Digestif - Glyphic WIP Feedback?

WillBennett
WillBennett Posts: 6
in Type Design Critiques

Hi all,

I’d love to get your feedback on a new project I’m working on. I’ve done some custom lettering for graphic design projects, but this is my first serious attempt at a typeface.

Brief:

Inspired by early- to mid-20th Century liqueur posters and packaging, Digestif is a glyphic typeface characterized by low-contrast geometric shapes and flared serifs. I’m thinking of it as a display font with applications in branding and headlines, but I have read that glyphic fonts tend to do well at a range of sizes.

I've started with an extra bold since I wanted to see how far I could push the weight before running into problems with the serifs, but I anticipate making a thin master as well.

Almost all of the inspiration for this font is uppercase only, so creating the lowercase has required some experimentation (i.e. where to drop serifs, etc), and I'm a little less confident in those decisions.

Thanks for taking a look! I welcome any sort of feedback.


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Comments

  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 644
    The idea certainly has merit, but it was already done in the 1970's in phototype by Alphatype with their American Gothic. It was in three weights with italics in two of the weights. It was later digitized by URW, and can be seen on MyFonts.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,852
    edited August 9
    There isn’t anything wrong with doing a concept that has been done before. Especially for a first typeface. Besides, most things in type fit in that category.

    American Gothic itself starts with the design of the caps of Copperplate Gothic (Frederic Goudy, 1901 for ATF), and like this typeface, adds a lowercase. Which is also fine. Unlike this typeface, URW’s American Gothic has a huge x-height, one that even makes most ITC fonts look restrained by comparison. Also, the flared serifs in American Gothic have been made rounded, stubby and often cupped. My initial reaction to American Gothic is that I don’t care for it, but it is definitely doing its own thing.

    But so is this typeface. While the serif treatment is closer to Copperplate, the overall proportions are not so extended, and at least a few of its letterforms deviate from the Copperplate template (G and J at least).
  • jeremy tribby
    jeremy tribby Posts: 243
    Digestive is the name of a font by jérémy landes, in case it matters
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    The shoulders of the bowls—especially in the uppercase—are collapsing in a bit, making e.g. the O look a bit pointy. These would benefit from a bit of optical correction, making them slightly squarer so they look rounder.
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,425
    I feel like the 6 doesn't look like it fits in this typeface. Try flipping the top of the 3 and making the bowl a bit more like the 5 and 8. The design of the 9 seems fine but a little top heavy.
  • WillBennett
    WillBennett Posts: 6
    Thank you all for the feedback!

    I came across American Gothic in my research for this, but I tend to agree with Thomas that the differences in x-height, proportions, and the /G /g /Q give each font plenty of room to do their own thing.

    @jeremy tribby I don't know much about the business side of things. Is that too close for comfort? Avenir and Futura are also translations of one another, but those words are spelled very differently.

    @John Hudson @Ray Larabie thanks for the notes! I will try to address those tweaks this weekend.

  • jeremy tribby
    jeremy tribby Posts: 243
    WillBennett said:
    @jeremy tribby I don't know much about the business side of things. Is that too close for comfort? Avenir and Futura are also translations of one another, but those words are spelled very differently.
    I don’t know if it’s too close for comfort, which is why I mentioned it, in case you weren’t aware of the type family. avenir and futura or times and tiempos aren’t equivalent to digestif and digestive, IMO, as futura and times are designs from 100 years ago whereas digestive is a recent font family from a living type designer. this is a really common issue for font names, some people are fine with similarities but I can’t speak for the parties involved
  • WillBennett
    WillBennett Posts: 6
    In response to some of the earlier feedback, I've adjusted the bowls to be slightly more squared, and I've tweaked the numerals, especially the 3/5/6/9, to hopefully be more harmonious.

    I've also added a first crack at an Extra Light master. Thanks again for your thoughts!

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