Paul Simpson - CMPT @ UCA @paulsimpsoncmpt-blog - Tumblr Blog

Stage 3 Final Piece - Neutro Grotesk Font

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Stage 3 Final Piece - Neutro Grotesk Supplementary Posters

11th May 2017 - CMPT Complete

Today marks the last day of the final major project before the hand-in, meaning that this will be my last daily journal post on this blog. Shortly after this post I’ll be posting a link to download my font, as well as the posters that I have created as my final pieces. Today mainly consisted of tying up loose ends before the deadline tomorrow, which I’m happy to say I’ve managed to do. I’ve produced the work, now I just have to wait and see if I can get the results.

I started my day today by writing out the FMP Critical Review, this form acts a final evaluation, wherein which we are asked various questions about our projects and asked to reflect on things such as our research, development, experimentation etc. It was quite a somber feeling writing this out, thinking about everything I’ve done in the past 3 months for this project. This project has easily been the biggest one I’ve ever undertaken in my career, and to reflect on it all was quite heart warming.

Next came a bit of housekeeping. I took down all of the materials on the wall above my desk and placed them in my PD File. These materials included the four evaluation forms that we filled out at the beginning of the FMP, the FMP timetable, and various research resources that I printed out.

After break, I went and saw Jake about the poster designs I had created last night. He went through them all and gave them the okay, praising me for creating posters that had the “old school feel” as he put it. I immediately headed down to the printers in Chatham and got my posters printed. For the hand-in, I decided to get the posters printed A3 size, on 250gsm Satin paper. I will probably get these posters reprinted at A2 scale for the show, but for the hand-in this gets the job done. The posters are printed beautifully on thick, crisp sheets of paper. The colours pop well and the text is perfectly crisp. I’m very very happy with how the posters turned out. Below is an image of the posters I got printed.

Once I’d returned from the printers, I updated my project proposal for the last time. I made some quick additions to the bibliography of the rough paper copy, and updated the bibliography properly on the digital version, to include 3 new website links that I had added to my bibliography since I had last updated it. I also formatted the digital version of the updated proposal, so that any additions to the timetable and bibliography I had made were in a red colour rather than black, making the additions clear to see. I then printed this digital copy out, stapled it and stuck it into my PD file.

Speaking of printing, I also printed a few materials that were missing from my PD file, such as the FMP project brief, my critical review, my FMP show statement and a few other little bits.

I also completed my exhibition proposal today and stuck it in my PD file. For the exhibition proposal, we have to produce 3 different ideas for ways to present our work for the show. My main idea is to have a computer on a plinth that is pre-loaded with my font, and that has Microsoft Word open. I then want to connect a keyboard, so that people can type things in my font and test it out for themselves. I also want to print out my posters to A3/A2 size, and hang them on the wall to the left and right of the computer. All 3 of the ideas that I put in my exhibition proposal are small variations on this idea, including one that doesn’t actually make use of a computer, just incase I’m unable to get one for the show.

That’s it, once I got home, I spent some of my evening organising everything in my PD file, and gathering every single thing to do with my FMP and placing it in my black A2 portfolio. I have this constant feeling that I have forgotten something, but I think this is just nerves. I’ve made a dozen checklists and checked everything off of them twice. It’s quite surreal to think that this is the last blog post on this blog forever. All I can say is that the two years I’ve spent on the CMPT course have been such a wild ride. There have been tons of ups and downs, but I’ve learnt so much during my time at UCA, and this definitely made me better as a creative and as a person. From here, I hope that this project will earn me a merit and that I’ll be able to head off to Edinburgh in September, but I must say, that wherever I go, I’ll never forget my time at UCA Rochester.

#s3journal

10th May 2017 - Second Draft Posters

Today’s been an extremely successful day in terms of the design of my posters. I’ve managed to create a set of 5 posters that are consistent in their design, and that I’d be happy to print and hand-in. I just need to get some feedback on them from Jake first and then I’m good to go. After that, all I have left to do for this project is fill out a few forms and print some things for my PD file. I’m feeling very confident about the deadline now, but still nervous about my results.

Before I worked on my posters, I wanted to get the rest of my project organised and ready for the hand-in on Friday. I spent a few hours completely reorganising my PD file, gathering all of my Stage 3 work from home, and also organising my hard drive, so that my Stage 3 work is easy to find and access. I’ve moved all of my Stage 3 stuff to the front of the PD file, with my personal statement and university correspondence just behind it. The rest of the PD file is filled with stuff from Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Today I decided to start work on a second set of poster drafts, which will in-turn, be refined and become my finals. At this point, I had decided that I wanted a set of 5 posters. The first poster would simply show the name of the font, and my name. The second poster would then contain information about the font such as the glyph count, and would also contain the entire glyph set of the font. The third, fourth, and fifth posters would have other information on them, simply acting as a showcase for the font.

The first poster I created today was to act as one of the first posters, and features the name of the font, a description of the font, and the complete glyph set. I created a new background for this poster, that features slanted yellow and black shapes overlapping each other on the top of the poster. I didn’t really like this poster at all, the composition just wasn’t right, and the background made the poster feel like a generic corporate letter. I just needed to refine the idea further and I’d have a poster that I could be happy with. Below is Poster 1a of the second draft set.

At this point, I had decided to split the information on the first poster into two posters. I created another poster, Poster 1b, which features only the name of the font along with my name. The background in this poster is one that I created yesterday for Poster 6 of the first draft set, but with some small adjustments to the width and spacing of the yellow and black shapes. This poster worked much better in my opinion, and perfectly suited the modernist style that I’m aiming to replicate; it also really compliments the font. Below is Poster 1b of the second draft set.

Next, I created Poster 2 of the second draft set. This poster featured the description of the font I had written for Poster 1a, and also featured the complete glyph set. For this poster, I created a new background, of yellow and black lines on the left and right sides of the poster, crossing each other in the mid-section of the poster. I had decided to set the description in another font (HK Grotesk Medium) because there was a lot of information to fit in a small space, and if I had set this information in my own font, it would be illegible at the size it was set in, because my font is meant as a display-face not a text-face. I think the composition needs a few small tweaks, but I really like this poster; it pairs perfectly with the above poster, and contains all of the information that I wanted to convey in one poster. I’d be happy to print this poster and display it in the show once I make my refinements to it. Below is Poster 2 of the second draft set.

I then began working on Poster 3 in the second draft set. This poster used the background I had created for Poster 7 of the first draft set. With the third, fourth and fifth poster, I wanted to use them as a showcase for the font, a way to put my project work into context. I decided to create the three posters using quotes about typography given by various graphic designers. Poster 3 features a quote from Hannes von Dohren that reads “On the streets, you look at girls. I look at type.” I actually chuckled when I read this quote, so I had to include it on my poster. Below is Poster 3 of the second draft set.

Poster 4 uses the background from Poster 15 of the first draft set, and features a quote from R. Roger Remington that reads “Form and function together create typographic excellence.” I really loved the background I had made yesterday, and so I decided to reuse it with this quite direct quote. The composition remains the same as what I used yesterday. Below is Poster 4 of the second draft set.

The fifth and final poster of the second draft set features a quote from the legendary Paul Rand. The quote reads “Typography is an art. Good typography is art.” The quote really is short and sweet, and quite perfectly captures the essence of typography. For this poster, I reused the background that I had created for Poster 12 of the first draft set. I really loved this background, and so I had to pair it with a quote from Mr. Rand. Below is Poster 5 of the second draft set.

Personally, I would be happy to print these posters off now and hand them in as they are on Friday, but I know that the better thing to do would be to see Jake, and refine them all one more time if they need it. Once I have the posters completed and printed, I’ll be spending my time printing off documents and filling out documents for the hand-in on Friday. I can’t wait to get it over and done with now.

#s3journal #s3experimentation

9th May 2017 - A Design Breakthrough

In my last blog post, I spoke about troubles I was having in regards to the designs of the supporting materials for my font. I’d found it rather difficult to come up with a design style that worked well aesthetically and functionally, that suited my font, and that I actually liked. I’m glad to say that today I made a lot of good progress towards my final results, and I’ve come up with a style that meets all of the criteria I just mentioned.

After writing yesterday’s blog post, I continued working on different poster designs into the night. These posters followed the same colour scheme as the ones I posted yesterday, but featured much more experimental compositions. The first one I made is Poster 7, and features the words ‘NEUTRO GROTESK’, I took away the fill colour of these words, just leaving a 2 point stroke outline around the letterforms. I then stacked these words on top of each other over and over again until I had reached the bottom of the page. This created a sort of web effect making much of the type illegible apart from the very top and very bottom words. In my head, the idea seemed pretty cool, but in practice it doesn’t really work at all. Below you can find Poster 7.

