History of Typography
I just finished another revival! This is "Maria Theresia Versalschrift", originally designed by Heinz Keune in 1903, and published by Schelter & Giesecke. I only had a partial specimen, so some of the letters, and all the numerals are conjecture. I redrew everything and added the customary extras to support Western/Eastern European languages. There are also a number of funky ligatures and a couple of alternates.

This is the sixth of hopefully twelve Art Nouveau fonts. I expect to finish the whole set by early Summer.


Comments

  • Nick Curtis
    Nick Curtis Posts: 118
    Quite a handsome face. I especially like the butt-crack W.
  • Rafael Saraiva
    Rafael Saraiva Posts: 31
    That's really nice. I'm not sure about the accents though...
  • ivan louette
    ivan louette Posts: 327
    I like it ! However these internal accents are not immediately readable for French speaking people.
  • Alex Kaczun
    Alex Kaczun Posts: 163
    I agree with Refael that the internal accents make the font appear comical. If that's your intention go with it. Otherwise, rethink it. I would... not visually pleasing and does not enhance the overall look.
  • Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)
    Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) Posts: 213
    Regarding the accents: my source matterial only showed Ü and Ä, so I extrapolated from that. I have no idea if this is what Keune intended, or if he even considered diacritics beyond the Umlaute. It seemed clear though that this typeface wasn't designed for features above the cap height, or below the baseline. Alternatively, I could have reduced the size of the accented characters to make room, but I quite like the comical aspect of these shapes. 
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,227
    In German display types, the umlaut dots are often nestled to the letter in some way, but this doesn't naturally extend to other accents or other languages.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,227
    edited February 2020
    One also sees this kind of treatment for umlaut dots in German display types


    and again the purpose is obviously to avoid having marks occupying the space above the letters, to enable tighter linespacing and compact compositions. But German only has these dots to worry about, and only on a few letters.
    _____

    I don't see a capital eszett in your specimen.  :#
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 201
    John Hudson said:


    I don't see a capital eszett in your specimen.  :#
    Top right; revived 2020 by...
  • Nick Cooke
    Nick Cooke Posts: 201
    Very nice, but let down by the internal accents, they are quite distracting . I’d reconsider if I were you. 
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,227
    Oh yes, there's the eszett. Thanks, Nick. It's very nice.
  • K Pease
    K Pease Posts: 182
    While the practice is primarily German, I have seen some Scandinavian examples including Å. This still makes for a small set of alternates; the rest are unlikely to be used that way.
  • Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)
    Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) Posts: 213
    Yeah... the more I look at it, the less the accents work. I'll leave the diereses where they are, but I'll probably rework the accents.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited February 2020
    Nick Curtis said:
    Quite a handsome face. I especially like the butt-crack W.
    I see a phoenix and a confused smiley face right next to it. The font is a gem and it should not conform and instead  go all the way being peculiar. I say, let the accents stay where they are. :smile:

    Also, why not try this version of ch?

  • Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)
    Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) Posts: 213
    Thanks, Vasil. That is an interesting ligatur, quite different from what's in the source material. I may give that a shot.

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