Finished the first draft of my first ever font. Require critique

Kartik Nair

Hey everyone! I'm a newbie trying to pick up type design over the quarantine. I've never designed a typeface before so I decided to start off with a simpler sans-serif. Here's the first draft:

Craig Eliason

First issue to address is the spacing (not kerning—that comes last—but setting good side bearings).  https://www.fontsmith.com/blog/2018/02/05/how-to-space-a-typeface

Kartik Nair

Wow that was a great read. I'm gonna restart the spacing from scratch.

I was also curious whether there are any inconsistencies in the letter forms as well, something that a newbie like me would miss perhaps.

Craig Eliason

/t/ feels unstable, /g/ descender is totally out of character. /m/ is too wide—once the side bearings are fixed you can start to look for better balance of counter spaces. 

Kartik Nair

Yeah that /t/ has been bugging me since the beginning can't seem to get it right. Perhaps it's coz I'm an amateur but I actually really liked the way the /g/ 's descender looks but I'll consider different options. Thanks for all your advice though I really do appreciate it!

Vasil Stanev

I like this font, I find it to be a solid first try. For me, there are issues with the width and weight of some characters : the u, e.g., feels a bit wide, the a too tight, the m not tight enough, and so on. Until you can discern that by eye, place the characters in a single column one over the other and adjust what needs adjusting.

When confronted with issues like the cap of the t, look how it was done in established fonts, that is always the best help and no need to re-invent the wheel . The tail of the g feels out of place for this particular style. I would push the tail of the Q a bit to the right, and elongate it. There are more minor issues like this. When you have gotten them down, the spacing will flow naturally. 

Good luck, it has good potential.

Kartik Nair

Thanks a bunch for the feedback! I'm happy to hear that you think this has potential I'm gonna keep working on it & implement the changes you mentioned

Adam Jagosz

I wouldn't say /g is out of character. If anything, it brings in quite a lot of its own character into an otherwise rather neutral environment. I'd consider making the horizontal a bit lighter and moving the bottom of the bowl a bit higher.