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*** Images are from 1 version earlier. /T is now wider and /S straighter. ***
Still haven't decided about title.
What started as quick, for-fun, only-caps font, is turning out to be a multilingual family of 2 weights that could be counted as 6 fonts. Because there are small caps, swashed style and alternates for both of them. That's even not counting ligatures (for Cyrillic too!).
Plus manual T1 hinting.
Update 4 (2012/V/30)
pdf's:
http://cl.ly/H06i (Light)
http://cl.ly/H03z (Dark)




1 Sep 2011 — 3:18am
Interesting dilemma about the P and R. To me it seems you might have two fonts here, the middle two lines (H-M and O-T) look like a different (darker) font to the rest because they're not using hairlines in the same way. I'd go one way or the other, and make it consistent throughout.
1 Sep 2011 — 4:52am
My suggestion: make the problematic curved glyphs a bit wider…
1 Sep 2011 — 8:52am
@Bendy
They look darker. There's not much I can do about it though.
/K/ with thin arms looks bad. Monoline /O/ falls out by being too thin.
I will try dual line /R/ and /P/.
Or fat /B/.
1 Sep 2011 — 10:05am
Now I'd have to change /D/ in second variant. Guess I'll be sticking with first one.
Also, /Q/ eye extends too far to the bottom.
1 Sep 2011 — 10:39am
New sketchy /K/
1 Sep 2011 — 11:20am
Nice progress. I wonder if /H/ could have asymmetric weight like /U/? New /K/ is great!
2 Sep 2011 — 12:51am
An interesting way to conform the color of /H/ might be to reverse its contrast! Then it would have just one heavy stroke, the crossbar. Too wacky, or just wacky enough for "flawed and handmade"?
2 Sep 2011 — 3:02am
Haven't thought of this. But yeah, too wacky...
2 Sep 2011 — 6:51am
This is progressing pretty nice!
Have you considered making the /O/ and /Q/ in similar fashion as you are now doing with /B D, P/ and /R/? Asymmetrical that is? Im saying because I kinda agree with Bendy, there seem to be two systems in use within the font right now for using thin or thick strokes.
The other option would be to use the thin strokes only as horizontals/bars and as serifs, and make everything else thick. So stick with the original /K/ (you could also add serifs on the right side ad you did with the new /K/) and alter /B, D/ etc? That said, the thick/thin contrast is probably what makes the latest version so interesting - so you might want to stick with the current route.
Also, have you considered using a thin stroke for the tail of the /Q/ instead of a thick one?
Love the /E/ and /K/ by the way, nicely shaped!
2 Sep 2011 — 6:59am
@Stinger - How can /O/ be asymmetrical?
@Bert's suggestion to make /O/ wider.
2 Sep 2011 — 7:48am
>@Stinger - How can /O/ be asymmetrical?
Check out Broadway
2 Sep 2011 — 8:37am
^^ exactly what I had in mind, so the rightside would be a thin stroke instead of a thick stroke. It might sound like an odd idea but it would probably work - as a system in theory at least.
The Broadway typeface that Bendy linked is a good example that it works in practice as well
3 Sep 2011 — 2:43am
I'm surprised. This may actually work.
Bad spacing, I know. Haven't worked on it yet.
3 Sep 2011 — 2:19am
Try a Broadway H as well?
3 Sep 2011 — 2:53am
Nice. Several heads always better than one.
Now it finally has the rhythm.
3 Sep 2011 — 6:46am
Not sure about /5/ the most.
3 Sep 2011 — 7:18am
Oh yes! It's working nicely man, great to see this evolve. /H O Q/ all much improved in combination with the rest. /H/ is very much a brother of /K/ now, awesoem.
Great stuff!
3 Sep 2011 — 7:38am
Makes me a happy panda :)
Now I'm wondering about serifs. Initial idea was to have them only inwards, like /A/.
But then all the other thick stem letters looked boring /E H I L M etc./ So I gave them "proper" serifs.
And now /U/ falls out. But if I add serifs at the thick top (like /I/), it will be closed and less legible.
On the other hand, I can pretend it comes from /V W Y/ group.
3 Sep 2011 — 8:16am
Awesome (spelled correctly this time), that's great to hear!
Hmm, maybe /U/ does stand out, but if so, then /V W X Y/ do as well, maybe even /Z/ and probably /A/ also (both at the top and at the bottom). You could say the same for the top of the /J/. Might be worth a try though? Not sure if e.g. /U/ would be too closed, of you look at the bottom or the /R/ I think it will have more space than that probably?
On the other hand it might become too predictable if you apply it everywhere, even though it's 'systematically' correct, if you see what I mean?
Oh, have you tried a thin tail for /Q/ yet? I still feel it's kinda in-your-face right now...
3 Sep 2011 — 8:48am
I've tried, but fat tail helps to distinguish from /O/ better. And gives more contrast.
The old /Q/ had a black spot on bottom left which wasn't tasty and is fixed now.
4 Sep 2011 — 3:03am
To be honest, I really like it! It's quite elegant actually. What if you add a serif on the bottom of the tail to enhance it a bit? Would that be allowed? (Im not sure if there should be one there or not). Don't think it needs that though.
I'm not so sure, are there a lot of words/instances where one would easily mistake a /Q/ for an /O/?
For me personally, the bottom "requiem" has the most aesthetic look, the best rhythm.
