Hi everybody!
I’m here for my first design critique, I hope to get some insights and useful suggestions
It’s a long time that I wanted to put my hands on this typeface, which is not original but inspired by Brassfield, a typeface designed in the early ‘90s and most notably used by M/M Paris in several Björk sleeves through the years.
I decided to redesign it from scratch – that’s why the Neue name – keeping the same original recipe of deco-alike uppercase letters and geometric lowercases and some unusual choices (like the lower k) but revisiting most of them, applying optical corrections, and introducing new shapes like the lowercase g.
This is the first step that I wanna share with you. I started designing the medium weight, which is the same as the original typeface, both in lowercase and uppercase. I’m still not sure about the strokes in oblique letters (k, v, etc) and if the uppercases needs to be a bit bolder compared to the lowercases. Please, don’t judge the kernings since I’m still not there
I also introduced alternate uppercases (since the deco ones are not really readable for longer texts) and numerals, but I don’t feel quite there with their design still. The alternate uppercases still need some correction in strokes like the default ones. You can see them in the PDF file attached.
I already tried experimenting with interpolation, sketching the extremes, which I called Thin and Black. The last one in particular still needs several tweaks – I found kinda challenging designing the boldest master, I must tell the truth, and the lowercase black "g" makes me cry. Some early feedback about them is really welcome, even if I could later change some letters based on the feedback about the original Medium weight above.
Last but not least, in the attached PDF I added some experiments like weights interpolation and some early, early sketches of alternate styles I have in mind to provide in the final release – those are still messy, but whatever
Thank you so much in advance to anyone who’ll take some time for me.
I really, really appreciate it 🙏
Comments
Of course, there is always room for improvement....
At the thicker weights, your attempts to keep the points on the outside of the top/bottom curves on bdpqhmn lined up in X with the inside results in some unfortunate distortions as the weight increases. Fixing this will likely also correct your “weak shoulders” on hmn, and the oddly pinched appearance where the curves join the stem on all the above.
Damn, you're right, I totally forgot to overshoot more the curves in the Black weight, that's why it looks so weird 🤦🏻♂️
By the way, one question: do you find the same issue at the Medium weight?
It means the apex (or nadir) on the outside of the curve is no longer aligned in the x-direction with the equivalent inside point; many beginning type designers find this counter-intuitive, which makes it a common mistake.
I think I cover this issue in this video:
Along with a couple of other things that might be improved. (Yes, the video uses an old version of FontLab, but the general advice is independent of any tool.)
Thank you so much for the insights guys, now back to work!
Hope to have understood correctly your previous comments and fixed the main issues. For sure there are still other things to correct, but multiple eyes than just mine are always better
Let me know what I can iterate more or if there are still completely wrong things.
Thank you very, very, very much 🙏
Hey @Vasil Stanev!
First, thanks so much for your reply!
Guess your comment about being 3 different typefaces is due to some letter shapes mixed up. As I said earlier in the thread, the main inspiration for the typeface comes from an old one that had this weird recipe of deco-alike uppercases mixed with classic geometric ones and that probably would look totally wrong to most type designers: for instance, I understand that the lowercase “g” and probably also the “y” looks like they’re coming from another world, or the “k” having the wrong uppercut angle, or again the “t” being too tall. Nevertheless, I wanted to keep these weird/wrong choices anyway to not lose the thread with the old typeface and try to figure how to balance them in some way. I don't know, maybe I'm totally on the wrong path, but after all, it’s just good for me to exercise and understand more how typefaces are designed
That’s said, I definitely agree about numbers, it was my first attempt at them and I admit I still have to figure out how they are usually processed compared to letters. Overall I feel like the black weight looks wrong, mostly the uppercase where I struggled to find a way to balance the strokes. I would like to know at least if the construction of thin and medium weights are quite there or there are still some very critical issues, like the ones suggested above, to work on them further 🙏
They may well actually be the exact same weight, but to achieve the appearance of ~ monoline strokes to human viewers, the arm has to be a bit lighter in weight than the leg. This is just because of the norms of western/Latin type design. Comes from tradition of lettering done with a broad-edge pen at a 30° (or steeper) angle, and it informs the norms even in typefaces with no apparent/obvious contrast.
I would move the inner “v” counter of the lowercase v just a couple units to the right for the same reason.
Sorry but I've only seen your feedback now – that is sooooo precious by the way.
Unfortunately, I've been so absorbed working that I had to leave this typeface on one side, but I hope to get back to work on it soon