TASK - Using the principles processes and resources introduced in the first three studio sessions, develop a series of practical investigations into the development of new letterforms and fonts.
Within the session we were asked to bring last weeks task in (the six origins of type) and was set another task of choosing one and manipulating this in some way to create a new typeface. I chose my stone option of 'Times New Roman':
For this, I started squaring off the serifs and then took this idea onto the bowls. I also measured and added extra weight to the stems that where thinner to match up within a letter to again add to the bolder and squarer idea. I went wrong on the 'C' as it is not consistent with the 'B' in terms of where I squared off the bowl and also created the serif far too big. I will re-due this letter and make sure my theme is consistent:
The next task within the session was taking my letters and working out the x-height, baseline, cap height and descender height:
TASK (for next session) - To make the lowercase letters, of my chosen typeface, the same as what I had created in the session:
I developed this idea first to see how I could adapt the idea of block serifs and been bolder to the lowercase letters. I had difficulty as there were less serifs on the lowercase and so had to think of another way to represent this. I decided to square off the stems and terminals to try and re-create this:
It was a lot easier to do the 'x, y and z' as they were very similar to the upper case letters:
The next task I was set was taking one of these developed letters of my newly founded typeface and developing them into the font family of Regular, Light, Italic and Bold. I had already decided my initial typeface was regular and so went on to developing the other three:
Define Italic - "In typography, italic type is a cursive typeface based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting."
From manipulating my type into regular, light, italic and bold, I further developed these onto a spacial framework. I adjusted the size of each to make them more consistent with one another so it would work as a typeface.
I also developed the lowercase in the four categories. I struggled a lot more with this as I could not get the proportions of line weights and could not create the curve of the bowl as well as I would have liked. These definitely need more development. I think however, the bold works really well and is probably the most successful out of the four:
How Bold can Bold be?
I started developing more manipulations on my typeface. I experimented with the letter getting bolder however, I think I could have pushed this a lot more and will try this with more letters. Again I found it more difficult with the lowercase letter as they were harder to develop:
How Light can Light be?
I developed the light and started thinking about if some of the letter could be missing to show light? I didn't know whether this would be the right route to go down but I still experimented with this. I also tried representing the letter with just the counters and negative space, to see how much that would represent something or not:
How Sheer can Sheer be?
When experimenting with italics, I particularly found it difficult with the lowercase letters as I found it harder to work out the angle of the letter, these definitely need more development:
As I was not happy with my initial regular C, I have gone back and re-visited this letterform to see whether I can make it link more in conjunction with the other letters. I have straightened out the top of the bowl to match the counters in the other letters such as the 'B' and 'A' which I feel will work more successfully than my previous letter 'C'. I will now take this forward to develop this letterform into light, bold and italic:
How Bold can Bold be?
With the rest of the letters I have experimented with how Bold can be, I started like the previous 'bold' experiments, and followed certain instructions in terms of how wide I could take the letters to make them consistent with each other. I expanded the stems and bowls 1cm at a time to get the gradual change. I then have pushed this by taking the serifs of the 'B' and then completely squaring the letterform off to see if would be resemble the glyph, which I feel it does not. I think in terms of the most successful one to take forward to develop would be the doubled letterform as it creates a more natural form of 'bold':
Again I have followed the instructions I have set myself in terms of how 'formulating the rules' within my typeface. Here I have again used a x2, x3 etc method to create my bold. I again experimented by pushing the letter further by squaring off the letterform with a thin strip for a counter, to still try and represent this as a 'C'. I have also introduced my lowercase to these rules to see if when I take my letterforms digitally, it will work both upper and lowercase work consistently. I feel I could have pushed the lowercase 'c' in terms of experimentation but I can also push this again when I scan and develop digitally:
Again pushing the letterform, the end result of the uppercase 'X' is not visually effective as to me it's appearance looks like some sort of symbol and not a letterform which defeats the purpose of the letter:
I think my 'Y' experiments are the most successfully in terms of pushing the letter. I feel it was interesting to experiment with as I removed the serifs straight away and then started developing the 'Y' into a block format. I did this with both upper and lowercase letters. When I pushed these into this squared format, although they do look bold, would not be a successful typeface as they would not link in with the other letterforms. It would be difficult to achieve the same appearance for all the letters, which would make them inconsistent as a typeface:
Formulate the Rules - Rules for my Typeface (Bold)
For my 'bold' letters I have come up with a system from my previous experiments with the 'A'. I have pushed the letter by increasing the width of things like the stems in half and full centimetres. This is to keep consistency through the letters for when I take them digitally.
