New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
Ballpoint
Posted by fonthausen in
28 Dec 2001 — 9:17am
28 Dec 2001 — 9:17am
Hi,
Hrant asked to put another font of mine on the discussion board: Ballpoint
With Ballpoint, I tried to combine the 'accidents' which happen by writting with a pen and the cleanness of a welldesigned sanserif. I tried to create forms which might give less problems when for example, text is set extremly narrow. (see images)
Ballpoint should become different wheights (Light, Reg, Bold; Roman, Caps and Italics)
Jacques
 Ballpoint_Beta.swfballpoint_beta.swf (3 k) |
User login
Support our Sponsors
28 Dec 2001 — 9:20am
And here I put some sketches,
Jacques
28 Dec 2001 — 9:25am
Something went wrong with my picture...
ballpoint_sketch.swf (35 k)
28 Dec 2001 — 9:25am
Something went wrong with my picture...
28 Dec 2001 — 9:27am
And Sketch number 2.
Jacques
ballpoint_sketch2.swf (27 k)
28 Dec 2001 — 12:19pm
Like the rest of your work, this is superb.
I wouldn't use the name Ballpoint, personally, as it no longer bears much resemblance to handwriting. It's a friendly-looking font, so I'd suggest some sort of casual, friendly name.
I assume this would be the bold version, as it is already quite heavy. The ink traps (I think that's what they're called) in characters like the V, W, m and n could be made more of a feature of the font in general, maybe. The capitals, for example look far less interesting than the lc because they are more uniform and you don't employ those stroke junctions that give the lc its hand-drawn style.
The lc w and maybe also the v don't work for me. In the w, how about trying a italicesque double "u" shape (wide outer strokes and narrow center)?
I'm very interested to see how you tackle the finer versions and the italics.
This could end up being a really popular font. It's friendly, as I say, but not so cute as to seem childish or ironic. I'd work on this before you finish those other fonts as it could be your "breakout" design. It is clearly more marketable than the other fonts at baronvonfonthausen.de.
28 Dec 2001 — 1:48pm
Hi Martin,
Ballpoint is to me just a working name. Giving name to a font is not easy.
About the Italics. In my 1st sketch you can already become an impression how the Italics will be.
I am not completely satisfied about the Uc either myself. I will have to work on them. Your tip about the inktraps might be usefull.
Thanks,
Jacques
29 Dec 2001 — 11:51am
This font is like meeting somebody from a new continent for the first time.
I need to collect my thoughts before attempting to make any potentially intelligent comments...
hhp
29 Dec 2001 — 2:25pm
This face has a lot of character, though it's Miss Congeniality in comparison to the TyPress Beauty.
You've created the look of a wide-nibbed 'steel pen'. 'Nibbler' is a playful name, though it's very Image Clubby.
Like Martin said, the uppercase loses distinctiveness. One suggestion is to eschew the uppercase in favor of a mix of uppper and lower with alternates. See 'Flit', one of the new faces @ Fountain. Martin Fredrickson nailed another great face, mixing upper and lower cases wonderfully.
good luck
bj
29 Dec 2001 — 2:45pm
It is a type I started during my studies appr. 3 years ago. i haven't been working on it since.
I am not sure if I am willing to mix Uc and Lc forms for the upper case. I prefer looking for distinctive forms, like for example Uc 'B'. And I am thinking of making the Uc smaller. I will start to draw and sketch again to solve this.
Filt looks OK, altough it has a lot forms looking like Gill Kayo.
Jacques
29 Dec 2001 — 3:17pm
You're right. The same could be said for some of the Shire Types. To go that bold in that amount of space, there's going to be some similar letterforms.
bj
29 Dec 2001 — 10:44pm
> To go that bold in that amount of space, there's going to be some similar letterforms.
Interesting observation.
hhp
1 Jan 2002 — 7:23am
I do not completely agree.
Few examples: Cooper Black, *Gezellig* by luc(as) de Groot, *Dispose* by Just van Rossum.
Jacques
1 Jan 2002 — 11:56am
Jacques,
I guess the point I was trying to make is...when you use 'traditional' letterforms, then there are going to be people who say 'That looks a lot like ________" But often duplication of form is unintentional and difficult to avoid, more difficult perhaps when you have a ultrabold humanist face.
I would guess that M. Fredrickson didn't seek out to replicate Gill Kayo's letterforms and that any 'duplication' happened unintentionally. Nevertheless, it is a nice face, but that's only my perspective. I bought the face and have already used it. (You get a lot more appreciation for a face if you 'test drive' it and see how it performs.)
One thing that this does point out. When you make a traditional face, there are going to be echoes -- rare is the 'traditional' face that cannot be traced to an antecedent.
One of the 'charms' of this forum is that you will find out if there is an antecedent, very soon after you post something.
bj
2002 HNY
2 Jan 2002 — 1:35am
Indeed, I misunderstood you. I thouht you were talking solely about the forms/curves.
The font looks nice, indeed. If I left the impression, M. Fredrickson duplicated any forms, then I did not express myself right and i'd like to correct myself.
I know the problem, when the solutions I choose are very similar to designs form third parties.
Jacques
4 Sep 2002 — 8:05am
Filt is handdrawn without looking at any particular typeface... I don't like Kayo very much, but I like Antique Olive Nord a lot. :-)
28 Dec 2001 — 9:48pm
I wanna HUG it!
It's so nice to see handmade sketches, I hope more people will post it too.
Sbo