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Tessa Display

Nick KruegerNick Krueger Posts: 4
in Type Design Critiques
Hello,
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this forum. Humbled by the expertise here.

This is my first post, so a little about me and my typeface. I am a graphic designer by trade with a love for type and typography. About a year ago, I started designing what would become the attached typeface. Originally inspired by old school Didones and later by display fonts like Miller Banner and Harriet.

This is my first attempt at type design and I'm completely self taught so open to all comments constructive or otherwise. Thanks in advance.

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    Craig EliasonCraig Eliason Posts: 1,400
    I wonder if those interior curls get too tight in places like /r/'s arm, /y/'s tail, /g/'s ear, /f/'s and /J/'s hooks. /K/'s leg looks a little mechanical to me. A little more weight in the terminals of /s/ and of /k/'s arm, and maybe of /x/'s "/" stroke might be useful.
    Impressive for a first go, for sure!
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    attarattar Posts: 209
    Nice! That's pretty great for a first attempt.
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    Nick KruegerNick Krueger Posts: 4
    Thanks, guys! I should say, early on, I solicited comments from a few folks (thanks Jackson Cavanaugh). Those critiques were super insightful and I basically started over, then went through several iterations after that. 

    Craig, I struggled a lot with the leg of that /K/. Not sure why. I'm thinking about trying a more organic version like /R/. Thanks again for the comments!
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    Christian ThalmannChristian Thalmann Posts: 1,941
    Your /M strikes me as rather narrow. And that "finely" calls for a /fi ligature!
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    Nick KruegerNick Krueger Posts: 4
    Updates! The first /K in Kraken is the original, second /K is new. 


    I wonder if those interior curls get too tight in places like /r/'s arm, /y/'s tail, /g/'s ear, /f/'s and /J/'s hooks... A little more weight in the terminals of /s/ and of /k/'s arm, and maybe of /x/'s "/" stroke might be useful.
    I've made (very slight) adjustments per Craig's comments in the attached pdf. I also increased the width of the /M per Christian. Thoughts?
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    Christian ThalmannChristian Thalmann Posts: 1,941
    edited February 2015
    To be honest, I'm not sure the wider /M is an improvement — it sticks out among the other caps. Now that I look at your original, it looks OK there. I guess I'm just not used to condensed serif faces! (But maybe the /B is a bit too wide?)

    The new /K is nice.
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    Craig EliasonCraig Eliason Posts: 1,400
    Yeah, I'd revert the /M/. Other changes look good. 
    /3/ is lovely but may be a bit too wide.
    Is the top of /t/ a bit too blunt given the sharpness of the serifs?
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    attarattar Posts: 209
    edited February 2015
    Yea the M was fine before, all of the caps are a bit narrow by design.
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    Jasper de WaardJasper de Waard Posts: 617
    Really nice! Here are some changes I would make, but feel free to ignore.

    The leg of the lowercase k seems a bit unsure. It's too think at the joint for starters. I would try to make it more smooth at the bottom.

    Not sure about the g The eye get's ugly where it meets the bottom part, the 'horizontal' part seems a bit too thick, and the entire thing seems to fall backwards.

    In s, maybe raise the bottom right part of the curve a bit. 

    The terminal in r could be larger, I think.

    The z could be wider.

    I would open up the serifs in W and w, but maybe that's a personal thing.

    The bowl in 'a' could be smaller (as in, less tall).

    B could be narrower.

    Try making N pointy at the bottom-right, though this may cause problems as you get to thicker weights.

    K looks a bit drunk to me. Might be nice for whiskey packaging, but I would tone t down a bit, making it look more like the R.

    The bottom-right serif in F P f and r could be a bit wider for stability.

    The bowl in 6 and 9 could be smaller. The 8 seems too wide to me, and the 7 too curvy.

    Good luck, you're off to a great start!
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    Nick KruegerNick Krueger Posts: 4
    Thank you, Jasper. All good stuff. Question regarding /N... I originally had a much pointier bottom right vertex, however it opened up the lower counter too much (imo). If I adjust the upper left join to compensate (move it down a bit), I feel like the upper left bracket needs to get bigger (more slopped). I don't see many examples where the upper left join appears significantly lower than the upper left bracket. Am I overthinking that? Is there a – forgive me – "rule of thumb" regarding the upper part of /N? 
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    Jasper de WaardJasper de Waard Posts: 617
    I see your point. It's an often-occuring problem in the N. I think to a certain extend you'll have to except that the bottom counter is slightly bigger. You could also try a slightly different structure where the diagonal continues past the vertical, and the top-left serif is fairly small. Similarly to the N in Lexicon. Hope that makes sense. http://www.teff.nl/fonts/lexicon/
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