Monday, 20 April 2015

Brief 15 - Initial Changes

To start the editing process for this typeface, the easiest way to I find to do that is start with the thinnest weight for the typeface and get that perfect so creating the thicker versions is much easier and more consistent. It also allows for me to make sure that the typeface will work at thinner weights instead of just working at thicker ones and looking out of place or uneven when it comes to creating the thinner versions.

In terms of the thinnest I want to go, I dislike hairline style typefaces as they never really print well or come up on digital well unless large. Keeping this typeface in with what I personally like is what I wanted to do from the start, so I will start with a weight which is classed as light/thin rather than hairline.

Thin version:


To get a better view of the letterforms and see them in their most basic form, I got rid of the serifs.


Seeing the typeface like this allows me to see all the issues with each of the letters and will make it easier for me to keep all the letters consistent.

One of the things I did when originally designing the typeface was to try keep the majority of the letters the same width, however this clearly works better for some letters than others. Keeping them the same width isn't necessarily something that needs to be done, especially when some letters don't look anywhere near as good as others with this in effect.

An example of this is the 'A'. It looks quite wide compared to the 'B', however these are at the same width. Something key to remember in type design is that the angles of the lines used changes the viewers perception and can make letters look wider or thinner.

Another thing that needs attention is the 'C' & 'G'. Their curves don't seem to work quite right, and editing is needed in terms of where the ends are cut off .

The 'W' looks out of place. While I had originally wanted to keep the mid-point low, I do now think that it doesn't work well and really makes the letter look out of place.

Another change is the 'R'. Again, like the 'W', I had an opinion on how I wanted the leg to be, however I don't think it works well at all in this thin version of the font.

With this in mind, I edited a number of the letters to make them look better.

Letter changes:


The ‘X’ suited a slightly thinner width which made the letterform appear taller instead of a square.


The length of the leg on the ''L' made the letter look too long and it didn't work quite right. Taking off a bit of that length helps make the letter look slightly more proportional and natural.


The ‘C’ follows the same design as the ‘O’ in being a perfect circle. The initial design of cutting the centre right off with straight lines worked well in the hand rendered design, however when taken digital and cleaned up, it looked very abrupt. This was changed to a softer angle cut to create a thinner and symmetrical letterform.

The ‘G’ follows the design of the ‘C’. The central serif did not work well in the initial digital design. It was too low and the way the curve went into it was unnatural, so this was corrected with a different approach of taking the cuts of the 'C' and creating a flat edge at the bottom right.


The ‘V’ was initially the same width as the‘X’, however, through stage one and two, it became clear through this design and the same design in the letter ‘A’, that it was too wide. Following the same width as the ‘U’ and previous letters, the ‘V’ was thinned.


The ‘A’ follows the same design as the ‘V’. It was clear through the ‘A’ that the width was too large and a thinner appearance would look more natural.


Like previous letters, the width of this letter was thinner slightly to create a less square-like.


The ‘Q’ is the letterform which I wanted to have a bit of a flourish on for the typefaceas it has the tail which is not present in any other letter. Starting with the tail which went all the way through the centre, it worked very well, however to get consistency with the rest of the typeface, it was better suited to stopping half way.


With the success of the flourish in the ‘Q’, I did add this to the 'R', however I decided to move back to a more generic straight line as it strengthens the letterform.


Originally, the ‘W’ was the same design as the ‘M' with a mid-height central point, just with slanted strokes. However through development, it became clear that the low centre point was not working with the rest of the typeface. Moving the point up to the top create a stronger letterform which worked better.


The development of this letter was through the attempts of making it look more natural, while keeping in with the appearance of the rest of the typeface. Following the other letterforms, I moved to use a thinner width. Trying to find a width that worked for the letter without looking out of place with the rest of the typeface was important. I changed the angles on the ends as well, first trying the angle that the 'C' and 'G' use, however this did not work very well because of the angle. I then tried a slight angle from the original flat cut, which was a bit more subtle and seemed to work well.


Following these changes, I feel that the letters work much better and are definitely more considered and professional in appearance.

Looking at the numbers, the main thing that makes them look wrong is the width applied to them, as it was on the letters. Changing the width and some of the angles will make the numbers look a bit more fluid and consistent.

Changed numbers:


The changes are very clear, and I think they work much better and look far more professional. I decided on building up the numbers using perfect circles, as I had done for the uppercase. The initial design obviously uses circles too, but the characters are elongated and unnatural. A move towards using just one circles width is what I wanted to go for. I decided this because this will be the direction I will take when creating the lowercase, and creating a consistency is what I want.

I decided on an x-height from the 'H' bar, using the top of this as it is central to the letterforms, but slightly taller, so it should work well. The numerals follow this, with slight changes to the '3' and '4' in terms of their mid-heights. The '4' bar is obviously lower, working to the same level as the 'A' bar. The '3' mid-point is central to create a symmetrical numeral.

Final Changes

Overall I think these changes have greatly benefitted the typeface and give a much more professional look. Previously the typeface didn't look as clean and consistent, but now I feel much more confident in it. I am feeling much better about the aim of a contemporary, clean and professional typeface as I think these base letters and numerals really work well and are proportional in design.

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