Home » Forums » Critique » Blackletter / Uncial

kind of blackletter

cuttin shapes
26.Jul.2007 4.12am
cuttin shapes's picture

It’s kind of a black letter but joined together. I got the inspiration from seeing some badly set text.

It’s at a really early stage. I’m just a little unsure about the whole thing. Sometimes I like it; sometimes I think it just isn’t going to work.

The fully finished version is going to use a lot of contextual alternates to get around some of the problems. It’s just the general construction of it I need help on and some good advice from people more experienced than me.

AttachmentSize
jb_spec.pdf60.27 KB
‹ Fraktur Compliment to Coruña Benedicta, the sans with a blackletter appeal ›


Ehague
26.Jul.2007 6.15am
Ehague's picture

Keep in mind the stroke axis for the x. It’s super dark.


patricking
26.Jul.2007 9.35am
patricking's picture

overall, it’s super klutzy in a way that’s really interesting.

it kind of reminds me of the fake blackletter the nazi party commissioned for WW2 communications in germany. you might research that period if you’re looking for more shapes. there’s a lot of examples in a biography of renner written by christopher burke and published by princeton architectural press.


glyphobet
28.Jul.2007 4.53pm
glyphobet's picture

I like this a lot. I imagine this font on a vintage tourist brochure from the early 1960s for a Bavarian castle.

I think it would look a lot better if you made the letters more consistent:

  • the i is too short — the dot should be above the x-height, like in the j
  • the spacing between dot and main letter stroke should be the same in the i and j.
  • The descenders of the y and the g look like streched versions of each other; they should either be identical or be very different.
  • The widths of the bowls of the m are different, they should be the same.
  • Either the w is too narrow or the m is too wide — they should have similar widths.
  • The heights of the verticals in the w should be consistent; or at least the first and the last should.
  • The x seems to stand out a bit; I would maybe pull ideas from the k for the x.
  • The z is too tall.