First timer here - Looking for opinions/help/anything

Etienne Carstens

Hi there! I'm new to type designing, but I've always wanted to attempt my own, and I'm very excited to potentially create something that is worth while (even if it's just for myself). I don't have any experience in this particular field, and I'm not a graphic designer, so I truly mean that I'm really damn ignorant on this subject matter.

The typeface I created is predominantly inspired by vintage Hollywood, even though it's probably an amalgamation of stuff. I'm looking for any advice/opinions/critique that can help me make it more professional looking. Pretty sure what I've made is pretty bad, so any help would be appreciated.

Thomas Phinney

a few thoughts...

several letters, noticeably U e m n and top of f, have horizontal elements much heavier than the verticals, so they look very “off” compared to the rest of the design. Compare the weight of o vs e, h vs n. (o and h are better)

k and z seem heavier than many of the other letters.

A is very top-heavy

Round vertical parts of C D G are much heavier than the straight verticals (too much so, a tiny bit is ok, though)

S and s are heavier top and bottom than on the spine. This construction is rare in professional lettering or typography. Usually if there is a difference, the spine is the heaviest part of the S/s.

Some of the symbols seem a lot heavier than the alphabetic characters, which feels a bit weird.

You might find this video of mine helpful (even though it uses an old app nobody is using any more), as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR-CG5eB3nQ

Simon Cozens

One useful maxim I was told: "To make things look the same, you have to make them different." This goes for horizontal and vertical stem widths, because of the eye's horizontal bias, but it also goes for things like crossbars. Open up a text editor and type "ABEFH" in large letters in any font you like, and look at how the crossbars have different vertical positions. You've done that nicely for the A, but B needs to come up quite a lot (and have a straighter top) and F a little.

As Thomas mentions, the weight issue is the main area to work on. There are some nice ideas in there, so fix those things, print it out (using real words as a test), and when you like the look of it again, post it again for another round.

Etienne Carstens

Thank you all so so much for the feedback; most of the things I've learned was from Googling around, so even fundamentally I have flaws. What I'm trying to establish is a solid foundation to build upon. From what I've gathered it seems I struggle to properly balance the weight between letters, as well as crossbar positioning. I will definitely address these issues.

Again, much thanks for the feedback.

Adam Jagosz

The B's waist is too low to look like a mistake; changes are needed, but not necessarily to the height of the cross-stroke; maybe to the cross-stroke–bowl connections to make them smoother unless the sharp top transition was intentional) and very likely to the join to make it lighter.

Thomas Linard

Surely not your priority, but since you have some math characters and they are misaligned, you could read this on the math axis:
http://www.typoma.com/publ/20041002-atypi.pdf

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)

Wow, that's a science in itself!