A sample of how my text font is coming along. Still editing capitals and letter spacing…and next week, I’ll be adding numbers as well. For my japanese stab binding readers, I promise that my next post will be either a tutorial or a new bind!
Category Archives: in progress
A new font exercise
As part of my training at my new job with SIL International, I’ve been practicing drawing and digitizing Roman fonts. One day I will move on to non-Roman scripts, which I’m very excited about. But for now it’s been fun to mess about with this design.
My parameters were to design a Roman lowercase, with medium ascenders and descenders. The goal was to make it compact but not compressed, readable in longer articles and text. It should have pointed-nib contrast, but some transitional elements with straight stems and slab/angled serifs. Medium weight. The digital version hasn’t been critiqued yet, so changes are coming!
My working font name is ‘fluffybunny’ (don’t ask…). If anyone has a more clever idea, please leave a comment!
Initial sketches:
First shot at digitization (the ‘j’, ‘f’, and ‘s’ for sure need work):
Paramithi: R and K edits
I was told before leaving Cooper that my capitals were too formal when paired with the lowercase. Since the lowercase has the effect that I wanted, I am rethinking the caps. The R and K needed the most help anyway so I started with them. I’m also evaluating the thickness of the serifs on my lowercase as compared to the upper.
Previous R and K:
Current R and K:
Still needs work, but I think these are headed in a better direction.
type@cooper…day 19
Today is the last day! I fly out of NYC tomorrow. It’s been a great learning experience, and while I might be ‘finished’ here, I’ve still got a lot of work to do on my typefaces! I’ll still post my progress from time to time, because I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the design of my ampersand. And the back slash! Ha!
type@cooper…day 18
This is my current progress on the Paramithi font. My numbers and punctuation still need work, as do a few capitals. And one day I will have more alternate capitals!
<<Paramithi>>
type@cooper…day 17
Here’s what I’ve been frantically working on all weekend! I’ve still got edits to make, but it seems to be coming together. Right now I’m working on numbers and more punctuation. Woo!
type@cooper…day 16…and MATTHEW CARTER!
…which is the reason I haven’t posted anything else today. We have a critique with him tomorrow and all of us have been frantically working to get stuff ready and put together! So tired!!
For those of you who have never heard of Matthew Carter
type@cooper…day 15
More edits! Still struggling with the uppercase… ‘N’ is going to be the death of me (or at least my sanity)…
type@cooper…day 14
I’m now having to test my font in InDesign, to see how it works at different sizes. I’ve been killing a lot of trees, printing out test after test just like this. (Click on it to make it bigger)
Capitals! I might have a couple extra that the user could switch between…or I might not. We’ll see.
type@cooper…day 13
This is what my desk looks like these days. Covered in paper printouts and drawing utensils and other various bric a brac… kinda drives me crazy, but can’t do much about it!
I drew some capitals today, but didn’t get very far with them. Capitals for my goofy font are going to be eeenteresting for sure.
Here’s as far as I got with digitizing:
