New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
La MEME - Referrals needed for swash
Posted by evanbrog in
2 Mar 2011 — 8:04pm
2 Mar 2011 — 8:04pm
La MEME being French for "The Same," or "same," the M and E letterforms are supposed to have similarity with one another.
I realize it's somewhat Russian in style but that is intended and an acceptable association.
However, I think I'm looking for a swash "La," but haven't found a nice enough balance between the inherent elegance of a swash and a heavier form to match the letterforms shown here.
Am I looking for a hybrid-style swash? In any case, some suggestions for a "La" face?
But I suppose I should mention--some of you enjoy kerning so if it's off might as well let me know!
Thanks all
User login
Support our Sponsors
2 Mar 2011 — 8:43pm
You've got quite a challenge, Evan! I'd start looking at one of my favorite swashy foundries - Suditpos in Argentina. (They have a great website, but MyFonts is faster to load samples.)
I don't know what the brand is, so it's hard to know exactly what you're looking for. I'd play with Mr Dafoe, Kilo, Mrs. Sheppards, Chocolate, Whomp, RadioTime and Milk Script. Cascabel could work, too, but it's far from a swash.
2 Mar 2011 — 9:18pm
That's actually the first place I went. First place that comes to mind for scripts.
I hadn't found what I wanted--but I hadn't completely articulated precisely what direction I needed when I went through it the last time. I'll def. review it, but (people out there) please do point me at some suggestions.
3 Mar 2011 — 1:05am
In case you won't find a descent hybrid swash, you can look at the FF Ginger's flamboyant for inspiration. What i find interesting here, is the contrast between the brutish simple letterforms and the exquisite crazy swashes added "randomly" to this. http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/ginger/regular-flamboyant/
3 Mar 2011 — 1:21am
What about contrasting just weight and style, but maintaining angularity?
For example:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/processtype/fig-script/
Or, at least, some angularity?
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/solotype/master-script/
(By the way, I find MEME nice. Maybe spaced a little too thight when small. Also, I think you could enlarge the left counter on E. It helps reading at small sizes. Sigma-shaped E is pretty recognizable.)
3 Mar 2011 — 7:13am
I'm sure I do make these things tough on the crowd, because I don't like to give anything away--being somewhat wary about the stealing of work or ideas.
I mean really it'll end up on my online portfolio but I'll try and minimize the places one might be able to grab this or that. Plus it doesn't say much about me as a designer if I ask about every little decision. It's more fun to come to the solution through trial and error til you're happy. Right?
Anyways, after seeing some examples I'm thinking the La really does need to exude some elegance--it just needs to be weighty and elegant. Which still might be difficult to find. But hairlines don't hold up against these monoliths.
Thanks for the compliment Riccardo. I like the kerning at the large scale so maybe I'll create a size-specific version for the small. I'll see if adjusting the counter works as well.
3 Mar 2011 — 7:47am
How about making the "La" gigantic, in some elegant formal script? E.g. Mea Culpa.
4 Mar 2011 — 10:29pm
Thanks for the reference to Mea Culpa.
Although I did not decide on it, it got me in the right direction. If anyone has a similar problem in the future, well my solution was to look at BRUSH scripts.
I settled on Shela Bold. To my eye it has a nice mix between "brush" and pen stroke, perhaps more towards the latter, but its weight is still heavier than more of the standard scripts I was looking trying to avoid.
5 Mar 2011 — 3:57am
Am I the only one thinking that the white on the right side of E is way bigger then the left side?
5 Mar 2011 — 9:37am
If anything I'd say it's that the first ME gap needs to be a hairline wider. Thanks for calling that out, Frode.
5 Mar 2011 — 5:18pm
Nope, nevermind--it's a jpg issue.
The E's counter makes the gap look larger, which I compensated for but it's just not visible in this web-image.