Typophile - TYPE BATTLE: Week 11 (10 April) - Comments

Here is my entry for a quick

samadam — Thu, 11 May 2006 11:05:55 -0700

Here is my entry for a quick hand-drawn version.

My very first post, I trust

peter_vii — Thu, 11 May 2006 09:45:35 -0700

My very first post, I trust you’ll all be gentle with me.

Now, I know it is awefully

samadam — Wed, 10 May 2006 11:07:15 -0700

Now, I know it is awefully quiet here right now, but is there another battle coming up?

a bitmap “S” based on a

colombopablo — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:22:15 -0700

a bitmap “S” based on a cross-stich alphabet book :-). Showing at 200% as well....

Would I make the vertical

Mark Simonson — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:38:07 -0700

Would I make the vertical sections of the stroke wider? I was afraid that would give the appearance of stretching… suggestions?

No, you want to keep the relative thickness of the horizontal and vertical strokes consistent, though not necessarily mechanically consistent. Your eye is the final arbiter. Basically, it means that the wider you go, the bolder you go, to keep the same color impression. Again, it’s not a mechanical thing. You need to decide for yourself how much the stroke weight needs to change to achieve visual consistency. Take a look at type families with lots of widths and weights to see how others have done it.

Mark, would you suggest a book on letter construction and typeface design? Something practical, with examples?

These may be hard to find, but here are some I like:

Type Sign Symbol, by Adrian Frutiger
The Modification of Letterforms, by Stanley Hess
Lettering Design, by Michael Harvey

For the most part, these books are concerned with drawing letters by hand, but the main principles apply to digital type as well.

Would I make the vertical

lunyboy — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 13:42:14 -0700

Would I make the vertical sections of the stroke wider? I was afraid that would give the appearance of stretching... suggestions?
Mark, would you suggest a book on letter construction and typeface design? Something practical, with examples?

One thing to keep in mind

Mark Simonson — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:01:46 -0700

One thing to keep in mind when going from condensed to wide is maintaining the appearance of weight. Notice in some of these examples how much bolder the condensed appears compared to the extended. It’s not too noticeable in the lightest weights, but the bolder you go, the more obvious it becomes. Weight is not just the relative thickness of the strokes, you must take into account the relationship of the strokes to the internal space.

I only had three weights

lunyboy — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:55:32 -0700

I only had three weights drawn of this, and they weren’t from last week. Crit?

Super selection, some

timd — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:31:32 -0700

Super selection, some surprises, s…oh hell I can’t do this :) super wide is looking drunk too
Tim

…so, someone’s

dtw — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 07:27:50 -0700

...so, someone’s suggested sketching several supplemental serpentine symbols (signifying sibilant sounds), subsequently stipulating “shun squooshed/stretched styles”; seems somewhat strange. Still, suppose should supply something...
(—Superfluously sesquipedalian? Sorry!)

___________________________________
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster’s stopped working.

hammmmmm, ok this is my s

degregorio — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 13:36:26 -0700

hammmmmm, ok
this is my s ultralight

After a bit more tweaking, I

Lex Kominek — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:22:49 -0700

After a bit more tweaking, I came up with this:

I still don’t like the ultra condensed one, but i think this is a lot better than my last attempt.

- Lex

I actually tweaked each

Lex Kominek — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 21:08:44 -0700

I actually tweaked each letter separately (although not properly I would assume based on your comment).

You can see that the Ultra Condensed one is a lot more square than the others, and the thickness of the thin bit on the bottom right doesn’t vary that much (as best as I could make it)

- Lex

ouch. PLEASE, no horizontal

jazzsammich — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:01:20 -0700

ouch. PLEASE, no horizontal or vertical stretching!

I guess I’ll kick things

Lex Kominek — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:44:48 -0700

I guess I’ll kick things off here. Warning - the following letter ’s’ has been known to eat children in their sleep.

- Lex

TYPE BATTLE: Week 11 (10 April)

Christian Robertson — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 23:33:52 -0700

TYPE BATTLE: Week 11 (10 April)

Here’s your chance to stretch your type muscles on a weekly basis. Each game kicks off on Monday with a new challenge, and closes at midnight PST on Friday. Anyone may submit a design response to the challenge. You may enter as often as you wish. Post anytime. Critiques and comments are welcome throughout the game, from participants and spectators alike. Smack talk is encouraged.

Winner take all, no holds barred. May be the best designer win.

Link directly to this thread: http://www.typophile.com/battle11

Requirements:

- Size: 600 width x 400 height. 72 dpi
- Color: Black and white only
- Format: Please save your graphics as PNG
- Only respond with the characters posted in the challenge.

// THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: S Mahem II
Design four more s’s: Supercondensed, Condensed, Regular, Super Wide. For extra points: interpolate the characters with the four weights from last week.