mdta smile typeface
Its been a good few years since I posted here. I was dabbling my toes into the typeface pool by editing the Myriad letterforms for a personal logo and typeface.
Well I have recently decided to make a new logo with a custom drawn typeface, this time without using an existing font as a basis.
I originally just designed the letters m d t a, and then went on to make the other letters for the words design and media and thats where it stood, until I decided to do the remaining letters for fun, and then numerals and basic punctuation followed.
Now half a year later, I have started redrawing the letters and making a more complete version. I have done the most work with the bold letterforms as that is what the logo is made from. I have done lowercase, uppercase, smallcaps, 2 forms of numerals, and some simple punctuation.
I have also started work on a regular version of the typeface, and I have only done the lowercase, and some uppercase with that one.
So far these are just lettershapes in Corel Draw, I would like to form it into a font with fontlab at some point, but I am not comfortable with fontlab’s drawing tools, as I usually use corel draw, and feel that the vector shapes seem more solid and maliable, but I guess I will have to change if I want a working font from it.
Anyway, I am talking too much, so take a look at the PDFs and please offer me some comments and criticism on how to improve it, while I am at this early stage, oh also, I have some alternative characters made which I would like to include in the font also, and a whole selection of Q designs. Most of the lettershapes are based around the o design, which is a slightly squared off geometric circle.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| smile-old.pdf | 130.74 KB |
| new-smile-wip.pdf | 182.25 KB |
| FL Sample-mdta smile logo.pdf | 36.1 KB |
| sample.pdf | 23.18 KB |
9.Jan.2008 1.15pm
I like it. Reminds me of Peter Bruhn’s Mustardo. I think you could do without the counter dots. Not really a point to them other than having been in the original logotype. Also I think the B is a little disproportioned. I’d make it slightly more even.
9.Jan.2008 3.20pm
How do you mean, disproportioned, is it in the width of the two bowels?
mdta - Martin Anderson
9.Jan.2008 3.36pm
Yes, the upper bowl feels just a bit too small to me.
11.Jan.2008 6.07pm
I’m thinking the overhang on all three “s” characters is a bit much... they feel off-balance, and not in the quirky intentional way that some of the other characters do. I second what Ken says about the dots, I don’t think you’re gaining much and when you use this as a typeface they will become a distraction. Plus, they’re a great way to set the logo and text apart.
It’s nice though, I like it a lot. The small caps in particular work for me.
12.Jan.2008 4.20am
So the straight edges on the S’s should be brought inwards? Those were the toughest for me to draw :)
I have started drawing the letters in fontlab directly, instead of moving the ones from Corel, so once I have all the lowercase done, I will do a pdf. I have never done a sample sheet before, so I may find an example of one and use that, would there be a problem with me doing that, I wouldn’t want to offend anyone...
mdta - Martin Anderson
17.Jan.2008 7.58am
I have edited the first post to include a sample of the font printed from Fontlab
At the moment it is only the lowercase, with ligatures, stylistic alternatives, and stylistic alternative ligatures :)
Also I have not yet started work on metrics, so they use a default setting of 0 left sidebearing, 50 right sidebearing
mdta - Martin Anderson
17.Jan.2008 2.36pm
I like this! I find the H too narrow, and C, S and s slightly too wide.
I prefer the curvy y.
Can we see some text in paragraphs?
:)
28.Jan.2008 4.44am
I have added a sample with sentences, I hope its ok for everyone. Spacing is not finalised, and not all uppercase is complete
mdta - Martin Anderson