Altamira

Drawcard
Drawcard Posts: 67
edited January 22 in Type Design Critiques
Hello, I'm looking for your thoughts and feedback on my recently completed typeface, named Altamira. The inspiration came from some lowercase /t/ designs I'd been sketching, and from there the /f/, /a/ and /r/ came and, well the rest is history. It's not yet released but it is very soon to be!

It's taken the better part of a full year to go from that first sketch to this finished product, but I have plenty more planned for it, once it's out in the wild.

Here is the full specimen & glyphs set for you to look at more closely (it's a work in progress doc so please ignore the weird page sizes!)

Tools I used to create this:
- Pen & paper
- Glyphs 3
- Mark Fromberg's Show Stems Pro & Variable Fonts Preview Pro (awesome tools)
- JAF's Remix Plugin (thank you for Harmonizer!)
- JAF's Kern On Plugin (what a miracle plugin)
- A whole other bunch of free Glyphs plugins and scripts, too many to mention, but thank you Glyphs community.

Other resources I turned to:
- Designing Type by Karen Cheng
- This forum! Thank you all

Here's a quick preview of what the font looks like in action.






Comments

  • John Butler
    John Butler Posts: 300
    I agree, the rest of it looks like something between Imago and Rotis, and the space of conventional sans designs is beyond oversaturated.
  • Drawcard
    Drawcard Posts: 67
    edited January 22
    Thank you both for the feedback, it’s very interesting that you both picked up on something that I’d been wrestling with for a long while - as to how much should I incorporate that twist shape into other letters.

    My main reasoning for the current design was that if I introduced this quirk into more letters, it would be too disruptive to the flow and rhythm of reading when used by designers. But I still wanted to offer some point of difference / originality to the typeface as well, in the vein of the neo-brutalist fonts that have become popular in recent years. The new font for Channel 4 in the UK is an example of what I mean: https://www.nan.xyz/custom/channel-4/

    So I opted for drawing a more calmer typeface around those initial concept letters I had, and still retain those twists as little points of distinction - which might draw you in to look at it more, if it was used in a display setting.

    I also ended up drawing some simpler alternatives, to cater for the designers who may want to use the font without the quirks altogether - and I spent a long time debating over making this simpler set the default, offering the twist shapes as alternatives. This is what I have noticed in designs like Britti Sans for example: https://www.myfonts.com/collections/britti-sans-font-nois

    But I see where you are coming from, and I probably need to decide if I should lean more into those quirks, or hide them by way of offering them only as stylistic sets & market it as a more traditional sans serif.

    I suppose I could even go down the path of Montserrat - offer a full traditional sans serif family, and pair it with an “alternative” family for those looking for a bit more of that twist flavour.

    Thanks again for your input!
  • Simon Cozens
    Simon Cozens Posts: 754
    I don't think it's just the twist shape of the /t/f that you should be basing things on.

    Look at the word "altamira". The shapes of the /a and /r are really pretty - and then you hit the /m, and I don't feel it really fits. I think if you start working on /m and work out what it would need to look like to fit in with what you have already, and then build out /h/n from there, you'll get a really interesting typeface. And once /m/h/n are harmonised, you'll start to wonder what /o/c/e should look like in that vein.

    If it was me, I'd keep /a/f/i/j/k/l/r/t/v/x/z - everything else is Boringtown. 
  • Drawcard
    Drawcard Posts: 67
    edited January 24
    @Simon Cozens some really great advice there. Coincidentally I’ve started some work on /n and /m and there are a few new avenues which look promising.

    I suppose to me, the contrast of shapes is what I find appealing about this concept - the harsh right angle of the /a and /r juxtaposed with the softer shoulders of /n and /m. So I want to preserve a bit of that tension to a degree. 

    I feel like an offering of a straight laced character set, paired with a stylistic set of unique forms, might be the way to go. Something akin to this: https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/zeenesia-studio/shinier and let the designer decide how much quirk they want in their text.
  • Matthew Smith
    Matthew Smith Posts: 93
    edited January 24
    Definitely see a lot of potential here!

    I think you can get away n/m/h if you find ways to pull back on some characters, while pushing others a touch further.

    Here is a quick sketch with a few ideas for you


    • Introduce more flat bottomed characters like the b/c/e? (The b here is a little reminiscent of the b construction in Perpetua as well which has always fascinated me)
    • Maybe preserve a little bit of a curve on the inside corners of characters like the a/r/f to better marry with the other joints/shoulders?
    • The double twists in the t seem a little much for my tastes 😅 Have you considered just preserving the top one? For me, the double twist creates some strange color and almost gives a backwards leaning feel.
    • Curious as to why you landed on slightly angled terminals as opposed to completely flat? Given the sharp & linear qualities of characters like the a and r, I think flat terminals would pair quite nicely.
    In contrast to some of the other comments, I think if you make everything “interesting” I think it’ll in fact have the opposite effect.

    I think you are onto the right thing, but it’s a matter of getting all of the characters in dialog with one another—not necessarily saying the same thing.
  • Drawcard
    Drawcard Posts: 67
    edited January 26
    Thanks @Matthew Smith! That's really helpful.

    Interestingly, I happened to draw the /b you suggested, after going back to look at humanist fonts like Effra, which have a /b shape that's independent of /d /p. I think it works well and keeps the slightly horizontal flattened flow that's visible in text. I've also re-drawn the /e to mirror the teardrop shape of the /a, and it seems to be a nice improvement. Also, being the most common letter in the English language, altering the /e seems to have added a general improvement across all my text samples, without going too far overboard. 




    I think I might give your suggestions for /c and /e a shot too (flattening the lower curves out). 
    The right angle on /a is fairly aggressive, but to me that's part of the neo-brutalist charm. In saying that I might explore toning it down just a bit. 
    I even had a wacky idea of making the twists in /t variable, in that the designer could adjust either the top or bottom twist, and even make the stem flat (ie. twist-less). It would be something fun to explore.
    The angled terminals probably comes from my love of old grotesque types that have them (especially Grotesque No. 9), and were a bit of a happy accident. Flattening these out for more continuity, makes sense though.
    I'm thinking I also need to focus on the uppercase letters more (possibly digits too), to bring in some of the quirks of other letters. I'll report back with more experimentation with these.



  • Drawcard
    Drawcard Posts: 67
    edited January 26
    Also, here's how the 'plain' version is going, in comparison to the 'quirky' version. I feel like this is more of headline display font vs. a one for paragraph text, but this is just a quick test.

    Plain (default characters for now)



    Quirky (stylistic set)


  • Drawcard
    Drawcard Posts: 67
    A lot more progress made today (a public holiday in Australia helped a lot with getting things done)
    I've been adding a few twist elements to caps, for the stylistic set. There's definitely more distinction between the plain and quirky variants emerging. 
    I feel like the bold /e still needs a bit of work.


    Default Set





    Stylistic Set






    Stylistic Set Characters





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