Typophile

hot off the block.. a first typeface design

chris gaul

Hello typophiles,

this is the first 'rough cut' of my first attempt at type design. I want to learn about letterforms and spacing, and also want to be able to use a typeface i've designed myself. I've been reading Karen Cheng's book on type design and looking at a few well-designed faces for guidance on the 'rules' (where strokes should taper, placement of letterform features etc.).

It's still early days and as i'm sure you'll see immediately that there's heaps of work left to do. What I was hoping for were some of your opinions on, and some criticism of, how the face works generally. Does it lack character? Is it too similar to existing designs? Are there letters that don't fit?

It's here as a .jpg or as a .pdf.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Bob Evans

After just a quick I think your dots on the lower case i and j are too big.

counter_form

I would say it definitely looks like many faces already out there.

As a first attempt though, it's a fine job.

I would note that maybe in the upper curve of the lowercase a, the inside curve doesn't exactly match the outer curve (if that makes any sense).

Hrant H Papazian

This is great as a learning exercise, but not as something people would want to use because it's too bland (without being technically brilliant). Work in your own ideas of what the letters "should" be, but subtly. The way to develop your own ideas is to observe, think and try.

The most obvious thing that's wrong with it is that the caps are too big. Also, most of the curves are very wobbly, the curves are not thick enough compared to the straights, and the spacing is too loose. The "R" is nice though.

hhp

Hrant H Papazian

Concerning books, Cheng's is very useful, but try to
read Tracy's "Letters of Credit" as soon as you can.

BTW, this is very nice!
http://www.chrisgaul.net/cg.html

hhp

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