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Here is another sketch I did last night/this morning. I am still trying to make a solid reading text face. I am getting closer, I think, on this one than on my other attempts. I need to find a way to make this one stand out a little more from the rest of the transitional faces. The second 'k' is starting to get there, I think. I would welcome any suggestions.
cr
no_26_viewer.swf (9 k) |
16 Aug 2002 — 5:19am
Missed this one back in July when you posted Christian. I am surprised no one has commented yet. I love it. your a's are signature, no mistaken who designed it. please BJ, Hrant, Stephen and Joe... jump in and lets discuss this excellent font.
16 Aug 2002 — 9:44am
It won't display on my machine.
hhp
16 Aug 2002 — 10:52am
I can't get it to display either. I just get a blank browser page.
David
16 Aug 2002 — 10:55am
Works here. Maybe you need Flash 6?
I'll have more time to comment later.
16 Aug 2002 — 11:11am
> Maybe you need Flash 6?
Maybe it needs to be exported in Flash4.
hhp
16 Aug 2002 — 12:34pm
i can see it, but it cuts off like this.

16 Aug 2002 — 12:45pm
I like the a. What I'm more intrigued with is the process, using beziers as the starting point and pulling them out into their forms.
I think this was discussed in another thread.
What might be a fun discussion is the methodology / process of creating a text face.
Maybe Hrant, Kent, Jacques, David, Christian, John Butler and others who have put together successful text faces can give us some insight as to where they start (fontographer, illustrator) and how they work. Is it all pen tool operations, or are there other methods, like Christian's.?
bj
16 Aug 2002 — 1:24pm
That "g"!!
Christian, full showing, *please*!
hhp
16 Aug 2002 — 4:34pm
I guess it is flash 6. My Macromedia stock is worth one tenth what it used to be. Help me get my money back:
Download the flash player here (it's fast, easy, and free, and for crying out loud, help my clients who are terrified to use flash)
Otherwise,
no_26_viewer.swf (12 k)
Sorry, Hrant, no flash 4. The code doesn't work.!-/attachment-!>!-attachment:>
16 Aug 2002 — 4:54pm
Christian - Still cut off. Is it supposed to end at 'i'?
16 Aug 2002 — 6:28pm
This design presents a dilemma.
To me the centerpiece is the "g" (although it could just be me) - it can be argued that the join between the bowls (in the traditional bicam structure) is superfluous, and you've gotten rid of it very nicely: on its own your glyph looks like a legitimate alphabetic character.
The question is, how much of that approach do you apply to the other letters? The "a" works well, and the "p" has merit, but if you take it too far the font might become a parody. In fact it's not inconceivable to me to make *only* the "g" unorthodox, and build the rest as a traditional text face. The interesting result might be a font that some people will discredit as half-baked, some people will love without knowing -or caring- why, and *everybody* will have something to saw about that "g" - in part a promotional trick that Carter often mentions as Spiekermann having revealed to him (concerning Meta, although it could very well have been post-rationalization).
If you do that, you must not provide a traditional "g" as an alternate.
hhp
16 Aug 2002 — 8:44pm
There has been some discussion in these forums about faces that have only one or two odd-ball characters. It seems that some don't like them, but I really do. It seems like a good way to push the boundries of what's acceptable. They also makes for really interesting text faces, I think. I don't think that the 'speed bump' created by some wacky characters really causes a problem, if they are done right. For some reason g's and Q's give a lot of room for expression, but I also really like the 'a' and the 'k' for their expressive potential.
I am undecided about the a and the p, to be completely honest. They almost seem contrived, like they are an excuse to keep the g that I like so much. I don't think that I would provide an alternate g, though I did right here...
Note to BJ- I think you still have a flash 4 player. You can upgrade quickly and easily with the link in my last post.
16 Aug 2002 — 8:50pm
> I think. I don't think that the 'speed bump' created by some wacky characters really causes a problem, if they are done right.
Exactly. They become not speed bumps, but "feedback" from the road to the driver.
Could you set some text in this?
> a and the p, to be completely honest. They almost seem contrived, like they are an excuse to keep the g that I like so much.
Yeah, that's just what I was worried about.
hhp