Mobius Display Type

Richard McDonald

Hi everyone!

Though I've posted on here before, this is the first time I've posted about any of my work. (for context, I'm a graphic designer who has done a few type design courses, so I'm more of a beginner than a total novice)

I'm at the very early stages of developing a display face which is based on a letter O that I carved out of linoleum and printed. The O itself has a lot of qualities I like, but most importantly, it has a sense of three dimensionality and it's a stencil face, even though I don't think it immediately looks like one (which is a good thing in my opinion). As I say, this is at a very early stage, but below shows a few ways of approaching the H, E and L, as well as the O.



So... while I am still at this stage of defining the DNA of the design, I thought it would be really valuable to get some opinions on it. 

The issue that I'm having is that the way in which a horizontal stroke joins a vertical stroke only works if that is a corner. Once it becomes a 'T junction', it doesn't look good at all - as shown in the second H above. The first H is more distinctly an H, and therefore works better, if a little basic. Using that DNA, the E and L should logically also have square corners. However, these also have the potential to work with a slightly curve corner, albeit one which is much less extreme that the O.

Logically, you'd expect the H, E and L to be of the same construction, but maybe this design warrants doing something different?

Alternatively, the H could become more curved and expressive, but I'm struggling to see how that would happen.

Despite these problems, I can see potential in this - though maybe that's just me being a naive beginner, and it would be better to keep this as a piece of lettering than a type design project!

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.


Richard

Jasper de Waard

I don't think this has any of the practical advantages of a stencil typeface (the gaps are just too thin), and also not the aesthetic, so I would forget about that for the time being.

Having said that, the concept is pretty cool! The O is looking very nice indeed. Go with the first E and L. For the H, neither option is good enough I'd say, so keep trying different structures! Abd in fact, the E and L could also still use some improvements. The O gives a sense of being 3D, because the curves look like a ribbon that is gently curved, not folder. The corners in E and L, however, look like they were folded tightly, which takes away some of the 3D charm. Although it's probably good if the curve is smaller than in O, I think it could use some more roundedness.

Good luck!


p.s. In a later stage, I would also think about adding very curvy 'swash' alternates for the caps.

Nick Shinn

You should be aware that there is already a Mobius typeface, and a Moebius typeface, and several designs exploring the same territory: Zelek, Bron, Soleil, Macula, Escher, Frustro, etc.
Hope this helps.

Nick Curtis

The problem some of the letters is that a Mõbius Band is a continuous strip, and—as with cursive writing—you have to double back to make the cross-strokes. Yagi Link Double does the switchback thing well, but there are open ends on several characters.

Georg Seifert

It might help to start with the swash versions. And then try to simplify the shapes if needed.