tirana classic ?
tirana corporate ?
tirana frigid ?
+

Neo- is always a nice prefix. The new font is definitely a vast improvement BTW (keeping in mind that the original was already quite nice).

I think it has nothing to do with the old Tirana anymore. But if you still like to call it Tirana, call it Tirana Text and the old Tirana Display. I think that will work.

Pieter

Hi Rui,

Why don’t you release an OpenType version of Tirana, calling it TiranaPro, with smallcaps, ligatures, swashes, and then you can add the new glyphs you designed into that font and allow people to use them as alternates.

I don’t mind to give you some guidelines in order to achieve that.

Abraço,
Dino dos Santos
DSType

Tirana CS

Dino

That is a good idea and I am working on smallcaps and ligatures (not swashes, I don’t think it would fit) as I am expanding the font. The thing is: I’m trying to achieve a new level of coherence in Tirana more suitable for corporate use, so I’m redrawind every glyph so that every form gets smoother and the amount of ideas combined in the same typeface gets smaller.

obrigado

Tirana Redux

If you think it’s a different font now, only keep the old name if it has value with users. In fact, if that’s the case you might do that even if the new font is totally different! :-) Renner released fonts called Futura which looked nothing remotely like Futura.

hhp

How bout Tirana REX.

On a sidenote: I don’t particularly like the changes to the G, K, and R I like your off center K, it has more character, same with the original G that has that nice little spur, and that R, it’s not perfect but you tweaked the life out of it. Your new letterforms are getting too clean, they’re starting to look like all the other common corporate sans you find these days.

> they’re starting to look like all the other common corporate sans you find these days

Is that necessarely a bad thing? You gotta keep with the times if you want to make it in this -or any other- business ;-)
Innovation is comletely overrated!

Innovation is completely overrated!

Where I agree, I don’t necessary see the point in completely redesigning every letterform. Why would I pick Tirana if I can pick from a number of other sans that all have the same characteristics?

You need something to diversify your font from the herd. It doesn’t have to be innovative, but it does have to be distinctive.

> You need something to diversify your font from the herd. It doesn’t have to be innovative, but it does have to be distinctive.

I completely agree, but distinction can be found in details as well. All I’m saying is that I like the font the way it is now regardless of whether or not it resembles other existing fonts. I think by designing something yourself, you’ll obviously be inspired by a certain amount of things, but you’ll always end up with something unique (unless ofcourse you’re literally copying a design). Important to keep in mind when judging Tirana is that it’s a “remake” of Rui Abreu’s first font which also already featured many of the characteristics that resemble the new herd.

I have to agree with Andrew. There’s a difference between polishing
a font and neutering it. And I personally prefer intact genitalia.

hhp

It’s about Rui Abreu’s Tirana, Hrant, not his testacles ;-p

Well, my main motivation was to narrow the amount of ideas on this font making it more corporate and clean, trying to achieve more coherence and universality.
My Idea is to polish it and clean it to make it a corporate font, even if it starts looking like other corporate fonts, I guess that is a necessary consequence.
I agree with Tom, “distinction can be found in details as well”.
I think “genitalia” will get more shinny and polished and, hopefully the same size 

T Rex is really great :)

> My Idea is to polish it and clean it to make it a corporate font

If you have a corporation lined up to pick it up, sure. But there’s a limit to how bland you can make it before an “out-of-the-blue” corporation becomes much more likely to simply go with another similar design, with even more polish! What I mean is, unless you put an inordinate amount of polish on this (I’m talking about multiple weights, widths, all kinds of extras), a “special look” is what will sell it best to a corporation.

hhp

do yoy think Tirana is loosing character On the G, K, R and B?
The corner of The olD G will be on the lower cases like a,b,d,p or q.

I’m just concerned you might be heavy handed with the polish. Some of the uniqueness of the original is being buffed out completely in the newer version and it would be nice to reconsider going back and lightening up on how smooth or polished you’d want some of those characters to be. The originals weren’t overly quirky. I’m worried you might be creating some dead fish.

I will say that the majority of your newer characters are well done and definitely rise above the older ones.

Try revisiting your G,K,R, and B and see if you can hint back to their original styles while maintaining the clean look the other characters have now.

