Classic Sans Serif with a playful twist

Raphael Wicki

Hello!

This is my first Typeface, called Werk Grotesk. 
My Approach is to create a sans serif inspired by the traditions of swiss typography, but with a more playful twist and full of character. 
The subtle quirks and the tall x-Height make the typeface especially suitable for big applications like posters or titles. 
Nevertheless the typeface should be legible and usable for body text aswell. 

I started out with the regular-cut. The light, medium and bold cut are all drawn from scratch, without interpolation, because i wanted to understand how different weights work. I'm planning to draw italics aswell, but i have to read some more theory before. 

Now i would love to get some feedback from more experienced Type-Designer!
Every feedback, tip or critique is highly appreciated!

Matthijs Herzberg

Hi Rafael, this is an excellent first typeface. I like that you went ahead and drew them all from scratch: the more you draw, the more you learn.

I can nitpick tiny things like slightly imperfect curves (/S is a little unbalanced), but to be honest, that's something that your eyes will naturally improve at catching as you draw more letters.

The crossbar sticking out as much on the left as on the right in /t and /f creates a slightly awkward form and more negative space on the left side of those letters than necessary. Then again, I can see this may have been done intentionally as a way of adding quirkiness.

That leads me to what may be more relevant feedback, which is that this font doesn't quite know whether it wants to be for display or for text.
If for text, I'd recommend looser spacing, and more open apertures in the counters of letters like /a, /e, /g, and /s.

On the other hand, if for display, you could probably push yourself away further from the Swiss model, and go a little crazier with certain letters (you can always add different optical sizes for your font, or a special display cut, or add stylistic sets).

Since this is your first, I'm assuming your main purpose is to practice drawing a typeface, and to that end I think you did a good job. Now that you're getting the hang of it, try adding more of your own voice to your next one!

K Pease

I appreciate what the small apertures do for the personality, but even in that context /G is much too closed. Possibly /e also.

I would expect /X to be wider. Tail of /g in regular and medium is noticeably heavy.

Igor Petrovic

Pretty good work so far! It has some distinctive charm. In addition to previous comments:

- H may be a bit wider
- Lowercase "a" looks a bit leaning on the left (its upper "arm" should be shorter probably).
- Figure 9 also looks a bit "rotated" to the left.
- Figure 4 may be a bit bolder than the rest. 
- Diagonal stroke on Q might be too heavy (it "appears" to me heavier than T horizontal for example)
- Counters of some letters look like having a bit of angled stress d, p for example, and that's probably because of different upper and lower joints with the stem. 

Some of these points might be intentional, but I wrote just in case

And not related to your typeface only, I was always skeptical of the shape of R in Helvetica and its descendants. I feel that its leg kept a bit of humanist touch (unlike the rest of the typeface). Also, it makes the angle of the leg more upright (less distinctive R shape) and the joint with the bowl more problematic in terms of color congestion.

I often see a similar treatment of the Cyrillic (K, k) even in neo-grotesque typefaces, where they keep a kind of humanistic (fluid/twisted) form for the upper diagonal of K.

It will be a great typeface, keep up the good work!

Raphael Wicki

Matthijs Herzberg said:

Hi Rafael, this is an excellent first typeface. I like that you went ahead and drew them all from scratch: the more you draw, the more you learn.

I can nitpick tiny things like slightly imperfect curves (/S is a little unbalanced), but to be honest, that's something that your eyes will naturally improve at catching as you draw more letters.

The crossbar sticking out as much on the left as on the right in /t and /f creates a slightly awkward form and more negative space on the left side of those letters than necessary. Then again, I can see this may have been done intentionally as a way of adding quirkiness.

That leads me to what may be more relevant feedback, which is that this font doesn't quite know whether it wants to be for display or for text.
If for text, I'd recommend looser spacing, and more open apertures in the counters of letters like /a, /e, /g, and /s.

On the other hand, if for display, you could probably push yourself away further from the Swiss model, and go a little crazier with certain letters (you can always add different optical sizes for your font, or a special display cut, or add stylistic sets).

Since this is your first, I'm assuming your main purpose is to practice drawing a typeface, and to that end I think you did a good job. Now that you're getting the hang of it, try adding more of your own voice to your next one!

Hi Matthijs
Thanks for your feedback! The details you mentioned help me a lot to continue with the typeface. I agree with you that the typeface is somewhere between text and display. Especially the medium and the bold cut are a bit problematic in small body text. So the idea of different optical sizes and alternates is great, thanks for that! 

Raphael Wicki

Igor Petrovic said:

Pretty good work so far! It has some distinctive charm. In addition to previous comments:

- H may be a bit wider
- Lowercase "a" looks a bit leaning on the left (its upper "arm" should be shorter probably).
- Figure 9 also looks a bit "rotated" to the left.
- Figure 4 may be a bit bolder than the rest. 
- Diagonal stroke on Q might be too heavy (it "appears" to me heavier than T horizontal for example)
- Counters of some letters look like having a bit of angled stress d, p for example, and that's probably because of different upper and lower joints with the stem. 

Some of these points might be intentional, but I wrote just in case

And not related to your typeface only, I was always skeptical of the shape of R in Helvetica and its descendants. I feel that its leg kept a bit of humanist touch (unlike the rest of the typeface). Also, it makes the angle of the leg more upright (less distinctive R shape) and the joint with the bowl more problematic in terms of color congestion.

I often see a similar treatment of the Cyrillic (K, k) even in neo-grotesque typefaces, where they keep a kind of humanistic (fluid/twisted) form for the upper diagonal of K.

It will be a great typeface, keep up the good work!

Hi Igor
Thanks for your feedback! You mentioned some good details i never noticed. This helps me alot to push the typeface further. :-) 

I see what you mean with the Helvetica R. The leg almost has a caligraphic feel in the end.

Igor Petrovic

I came back to check again what I have written. To avoid misunderstanding with my using of "might be":

I wanted to say that H is wider than needed, 4 is bolder than needed and the diagonal stroke of Q is bolder than needed, sorry for the possible confusion