4 Sep 2011 — 12:52pm
Yea, that's what I meant about the /H/, nice. I love the new /Q/ too. Still not totally sure of the logic behind the full and half serifs (HKMN vs AUVWXYZ).
5 Sep 2011 — 1:36am
The logic is that vertical stems looked boring without serifs.
Diagonal stems doesn't have outer serifs because of initial stylistic idea and because it adds even more white space to the outside.
And knowing that most letters are blocky, this doesn't help the stylistic unity.
5 Sep 2011 — 8:26am
Awkward lowercase being born:
5 Sep 2011 — 8:48am
Crap, forgot to add /g/
5 Sep 2011 — 8:57am
Interesting progress on the lower cases. I am assuming that the /a/ was becoming too closed up with a semi-serif topleft? I would say that it's logical to add that but you probably tried and deleted? Would be intresting to see though...
Right now I think the /g/ kinda stands out. Maybe because it breaks the rhythm (wide stroke left and wide stroke right within the same glyph). How about a single storey /g/ instead of a two storey one?
/b c d e h o p/ are looking really good!
5 Sep 2011 — 2:55pm
K, U, and R don't seem to fit the vertical=full serif, diagonal=half serif logic. But I do love the look and the lower case is coming along nicely!
6 Sep 2011 — 9:46am
I intend to keep two storey /g/. It's more interesting and there are 4 homogenous letters already.
Not sure about dots - should I put them at ascender height (which is quite low) or not.
6 Sep 2011 — 11:51pm
Looking good! Especially love the /t/!
I had expected a different /q/ though, one with a thin tail actually - have you tried that? Come to think of it, this might be an interesting experiment for /d/ as well (as right now it's almost an inverted /b/). It might look odd though.
I still think the /g/ looks a bit off, but im also not sure how to solve that. If the tail is completely thin (without the wide part) it might be even more odd.
Also, I like /a/ much better with the semi-serif topleft!
The height of the dots on /i j/ looks good to me, but I think they are a bit wide maybe? They now look a bit too fat in total (too much black). Not sure if it would fit the logic/system of the typeface but have you tried making them a bit less wide? Or round, even?
7 Sep 2011 — 3:04am
Funnily enough, I was thinking a similar thing about the tittles on /i/ and /j/. Something along the lines of Gill Ultra.
I'd like to see how /j/ would look with a thin tail. Bite a counter out of that stem as it hits the baseline and try a hairline descender?
9 Sep 2011 — 7:49am
/q/ or /j/ with thin tails are too drastic.
Besides, there will be monoline version to supplement this one.
I'm thinking about condensing everything to give more practical use.
10 Sep 2011 — 3:43am
Smaller dots
11 Sep 2011 — 2:48am
what if you take it a little further and make the dots actual circles? that is, even less wide?
12 Sep 2011 — 7:30am
Found a new font that looks similar:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/jnlevine/ormond/
12 Sep 2011 — 9:21am
Updated the OP
These dots could work, I just like others better.
13 Sep 2011 — 2:57am
As it is right now I indeed like the previous dots better.
The other font is similar a bit, but it doesn't have any lower case glyphs?
I would say this is still different enough!
22 Sep 2011 — 1:11am
Started the small caps (omitted the obvious ones here).
Small /Q/ with thick tail looked silly, so it probably means that the big one will have to be changed accordingly too...
22 Sep 2011 — 7:22am
/r/ & /m/ seem a little odd to me. I think because the tops are flat where I expect a little valley. I see how it is consistent with other letters, but you might play around with it a bit. /y/ feels a bit overly geometric maybe? Have you tried /t/ where the top slant continues into the left side of the crossbar? Maybe it is just the way it is kerned with the /T/ but that area feels finicky. Love the small caps, and especially the thin tailed /Q/.
26 Sep 2011 — 6:06am
Yes, /r/ is poorly legible indeed.
This is how I solved slashed O. Diagonal bar across all the letter conflicted with the thick part.
26 Sep 2011 — 8:48am
Which should be comma/quote?
26 Sep 2011 — 9:41am
Second one.
26 Sep 2011 — 11:10pm
:D
I expressed it wrong. Which should be a comma and which - quote?
27 Sep 2011 — 1:22am
If you need two different designs, first one quote, second one comma.
29 Sep 2011 — 7:50am
Final comma is awesome - I'd use it for both!
Bottom /r/ is much better a few posts above, i like the slight indent and it makes it much more readable - you could use the same trick for /m/ and /n/?
And yay for the /Q/ with a small tail!
1 Oct 2011 — 2:47am
Isn't capitals too dark?
7 Oct 2011 — 12:45am
Do smalcaps serifs have to be capital or lowercase size?
16 Oct 2011 — 8:23am
Neither one nor the other (sth. inbetween), but I use to draw them in capital size, because you often use small caps together with caps.
17 Oct 2011 — 2:44am
My logic is to use lowercase serifs, because they are to be used between lowercase letters. But since this is display font with different purpose, you may be right.
My small caps with big serifs were too dark though.
26 Oct 2011 — 6:49am
Discretionary ligatures for caps. Do small caps numbers have to be oldstyle?
27 Oct 2011 — 1:52am
Whoah those are pretty sexy mister! 'pologies for the language :)
RE: small caps. I recently used a typeface where the smallcaps were set to X-height and that worked out pretty rediculous. They were really way to small. They should be smaller than usual caps of course, but not too small. So I'm guessing somewhere between X-height and Capital height (often close to ascender height I think?) should be a better working method? Im no expert though so I am curious to hear what others say about this.