Here's a bit of my process:
1. Research a specific area of type and find examples
2. Ask a load of questions related to how it might be made
3. Pick one
4. Ask deeper questions about that one question
5. Start playing
My question is:
1. How do additive and subtractive processes affect the shape of letterforms?
And deeper:
1. In what ways can I add?
2. In what ways can I subtract?
Here's a test. I took Karmina and for each letter subtracted the uppercase from its lowercase version:
In this one I overlaid the same letter, rotated it through 90 degrees and subtracted it from the letter behind. There are some nice formations in there.
I love that 's', it's got some nice geometric form to it, it smacks of the British flag...
I like some of the shapes that come out of this one. The letter is duplicated, rotated through 90 degrees and added. The o and the x are kinda cool, they retain their shape. Everything else looks like ancient symbols!
in the "coma"sample, the c and o are more interesting and unique in the subtlties. lemme look at the full alphabet real quick...
ReplyDeletethe s is good too. the others look too much like stuff i've seen before. a very nice starting place though. maybe you take more liberties with scaling the upper case, or just play around with other ways of subtracting, such as the lowercase from the lowercase (ex: a subtracting from a) or switch letters around (ex: a subtracting from s). any number of variations could be interesting.
ReplyDeleteon a related note, i believe many type designers start in one of a few primary ways:
1. a found sample that forms the basis of an interpretation.
2. some random doodles that turned out interestingly and build from that.
3. a particular problem / direction they wanted to achieve (ex: a space-saving angluar modern serif face).
I think my process is as follows:
ReplyDeleteBy the process of subtraction, to make a font that is more minimal to be easier on the eye, appear more as art and still be readable.
I like your suggestions on subtraction and 1 and 2 where a found sample forms the basis of an interpretation or some random doodles that turned out interestingly and build from that.
Thanks, great help.
I love that you are using Karmina!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking: a serif has more ability to be subtracted from than a sans does. What if you subtracted the sans version from the serif version? Maybe subtract Karmina Sans Light from Karmina Bold? It may create too many empty spaces in the middle of each letter, though.
Josh