I wonder if those (or other) caps could be set up for ALL CAP SETTINGS (which seems like a common form of emphasis in casual-face typography).
In the CASE feature? That's an idea. I'd want them to be accessible in the role of regular caps as well, though, so maybe an SSxx is still preferable. Though the CASE feature could just refer to the SSxx glyphs.
I put a set of narrow plain caps in the SMCP slot of my other font Brilliance. That allows them to be used with the decorative caps as smallcaps, or as replacement caps via C2SC. They look a bit small in that second role, though. In the case at hand, I guess they'd conversely be too large to be useful as smallcaps.
If you are aiming at the Fraktur, I would not expect those slashes. They are more an American blackletter thing.
The slashes are now a stylistic set. Anyway, I use the term fraktur loosely here (more or less as the informal German term for blackletter). I'd rather make something pretty than historical.
I wonder whether I could get away with a design for /Z that mirrors that of /z, even in these supposedly easily legible caps. Maybe I should, and then have yet another SSxx that replaces all of /X/x/Z/z with Antiqua architecture.
Looking good. Did you try a serifless /I/ for the simplest caps? For that simpler /Z/ you might forego the stroke in the middle. My hunch is that that stroke usually exists to fortify the thin diagonal in a modulated design—it feels more extraneous in this monolinish context. The blacklettery /Z/ is very threeish. I would try moving the reversal in the middle leftward (and maybe down) to see if that helps. But it’s definitely at a different level of strangeness than its peers.
I really like how this is shaping up! The numerals are def a bit round, but not too bothersome in my opinion. I'll be interested to see what other solution you're thinking of.
I wonder if the /U/ is a tad wide, or if the /A/ and /E/ are a slightly narrow? (Could also be a mixture.) What do you think?
I think I'm going to go out of character and do completely without standard ligatures. That lonesome /f_f/ is going into DLIG. The rest is just a bit of positive kerning. Gaps just work better than fused letters here.
Also, I'm slowly convincing myself to promote the single-storey /a/ to default, as Craig suggested all along.
I feel this is ready for publication. Any last remarks?
(BTW, note the /dd/ in «cuddly»... the juxtaposition of two blackletter /d/ has long been bugging me in this typeface. I've finally made a subtle alternate to use for the second /d/ to break the effect. )
The type is vivid, complex and dynamic, so it kind of begs for a calm background. With this heavily-textured wood background there's too much going on. I'd go with a solid color.
I rather find that the robust, simple strokes that make up the letters hold their own against the background. I do have a flat background for the later slides, where the details count. Having nothing but flat color sounds horribly boring for a decorative font.
Then again, I am aware that ad posters should please the target group rather than me...
If you're afraid of boring, then how about something like out-of-focus picture for background + different colors, more glowing and contrasting? Currently the background makes it hard to focus on the text/type.
Comments
Also, I know you were exploring a two-story /a before—have you considered an approach like this?
Did you try a serifless /I/ for the simplest caps?
For that simpler /Z/ you might forego the stroke in the middle. My hunch is that that stroke usually exists to fortify the thin diagonal in a modulated design—it feels more extraneous in this monolinish context.
The blacklettery /Z/ is very threeish. I would try moving the reversal in the middle leftward (and maybe down) to see if that helps. But it’s definitely at a different level of strangeness than its peers.
I wonder if the /U/ is a tad wide, or if the /A/ and /E/ are a slightly narrow? (Could also be a mixture.) What do you think?
If these are your specimen/promo images, then I will be honest in saying that they do an injustice to the typeface itself.
If you're interested in design help, please feel free to reach out to me.
Then again, I am aware that ad posters should please the target group rather than me...