I wanted to keep trying more experimental compositions, but this time I wanted something a bit more legible. For Poster 8, I typed out the words ‘NEUTRO GROTESK’, duplicated it, and stacked the two names on top of one another. I left the top name with a black fill, and took away the black fill of the bottom name, leaving only the stroke outline. I then continuously duplicated the two names, and rotated and shrunk them in a way that creates the illusion of a downward spiral from the text. I thought this effect looked much better than the one I had produced in poster 7, but it still didn’t feel right for the font. Below you can find Poster 8.

For Poster 9, I tried a composition that was a bit more traditional and toned down. I used the same colour scheme as the previous two posters, and placed the name, description and character list on the poster. The name has it’s fill colour removed, leaving just a stroke outline. All of the elements in this poster are centred for better clarity. I liked the idea of this poster, but put into practice it just isn’t too exciting, and doesn’t compliment the font at all. This idea could work, but I would definitely need to try it a different way. Below is the 9th Poster in my series of drafts.

I began my day today by doing a quick bit of visual research on International Typographic Style posters, to get some inspiration for colours and compositions when I would attempt creating posters in this style. I then went to coolors.co, and generated a colour scheme that features two tones of white, a yellow, and two tons of black. After having a bit of a mess around in Photoshop with the colours, I’d found that they actually worked really well together, and so I decided to use the colour scheme in my posters. I designed Poster 11 using a very simple composition, made up of two large circles that overlap each other at the centre of the page, with text set in the top-left and bottom-right of the image. The text in the top left reads “NEUTRO GROTESK”, the font’s name, and the text in the bottom-right features a short description of the font. This type of composition and colour scheme looks a hundred times better than what I made yesterday, but it still wasn’t quite there yet. Below is a screenshot of the colour scheme I used, and an image of Poster 11.

For Poster 12, I tried a more geometric composition, using a yellow and black triangle against the white background. I think the more rigid shape of the coloured elements compliments the font’s design better than the circles in Poster 11 did. Again, the colour scheme works brilliantly here. In this poster I included the font’s name and a bit of information about the font; I also added the complete glyph set of the font as the bottom left of the poster felt a bit empty, but after looking back on it, I feel that this addition is too much. Nevertheless, I think that I’ve found the style I want to use for my promotional materials. I just need to keep designing different variations and refine it for my final pieces. Below is Poster 12.

For Poster 13, I tried another variation of the geometric aesthetic, in which I used four slanted shapes, two of the shapes are yellow and the other two are black. I then placed them side by side, with a space cutting the four in half. The tops of these shapes stops about three quarters of the way up the page. In this top quarter, I’ve placed the name of the font, and a small description underneath. This poster is a bit different from the others in that the name of the font is set in all lower-case letters, this better matches the aesthetic of modernist posters of the 20th century, and looks better in my opinion. Below is Poster 13.

I did a test print of Poster 13, just to see if there would be any variance in the colour of the posters from the computer to paper. The colour on the poster actually came out really nice, looking identical to how it appears on my laptop screen; the only problem I had was that the text on the poster was slightly pixelated, but Jake reassured me that this is just a problem with the printer at UCA, and that there’s nothing wrong with the file. As long as the colour comes out the same when I take the poster to the printers, I’ll be happy. Below is an image of the Poster 13 test print.

For Poster 14, I designed a pattern of black and yellow squares that overlap each other in a diagonal orientation. I then placed the name of the font, all set in lower-case, between the yellow squares. With the short description of the font being placed between the black squares. The orientation of these two pieces of text was adjusted to match up with that of the squares. I really love the background I’ve made for this poster, but the text and it’s placement need some small adjustments. I also did a test print of this poster, and the colours came out perfectly. Again, the text was slightly pixelated, but this won’t be a problem when I get the images printed professionally. Below is Poster 14, along with an image of the Poster 14 test print.

Once I got home, I began work on Poster 15. This poster features black rectangles that surround a yellow square, all of the elements in the background are evenly spaced, and are actually quite satisfying to look at. I then placed the name of the font in the bottom left of the yellow square, and the short description in the top left of the yellow square. Just like the last poster, I really like the background of this poster, but the text placement and sizing could be better. Below is Poster 15.

