Have at it: Blowfish
A few years ago, I created this "art deco" font, Blowfish. I'm at the office right now, and just decided that I want to turn this thing into a full-character set font... But before I do, I'd like opinions on the basic letterforms (it's mixed-case and will stay that way, at least that's how I'm envisioning it). Here's the .gif sample. I'm just looking for preliminary opinions, thoughts, critiques before I delve into the rest of the character set.




4.Sep.2003 6.17am
Grr. Let's try that again:
/image{again}
4.Sep.2003 6.34am
Last try. If this doesn't work, I kill myself:
8.Sep.2003 9.58am
Christ, what's a guy gotta do to get some feedback? :-)
8.Sep.2003 11.37am
Dan, I was going to make a lewd joke based on the name of your font, but... ;-)
Anyway, it's not my cup of Lapsang Souchong, but I think it can be useful.
hhp
8.Sep.2003 11.49am
{hiccup}
8.Sep.2003 11.46am
{hiccup}
8.Sep.2003 11.49am
{hiccup}
8.Sep.2003 5.43pm
/me tries to scare the crap out of Hrant to stop the hiccups.
9.Sep.2003 9.38am
Dan, can you set some words in this...
I'd look at the Q (the tail encroaching into the counter)
the J, 2 and 3, I'd also look at.
The g could be more daring.
It is kinda playful and Balvanz-esque.
Dan, when you finish this, you could send it to
members of your defunct font-of-the-month club (like me)
who are patiently waiting for the remaining months...
almost two years later.
bj
Hrant, to eliminate hiccups, try any of these remedies:
1. drink water
2. put sugar on the tongue
3. use Helvetica for text
16.Sep.2003 8.35pm
Hi Dan,
I feel compelled to give you feedback since we share the same last name.
I think the J as it stands is interesting, but I would personally use a cross bar. The dot is a nice little quirk, but i'm not sure if it fits. Or maybe disconnect it?
Other than that, I would consider narrowing the counter space in the 6 just a little, and possibly open up the lower counter of the 3.
But that's just my two cents. Hope it helps.
r.
23.Sep.2003 6.33pm
Not that I have clue of what I'm talking about. But I love this font. It would be a great web font. I really like the shape of the 6 and agree with Ryan, however to me the 9 looks flat incomparison. All your straight line desenders go below the baseline, you might want consider extending the 9 or curving the tail like the six. The 8 also seems a little out of place visually to me. What about using the oval shape at the bottom and the circular shape at the top? I agree about the j. But I really love this cleanness and the funkiness of this font. I really like the simulated 3d effect it has. It appears to be jumping of the page. Let me know when it's for sale!
29.Dec.2003 3.43am
I'd make the i just the vertical. And maybe open up the 2 a little.
21.Apr.2006 10.14pm
It's only like 2.5 years later, and I'm just now getting around to posting this. Sorry. Went through a nasty divorce, and some career changes. Back on the font design track, however.
PDF Format here.
21.Apr.2006 10.24pm
Very nice. Jftr, there is contingent of designers with a big bias against drop-shadows in the group, I've found. they may have found it disconcerting. If there is no drop-shadow and my eyes are just going buggy, please forgive me. I am heading to bed soon.
: )
22.Apr.2006 2.38am
Hey, thanks for remembering! :-)
The main thing I'd say is that the unicase-ness
is doing more harm than good (except for the "q").
hhp
22.Apr.2006 5.57am
So, Hrant, do you think it'd be harmful having some characters in the uppercase and lowercase identical to one another? ie.: using the same "q" for uc and lc...?
22.Apr.2006 5.58am
Thanks, re: the drop shadow. That was the two-years-ago me that did that...I was too lazy to put together a clean doc and just re-used my website's display graphic. You won't see that again.
22.Apr.2006 6.21am
If the font will have two cases, you definitely need to
have different forms for each. But they could still
be structurally similar. If you don't have size available
to mark the difference (like in Adobe Reliq) you should
probably play with the tail, like the lc one could go
straight down, the UC one could go into the bowl, etc.
hhp
22.Apr.2006 9.40am
No serifs on the i, imo. maybe to match the j. Maybe just a dot or nothing would work. In any case the Blowfish sample cries out for an fi ligature.
23.Apr.2006 6.32am
Alright, third iteration is up on the web for your perusal. I semi-followed Hrant's edict on avoiding the unicase setup. I did carry some glyphs from the original unicase into both uppercase and lowercase forms.
Comments? Thoughts?
http://www.fontosaurus.com/dev/blowfish_i3.pdf
23.Apr.2006 7.48am
Just the lc for now:
- "e"/"h": unify the bar height.
- "f" try making the bar lower (to the "e"/"h").
- In the "g", try giving some of the size of the head to the bottom (just a bit).
- "k" not working.
- If this font is proportional-width, make the "m" wider.
- "r" out of character; and clotting at the join.
- "v" needs modulation.
- "w" - as the "m" above.
- "x" needs modulation.
hhp
8.Sep.2003 11.05am
Dan. The rounded ends do not remind me of Art Deco. The lowercase j seems out of place. Perhaps instead of Art Deco, you could try making into a unicase font of somekind? I like the g, there is something very friendly about that character.
No one is ignoring you. At least not on purpose. ;^)
9.Sep.2003 8.38am
This is too funny to delete. Thank you, Chris, for getting rid of Hrant's hiccups.
:D
21.Feb.2007 7.39pm
Hi Dan. I have been using this font, Blowfish, for the last couple of years for my logo. It is used on my website (www.aerobicdesign.com), business cards, invoices, etc. A recent computer crash had the undesired result of my losing many of my fonts, including this one. Is there any chance of getting it from you? I am trying to avoid having to do a redesign and reprint, especially since I really like this font.
Thanks
Zachariah Crow