How Light can Light be?
I have used the same rules as my previous 'light' experiment with the 'A'. To start with and opposed to the block letter and how I added centimetres, with my light letterforms I have took half a centimetre away and developed them this way. With each letter, I experimented with only having certain parts of the letter to see if it still would represent that certain glyph. I think it could work for letters like the 'B' but could become restricted with the lowercase letters. I also do not like the overall look with missing parts of the letter as in my opinion, it makes the letterform look incomplete and too light.
Formulate the Rules - Rules for my Typeface (Light)
With the light letterforms I will experiment with all the letters with the rule of taking a specific measurement away. I think the most successful is taking half or full centimetre away from each glyph to get the representation of 'light'.
How Sheer can Sheer be?
With my sheer experiments I have found it extremely difficult to get the proportions of each letter correct. These definitely need more development but perhaps I may have to continue the experiments digitally as hand-rendered is not working successfully. I may scan the letterforms I have now and develop them that way. With my hand rendered experiments I tried to follow the rules of how sheer italic/obliques can be, by working out the degrees of the angles, however this still has not come out visually effective. I have tried to experiment with making the letterforms as sheer as possible but no matter how far the letterforms is pushed, the final result is unsuccessful.
I have moved on to digitising my font family. I have firstly started with my regular lowercase letter which have come out okay but need further rendering. The counters I feel have too sharper edges, this was my initial change when staring the font family, squaring the lines, bowls, counters etc but feel it does work effectively when it is this obvious. I will experiment with this further.
I created a few more of the other lowercase letters. Again due to how square the tops of the counter are in the 'a' and 'b', all the letters do not work in conjunction with one another, like previously stated these will need further development.
When I scanned my hand-rendered letters in, some letters like the 'Z' and 'Y' have not properly been proportioned correctly. I have extended the legs and stems and using a grid have made these correct so each letter is consistent.
I have used the same system to create my bold. However this needs further work. The 'C' is not the same as the regular, this will need changing. The 'A's and 'B's, need further rendering and development as they still look hand drawn and untidy. The bowls and counter are not correct, I will round these slightly to make them more consistent with the regular font.
I have started my development for rounding the counters. I feel these are an improvement but still not visually effective. I will use these bowls on the Bold 'B' to keep consistency through the fonts.
I have moved onto creating the light for my typeface. I improved the counter from the regular font so it wasn't as square and used this similar shape for the light. I feel it does not work as well with the light as as the bowl is much thinner compared to the regular. Because of this I think it has lost it's proportion but am unsure on how I could improve this as if I change it, the whole typeface will be inaccurate with the rules I have created:
The other problem I came across when creating the light was proportion on the 'X'. It did not seem to be equal as my initial change was to keep consistent line weight through all the letters where as the original Times New Roman did not. From this I had to use extra grids and guides to work out the fault to make the 'X' more balanced.
The main problem when creating my italic version is the curves on any of the letters. I have had difficulty using the pen tool to create the correct proportions for the letters which in turn has not made the typeface that successful. I have tried to improve them as best as I could but still think I need further practice with the pen tool. I have tried manipulating the letters to create more of a smoother curve which improves the overall look of the letter but it still has faults:
Finals on a Spacial Framework and Evaluation
Within this task I feel it has helped my awareness of the anatomy of type as I have had to think and create type that uses the elements of typography. This I feel has given me more of an understanding for terminology as well as knowledge and awareness of type. However, I feel the typeface I have created is visually unsuccessful. I think the process and the development has been crucial to my own personal development but the final outcome of the typeface am I not pleased with. I feel it looks very childlike and still hand drawn. I feel this is down to my use of the pen tool when I took this digitally. I do not regret using Times New Roman, however with hindsight I think I could have put more thought into the initial changes I made to it at the start. This could have helped me once I took the fonts digitally. I feel if I where to expand on this I would develop my use of the pen tool as I feel this would help the development of my type greatly. Even thought I am not happy with the font outcomes, I do think they resemble one another slightly, which I think makes them acceptable for a overall typeface.
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