The last poster I designed today was Poster 16. This poster follows the same principles as the others, and features a very geometric layout. The background is diagonally split into black and white, with yellow rectangles coming down from the top of the page at an angle. The ends of the rectangles are rhythmic, and give the illusion that the layout is moving, well for me they do at least. I then placed the name and short description on the white side of the page, at an angle to match with the other elements on this poster. I think the composition of this poster is a bit too complex, and I don’t really like it, but nevertheless it’s a step in the right direction. Tomorrow I’ll be making some more posters, and then I’ll be selecting the final four that I’d like for print. Below is Poster 16.

#s3journal #s3experimentation

Plakat Grotesk Type Specimen

The Plakat Grotesk Type Specimen is a booklet produced by Norwegian designer Kenneth Knutsen of The Good Type Foundry for the font Plakat Grotesk. This type specimen embodies everything that I’m trying to create with my own posters, and so is a great source of inspiration for the style I want to develop. The type specimen features a clear and concise compositional style, that favours function over aesthetic. The style is very bare-bones, with an extremely simple black and white colour scheme and a very simple composition with each page featuring only a handful of different elements. Knutsen has taken the modernist way of designing, and applied it to a more contemporary context, where minimalism is the norm in graphic design of the modern day. Whilst I’m not aiming for my posters to be designed as brutally as this type specimen is, this piece does give me a few ideas for composition and what elements I could use in my own designs.

#s3vresearch

8th May 2017 - Developing Ideas

Today marks the beginning of Week 9, in a few days time is the project deadline, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all nervous. I know I’ll get everything done in time, but I’m just very concerned about what grade I’ll get, as I’m sure everyone in my class is.

I started my day off by doing a bit of visual research, to try and gather ideas for my set of posters I want to create. Oddly enough, my inspiration came from something stuck on my wall, a screenshot of the Adobe Type Catalogue from many years ago. This gave me the idea of recreating type specimen sheets from the era which my font is based on, the 1920s. I found two type specimens that really interested me, one by the Southern New England Typographic Service and another by Monotype Type Foundry. Both of these type specimens have a very vintage but minimal and functional aesthetic to them. They’re very clear in what information they’re trying to convey, not using any aesthetic features that may distract from the information on the page. Designing in this way would suit my font well I think, and so I’m going to try and create a few posters in this minimal style.

I then spent much of my day trying to plan different layouts for my poster set. I came up with three different ideas today, one of which is inspired by the type specimens I found earlier in the day. The first poster I made today is a take on the minimal style of the 1920s type specimen sheets. I had a bit of trouble finding colours and a composition that I liked, and so I left the layout for now. I will be developing this style further over the course of tonight, but I just need a bit of time to think about how I’m going to do it properly. The second poster I created is inspired by more modern designs and features a toned-down colour scheme with a minimal composition. I really liked this design, but ultimately, it doesn’t compliment my font. The modern style doesn’t fit with the avant garde vibe of my font. I may try and pursue this design further, by appropriating it for my font, but for now I consider it a failure. The third design I created is a bit more experimental, and uses a gridded piece of paper in the top right corner of the poster. I applied a drop shadow to this piece of paper, to make the poster seem like a photo of a desk. I then put the title of the font, the complete glyph set, and a short description further down the poster. I like this design, but again, it doesn’t really compliment my font, the two styles clash too much for my liking. I’m definitely going to pursue the vintage type specimen style as I think that’s the best way to design the posters for my font. Below are the three posters I created today, in the order that I created them. Do bear in mind that none of them are finished, as they are rough drafts.

Towards the end of the day, the VisCom and MIP classes had a lecture with Chris going over details of the FMP hand-in. I do feel a bit more confident about the hand-in after the lecture, but I also feel a bit more nervous. The lecture made the hand-in feel much more real, and what I dread is achieving anything lower than a Merit as my final grade. Below are my notes from the lecture.

Just before I left UCA, I had a quick chat with Jake about the state of my project right now. I put a copy of my font on his laptop, which he said he will check when he can for any errors in kerning or spacing. He also suggested pursuing the type specimen design style, and advised me to look at the work of other modernist designers such as Piet Zwart and Wim Crouwel for a bit of inspiration. We’ve both agreed that I’ll produce more drafts tonight, and we’ll go through them tomorrow for review.

I’ve got a lot of work to do still, but I just hope that I can get my posters complete by the latest on Wednesday, as I do want to print them out large-scale for the project deadline. A lot is riding on the amount I do in this last week, and so I need to keep my head down and keep working hard.

