Typophile

Imelli's Egyptian Spur Modern

et al.

I found this great quirky type sample called Egyptian Spur Modern in a sign etching book from around 1922 by Al Imelli called "The Book of Alphabets and Layouts." I'm planning on using this face as a starting point for a logo I'm working on. Now, I've modified existing type and created a number of hand drawn logos, but have never really attempted to vectorize a type sample from the ground up. Any advice for a type designer ignoramus? Besides the obvious, how would you even categorize this face? Any typefaces you can think of that are even close I could use for reference? If it would help, I'd be more than happy to scan all the letters. Disregard any kerning or tracking issues for now...still the scans from the book.

Thanks!

Nick Shinn

Beaufort has some similarities.
Flange, Albertus, Alexon, Arrow, Symbol (Novarese's), etc.

I'd say the trick is to manage the "pointedness" of the serifs in different kinds of terminals, so that it's never too fine or too blunt.

et al.

Yeah, I was really curious as to how I should end my serifs, rounded to maintain a bit of the weathered antiquity feel of the face or lop off just the tip to give a bit crisper feel. Thanks for the references Nick, those are the closest I've seen!

Nick Shinn

...never too fine or too blunt.

To clarify, as I didn't express that accurately enough: what I meant was that the angle of the serif tips should be fairly consistent, not that the tip should be chopped off--although that may be a solution in some places. If the tips of the serifs are chopped off, no matter how small the cut, it becomes an issue for scaling. Novarese's Symbol, for instance, dating from the phototype era, has a serif treatment that looks sharp in text, but gets clunkier the bigger it is used.

et al.

That makes sense, thanks for the advice Nick.

Captured from web.archive.org on 23 Oct 2013. view this capture