You could massage a collection of these glyphs into a decent logo, but as a font frankly it's not working at all. :-( And I think there might be a clear reason: too much grid.

hhp

Thank you, H. This is completely gridded, indeed. Lowersd are are round 12x48. Moving off the grid will be the last part of altering the outlines (easier to revise while they re still on one)I still have lots of spacing and such to go. In the end, when I am tweaking it, I fear if I move off the grid too much, I'll get away from the mechanical tone and into a more "natural" feel. Any suggesstions on essential adjustments, while still avoiding the hand-drawn medievial look?

think of this as 'sketches'- not finished. 

On another tanget, is there anything I need to keep in mind to make this more press-friendly at large sizes?

Choz Cunningham
!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

Staying on the grid for reasons of speeding up development seems to make sense. On the other hand, it's very hard for a third-party to evaluate things this way, since he can't know what you intend to eventually tweak...

Concerning mechanical versus natural, I would say that optical effects (like how the gap in the "i" looks splayed because the top of the tittle is at a different angle) cause strict adherence to the grid to actually result in irregular forms, more than it results in preventing naturalism. Ergo: some off-gridding is actually needed to make it look geometric.

Press friendly at large sizes? I don't get it.

hhp

The dots above I plan on, after removing the grid, moving the bottoms, so that the change in angle is averaged between the white space and the dot bottom. Likewise, I plan to do as subtle a tweaking to the interior hooks as possible to give it a slightly humane feel. While doing this, I'm sure I'll lightly move lots of points. Here's a rastered idea of the tuning.

What I mean by press-friendly, is if there are any things to keep in mind when designing, to keep the similarities between laser printer/photocopy and running it on a photosetting machine as much as possible. I hear and see things about inktraps and such, and have experience with it in general design, but not at the glyph-design level.

The target date is early the 29th AM, for a flyer to go up that afternoon. I keep thinking of that old saying, You can get it fast, cheap and good, but you can't have all three." At least I know exactly which capitals and numbers I need. Meanwhile, my tablet's stylus is AWOL, and my keyboard is doing ...something strange. C'est la vi. :(

Choz Cunningham
!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

Traps are only important for smaller sizes and non-crisp repro.
Don't worry about them too much.

> "You can get it fast, cheap and good, but you can’t have all three."

Or as we used to rebuff among the CompSci students in college:
"My algorithm would run faster than yours too if it didn't have to work right."

hhp

Or, "My car only runs 11's, but then, it ain't on fire."

Cool, small is not what this ones about. I am coming back to do a more legible grotesk someday. Theres still so much that hasnt been touched yet, while latin-style was evolving the last 50 years.

The client wants a great logo most. I think this has that ROCKIN energy. Nobody here has debated that, so I might have it right.
 

Choz Cunningham
!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

Mate, this is a bloody beaut! Keep up the good work!

muzz

Thank you!

Choz Cunningham
!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

Well M. Cunninfham, If it helps, this makes me as uncomfortable to look at as heavy metal does to listen to. (we are not talking. here, about the original heavy metal bands, from which the music got its name, like Iron Butterfly or Led Zeppelin, or even later works such as the first [and seminal] Black Sabbath album, though Ozzie lost it after that, of course.... oh, sorry... off topic...).

Which is only to say that, well, I dont like it. But, you are not designing for my tastes.~ As M. hrant notes, as a Logotype, possibly, but I wouldn't recommend it for the liner notes. I think that I might be tempted to offer this for the logo, but do a variation that was a lil more readable, if in fact they want a complete font for broader use.

I recently came up with a lil rule of my own, as a result of a critique of a portion of a font which the reviewer otherwise liked. "if ya dont recognize what the hell it is outside the context of the char set, it doesn't work". By that standard, yes, the 'z' in this set needs attention, but the 'x' is worse. You obviously have worked out some rather rigid design principles and their application is pretty uniform, perhaps to the fonts detriment (I suppose this is what hrant means by "too much grid). It might help to look to see where deviation from the norm would improve the overall look.

In the logo (i assume) the spacing that seems to work best is g/a. the r/g is far too wide. I would actually kern that pair. I think the logo works well, though getting that F/i to work is gonna be a mutha. You may have to overlap or go with a dotless 'i'.

geo.

Great feedback, thanks. I've decided to split things into two versions, and allow myself more time for the body-copy oriented version. Then, later, I can reform them into one OT face. This way I can get the one for promotional work done. I'm glad the x and the z stand out as bad, I hate 'em, too. I will get back to those last, tomorrow.

The grid-feel will be toned down lightly, and I have already corrected the spacing a good bit. Hadn't thought about the fi, since that's not in the band's name! Good point not sure what I will do tho'. Lots of work to go, th caps are designed but need extensive tuning due to lots of angeld crossbars appearing to stagger. Also, the caps are way to lurid for body text. All the responses here have been, if not positive, appropriate. I showed it to the bassist, she gave it the thumbs up as well.

!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

p.s. thanks for the spacing feedback especiaally, I've been pushing letters back and forth, as the more traditional style of spacing the lettes just hasnt looked 'tough enough".