#s3journal #s3experimentation

Monotype Type Specimens

Pictured above are type specimens for the fonts Janson and Sans Serif, by type foundry Monotype. I’m not sure when this specimen was created, but much like the other type specimens I have looked at, I imagine it’s from sometime between 1920–1950. Again, just like the other type specimens I looked at, this one is clear and concise, showing the two fonts at different point sizes without any other aesthetic pleasantries, so that the viewer can fully appreciate the forms of the typefaces in all of their glory. The compositional style of this sheet is much more minimal than that of the SNE type specimen sheets, but I think that works to it’s advantage, nothing is placed on the page that doesn’t need to be there. That’s the way that I’d like to design my supporting materials, in a clear medium that is focused on function over aesthetics. Of course, it would be nice if my posters were aesthetically pleasing too.

#s3vresearch

Southern New England Typographic Service - Type Specimens

Pictured above, are two type specimen sheets from the Southern New England Typographic Service, showing 6 different fonts across the 2 sheets. The sheets show the different fonts set in different weights, as well as showing the entire glyph set of each font. I’m not sure what time period these type specimen sheets are from, but they’re from somewhere between 1920–1950. I really like the aesthetics and composition of the specimen sheets, and they’re a really clear and functional way of displaying a font in all of it’s glory, making them something that will fit the style of my font, and will compliment it the best. The vintage look to them also really suits my font, since it’s based on a logotype from around the same era that these type sheets were created. When making the supporting materials for my font, I’m going to experiment with using this aesthetic in a poster, and see how it comes out. It may not work, but I think that this style is the best bet for my font.

#s3vresearch

Week 8 - Evaluation

Week 8 has been a monumental week for my project. This week, I completed the design of my font, completed the fitting and kerning process, and begun working on promotional materials for the font. This sounds silly, but it feels quite surreal to actually have the font complete and ready for use. I spent at least a month working on it, and for it to be finished, and to not be working in Glyphs anymore is a weird feeling. Jake and Simon have been brilliant in providing me with feedback, and suggesting solutions to problems. Without their help, my font definitely wouldn’t be complete by now, and it wouldn’t have been produced to such a high standard. I very much value their feedback, as they can spot things that I wouldn’t notice otherwise, and it’s pretty important that I work out all the kinks in the font as it needs to be as functional as possible. Week 8 has been very productive and it’s paramount that I carry this productivity into the final week of the project. In week 9 of the project, I’ll be focusing heavily on producing high quality supporting materials that compliment my font in the best way possible. I’ll also be wrapping up every aspect of the project, gathering all of the necessary materials for the personal development folder, writing my final evaluation, and producing plans for the show. I’m pretty nervous about the deadline, but If I keep working hard, I know I’ll be fine. It’s the final push, and I don’t want to fail now.

#s3evaluations

7th May 2017 - Neutro Grotesk

Today has been a pretty unproductive day I will not lie. I was hoping to get a few decent drafts done for my supporting materials today, but I’ve been completely stuck for ideas, and spent most of my time looking for inspiration and thinking of ways to tackle this task. I did get a little bit done today, but nowhere near as much as I would have liked. Once I come back to it tomorrow, I’m hoping that my mind will be a bit refreshed, and I’ll have some decent ideas to build on.

Before I could even do any work, I needed to change my font’s name. I spent an hour or so trying to brainstorm different ideas for the font’s new name; so far I’ve come up with Tides Grotesk and Neutro Grotesk - Grotesk is the German word for Grotesque, which itself is a synonym for sans-serif, the category the font falls in to. Tides is a word that I thought just looked cool, but doesn’t necessarily have any contextual relation to the typeface itself. The word Neutro comes from an Italian phrase “Neutro a Terra”, which means “Neutral on the ground”. I thought that neutral was a good way to describe my typeface, as it’s more focused on function over aesthetics, so the design is pretty neutral. Having the word in a language other than English maintains the exotic flair that comes with using another language, but I’m not too sure about mixing two different languages in one name. I’ll continue to brainstorm different names, and seek feedback on whatever I come up with tommorrow.

I then spent a bit of time updating my FMP proposals. I updated both the bibliography and timetable, adding 2 new references to the bibliography, and adding 5 new items to the timetable. I updated both the paper and digital copies of my proposal, with the former featuring brief notes, and the latter featuring more in depth notes. Below are scans of my paper FMP Proposal after I updated it.