From the new font I’d keep: A, D, J, M, Q, S, maybe W, X and Z. And the trapping.
From the old font I’d remove the spur of the “G”. But that’s just me.

hhp

It’s an interesting question. For me the thing that stands out about the font is the way you handle curves - the C obviously but also the 3 & so on. They have a nice tension & invention about them. To make a the redesign worthwhile I would try to find a way to make the other glyphs with straight lines inherit some subtle shift and maybe tension as well. To me the glyphs don’t quite all relate as a group yet - in either set. I think they need to. You could loose the weirdness even more but I think that would be a shame. The shift I mean doesn’t have to be huge. Just there - & helping the letters to belong to each other. If you are not sure how to do that yet; I would wait until you are & then finnish a version 2.0 You are clearly developing the sensitivity you need to do it. I think you can.

As always, Eben sweeps in to recollect, organize, and distribute appropriately the collective thoughts of everyone.

This is a thought, but what if you add a taper to your strokes? It might help add some of that tension Eben was suggesting, while breaking up the monotony of those ridge straight lines.

i quite like your new version, but what i miss from it is the taut curves on the upper bowl of the B and R, you might look at the B in Zion Train and use a similar form and see if you can use this same treatment on the uppercase R. The only other character that might feel out of place for me is the K, i just can’t figure out why, but for some reason, i don’t think it’s quite working.

Andrew, what do you mean by taper?
sorry i don’t know what the word means.

This is an exaggeration. The top of this box starts off wide and tapers into a smaller point.

Does that make sense? Of course applying it to a letterform stroke would be more gradual and less obvious.

Yes, I guess it makes sense. I hadn’t thought about working on the tension of the curves. I’ll try to capture the tension on the C. That combined with this slight variation on the stokes should work. I have to work on it, I’ll show the developments soon. You’ve all been a great help, thanks.

hello again, I started to work on the curves of the B again and tried to bring some of the tension present on the C. This is what I am getting, combining the tentions wirh a small variation of thickness. What do you think? do you think it’s to excentric for a corporate typeface?

It depends on the corporation. If you are trying to make the next uber-ubiquitous sans you are already off to the wrong start. If you want to make a sans that a telecom might license you are doing fine! It would be cool if you had the bottom Jut out a bit more maybe. I thought of a treatment for the A. Do you want to hear it?

yes, of course

You could try what many foundries seem to be doing
Put it out as Open Type and rename it Tirana Next

Just a suggestion...

yep, that could work

Hopefully the squiggliness of the red lines is enough to make the suggestion clear without it being too specific or prescriptive. I did start to muck with the A as well. If you like any of the the ideas feel free to use them.

Yes, I see what you mean. this is exciting. I think your suggestions bring a really nice tension on the straight lines. Maybe they are a bit extreme to me, for now at least, but are making me want to work more on this tense curves and opposite/complementary tension of the stokes. I will continue on the rest of the font, with this new ideas in mind, so that I can get back to the uppercases with more congruence.

I do like the newer version of this face very much. Although it appears more ’corporate’, I think it retains a very subtle impression that retains the character you were acheiving in the first version.

My notes would be to keep what you have here, but perhaps reconsider the following glyphs:

G, R, 1, 2, 4

G: I think if you include the spur from the original (but not the arm), it’d add what’s possible missing to the G.

R: I feel this character falls out of balance with P. Perhaps consider using P as the basic form the new R? It appears to slightly fall out of balance with the rest of the face.

1: I prefer the angle of the original - as it now matched the 6’s new angle.

2: I like the suggestion above - perhaps de-emphasis the bottom.

4: As noted above, perhaps emphasise this character as it would ’match in’ better with the rest of the numeral set.

And sorry all the mistypes - but I’ve been up for around two days straight again on my own project. I won’t even bother trying to spell-check at this stage.

I like this new version of your typeface though! Very nice. Very subtle. Subtle is a beautiful thing.

And PS: I can say that I like this better then DIN. The subtle charm simply pops out at me, while retaining a very sophistocated approach.

Or at least, I see it being like a little cousin to DIN, that’s all grown up and blossomed.

(Okay, when I start getting into odd analogies and talking about blossoming, then I know I need sleep.)

I am happy you found the squiggles useful. :-)

I look forward to seeing what you develop!

“Or at least, I see it being like a little cousin to DIN, that’s all grown up”

Yes, is sometimes feel that Din is operating at the back fo my mind, not because I like it though.