The project plan for my first font design calls for me to come up with the features and intentions of the prominent humanist sans faces of the twentieth century. Once that is done, I will make up a kind of brief for what my design will strive to accomplish, based on a selective composite of these historical faces.

Some of the discussion at this recent thread was helpful for this.

. . Gill Sans
. . . . date
. . . . . . 1927-30
. . . . designer
. . . . . . Eric Gill, Monotype
. . . . intended use
. . . . . . advertisements
. . . . . . signage
. . . . design sources
. . . . . . Johnston’s London Transport alphabet
. . . . “humanism” comes from
. . . . . . proportions
. . . . . . . . narrower narrow letters (E, P, S, s) than grotesque
. . . . . . . . proportions from Johnston, in turn from Roman classical letters
. . . . . . . . two-storey a and g
. . . . . . stress
. . . . . . . . appears monoline, with thinning at branches (h, m, n, etc.)
. . . . . . . . contrast most evident in a and e - bowl of a looks pen-formed
. . . . . . dynamism
. . . . . . . . seen in b (no spur on bottom, bowl is not circular), otherwise largely static
. . . . . . details
. . . . . . . . diagonals in Q tail, a tail, r arm, t top
. . . . . . . . descenders on cap J, Q
. . . . other design features
. . . . . . E/F arms are even
. . . . . . R leg is curved kickstand
. . . . . . O/o appear perfectly circular
. . . . . . M has vertical sides, high middle vertex
. . . . . . chevron K and k
. . . . . . round tittles
. . . . . . round counters have flat stem side
. . Optima
. . . . date
. . . . . . 1952-58
. . . . designer
. . . . . . Hermann Zapf, Stempel
. . . . intended use
. .