I then spent a good four or five hours trying to develop some rough supporting materials for my font. I had a real hard time with this, I struggled to find a colour scheme that I liked and that fit the aesthetic of the font, and once I did find a colour scheme I liked, I struggled to apply it to an effective composition. After a few hours of bouncing dead end ideas around my head, I thought I should just crack on and actually make what I’m thinking of. I made three draft supporting materials today, which are in the form of A3 posters. Making the supporting materials as posters is my main focus, as I want to get them printed and hung for the show, but I want to be create them in a way that allows for posting to Behance, as that will be the digital outlet where the posters can be viewed. When I talk about creating them in a specific way, I mean that I want to be able to stitch the posters together to create one long image that people online can view easily. The first poster I created is very simple, featuring only the font’s name on a dark background. For the second poster, I decided to employ the grid system, which I thought would spur my imagination a bit more. The second poster features the font’s name, and some quick details about the font. The third poster I created also employs the grid system, but features a paragraph detailing the font in much more depth than the first poster. The first poster employs a simple colour scheme of white text (#ffffff) set on a dark grey background (#1d1d1d). The second and third posters feature black text (#000000) set on an off-white background (#f6f5f3). Below are the three posters I created today, in the order that I made them.

Whilst I did make a bit of progress today, tomorrow must be much better. I can’t afford to be working at this slow pace this close to the project’s deadline. Hopefully being surrounded by my peers will spur my imagination and allow me to create promotional materials I can be happy with.

#s3journal #s3experimentation

6th May 2017 - Fitting and Kerning Conclusion

Today’s been pretty busy with the arrival of my niece, but I managed to find an hour here and there where I could get some work done. Today I focused on finishing off the kerning to a respectable standard which I managed to actually get done. Now that the design of the font is done, and the fit and kern have been adjusted, the font is pretty much ready to go.

I started off by adjusting the kerning of the lower-case j. I created 17 kern pairs where the tail of the lower-case j may clash with descenders in other glyphs. In these kern pairs, I set the kerning of the lower-case j anywhere from +5 ems to +165 ems. Now, on glyphs with descenders, the j will back away, giving both of the glyphs space to remain legible. On glyphs without descenders, the j will still snuggle up closely to them. Below are screenshots of the lower-case j kern pairs that I adjusted, before and after the kerning was changed. The yellow squares in the bottom screenshot show kerned space.

Now that I’ve solved the kerning issues with the lower-case j, and kerned the most common kerning pairs, it was time to move on to something more thorough. I copy and pasted part 1 from Kern King into Glyphs. Kern King is a website that compiles virtually every alphabetic kerning pair using a list of English and non-English words, as well as some made up ones. This is an extremely useful resource for type designers as it allows them to kern their font for every alphabetic kerning pair there is in one go. Using part 1 of Kern King, I identified a few problematic kern pairs, and I noticed some problems with the spacing of a few punctuation glyphs. First, I kerned the combination b? to -35 ems, I then made up some more combinations of this kern pair, using other lower-case letters that have a similar shape to the lower-case b. I then also kerned these pairs to -35 ems. I then adjusted the spacing of the period and comma to be 20 ems on each side of the glyph rather than 30 ems. I also applied these spacing changes to each punctuation glyph that featured either the period or comma shape. Below are a couple of screenshots of the lower-case letter question mark kern pairs that I adjusted, before and after. Below these is a screenshot of the space adjusted punctuation.

Next, I utilised part 2 of Kern King, which contains the most common initial caps kern pairs, rather than just all lower-case kern pairs. I copied the text into Glyphs, and ran through it, noting down any kern pairs that I thought were problematic. I identified 53 kern pairs that needed adjusting. I copied these kern pairs into another tab of Glyphs, and began adjusting them, changing the kerning anywhere from -4 ems to -70 ems. I also identified a problem in the spacing of the cap A, which I’ve adjusted to be 10 ems on each side of the glyph rather than 20 ems. Below is a screenshot of the 53 kern pairs I adjusted, along with a screenshot of the cap A’s adjusted spacing. Below those are scans of notes I made during this kerning process.

At this point, I had 96 kerning pairs in my font, so I thought that most of the letter combinations were pretty well covered. Of course, I could have kerned more combinations of letters and numbers and punctuation and such, but I don’t want to go overboard. Charles Nix gave some great advice in his Glyphs App Essential Training; he says something along the lines of “Don’t go all out with your kerning, otherwise your kern pairs will increase and increase, and things will quickly get out of hand.”

