Graffiti inspired typeface project

etahchen

Hello type drawers, I have been working on this project and wanted to receive some feedback from other type designers to refine these designs further. Any criticism is appreciated, thank you!

etahchen

Craig Eliason

I don't think those "wings" atop /M are doing much. The star shape in the counter at the bottom of /V broadens that base and thus makes it harder to recognize as a /V. Swooping diagonal of /P gets too close to the left edge of the letter. Similarly /E gets too thin in its top half, and bottom of top bowl of /B is pinched too. That /E jumps out as more complicated than the rest in the text setting. That tombstone /O would benefit from a round bottom I think. 

K Pease

Explore better ideas for /Q from scratch, with the expectation that it will actually be used in words. Some kind of overlapping or interlocking Q_U may be worthwhile, but you will still also need a Q that allows a letter on either side of it.

The serifs of /T could stand to be more rounded; they look fine in outline but uncharacteristically sharp in fill alone.

Shape the outside bottom of /V more, remembering that you are allowed some negative space. It only helped the rounder letters and it will help V.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

FWIW, somehow this reminds me of the Christ the Redeemer monument in Brazil.  :-)

etahchen

@K Pease
What do you mean about the V? I don't quite understand.

K Pease

I meant that you've squared it to fill the space unnecessarily. The } shape is a good idea but it would be better if you pull the sides up, leaving space in the corners, to make the pointedness obvious.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

As an aside, are you the same Etah that was in touch with me back in 2014? If so, I'm glad to see your long hiatus from type design seems to have ended!  :-)

Vasil Stanev

   To me, this is more cryptographic than readable (something common to most street art, IMHO - I too have gotten inspired from it  over the years). This is very visible when you compare your alphabet, where you can somewhat guess the letter from its position, to the actual text where you struggle to read it.
   I would you rather tone down some of the excesses in the letters and make each letter resemble only itself. The J, for example, is very similar to a T, the E is too crazy for my taste, the G completely unreadable. The crosses inside the letters are somewhat off-putting. You can substitute them for a (Bethlehem or plain) star ( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/328270260321367896/ )

I think it shows good intention and diligence when a type designer of a single case font substitutes the lowercase with actual small caps, not just scaled down uppercase glyphs. It would be very interesting to see how you can make a sc work for this font with all the puffiness and negative shapes, but first you must be sure that the uppercase reads well.

You can also go completely "bananas" in the opposite direction and make a completely unreadable version. Distribute it for free under the same name to confuse the pirates. Just my 2 c.

etahchen

@Hrant H. Papazian
Yes i am the same Etah . Over the years I became a graphic designer and now I'm back to study designing fonts again. 
Nice to see you still active in the community. 

Jasper de Waard

I think it looks very cool, but particularly EFMPRUV are difficult to read. Reading becomes a kind of cipher exercise, which graffiti feels like to me more often so maybe that's alright. Personally, I would try to make at least a few of that list a little more legible, so that deciphering gets easier. Cool stuff!

Roel Nieskens

Nice pichação vibe! Make it a variable font with a RDBL axis that tweaks the readability ;-)

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

(Hmmm, a Brazil connection after all? :-)