Before I finished my work for today, I thought I should probably export my font and test it out, now that it’s pretty much complete. Using Project Gutenberg, I copied an extract from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and set the text in my font, to try and identify any problems with the readability, or perhaps identity any problematic kerning pairs I had previously missed. I found it very easy to read through the text and was able to read through the extract promptly without having to slow down to read certain words or view certain glyphs. I also read an extract from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This extract featured larger paragraphs with less spacing in the text, but I still had no trouble reading the extract when it was set in my font. I was able to read through the text at my normal reading pace, and retain all the information I had just taken in. Whilst my font is not designed to be a text typeface, but rather a display typeface, I’m happy that it presents itself with some versatility to be used as both a text and display typeface.

I decided to email Jake to give him an update on my progress with the fitting and kerning of the font. I’ve sent him a copy of the font’s OTF file, so that he can install the font onto his computer and test it out himself, emailing me with any problems that he may find with the fit or kerning of the font. I asked him to forward the email to Simon so he can also test out the font over the weekend. Of course, they may both be busy over the weekend and may not have time to test my font, but I think it’s important to get a second opinion on fitting and kerning as it’s easy to miss something that either Jake or Simon will spot. I’ll just have to wait and see if they’ll be able to put my font through it’s paces.

Tomorrow I will revisit the kerning one last time just to double check that I’m happy with the fit and kern of the font; once I consider the font to be 100% complete, I’ll move on to preparing posters and other materials for the deadline. Everything is very much on track thankfully.

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5th May 2017 - Fitting and Kerning

Now that I’ve completed the design stage of the font, I can begin to adjust the fitting and kerning of the glyphs; once I’ve got them nailed down, the font will be ready for use. Once the font is done, I want to do a bit more visual research, and then begin designing posters using the font, to show my work in context.

Before I began adjusting the fitting and kerning, I decided to brush up a bit on my knowledge of the two aforementioned actions. I spent my morning rewatching the Fitting and Kerning chapter, and the Exporting and Testing chapter of Charles Nix’s Glyphs App Essential Training course. Rewatching these two chapters refreshed my memory on how to actually adjust the fit and kern of the font in glyphs, as well as using different shortcuts, and resources for testing the fit and kern of the font. I then also read through the Spacing and Kerning chapter of the Glyphs Handbook, and the Spacing, Metrics and Kerning chapter of Design with FontForge. The Glyphs Handbook gave me useful information on fitting and kerning within the Glyphs workspace, how to use different shortcuts and such, and Design with FontForge gave me some useful tips on general rules for fitting and kerning, such as which letters should have equal side-bearings etc. All of these resources gave me a useful knowledge base that I could use to begin my fitting and kerning, with confidence that I was doing it the right way.

From what I read in the morning, the left and right side bearings of each glyph need to be adjusted before you move on to kerning. Luckily, I was aware of this fact during the design stage of the font, and allocated 30 ems of space on each side of every glyph. This gave me a good starting point from which to adjust the side-bearings of each glyph. I started off by adjusting the fitting of the cap letters. I used the cap H as a control character, which helps me to gauge the amount of space on each side of every glyph. Adjusting this spacing is quite subjective, so I’m not sure if the amount of space I’ve allocated each glyph is correct, but to my eyes it looks about right. My font is quite tall and narrow, so I didn’t really need to allocate tons of space to each glyph, which I think works better; the tight spacing compliments the tall narrow glyphs. Below is a screenshot of the cap letter set before applying metric adjustments, and below that is a screenshot of the cap letter set after applying the metric adjustments.

Next, I adjusted the left and right side bearings of the lower-case letter set, by using the lower-case n as a control character to gauge the amount of space on each side of every letter. At first, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the lower-case j, but eventually I settled on setting the left side bearing to -130 ems, so that the hook of the j rests under the previous letter. I feel having the lower-case j like this looks better for overall spacing, but I fear it may clash with other letters that use descenders. I spoke to Jake about this issue, and he thinks that the lower-case j looks good the way I have spaced it. He added that it’s highly improbable that a letter with a descender such as a p, q, or y will be used right before a lower-case j, but just in-case, I’ll kern the j so that it doesn’t clash with any glyphs that feature descenders. Below is a screenshot of the lower-case letter set before and after applying metric adjustments.

I then adjusted the left and right side bearings of the number glyph set. Again, I used the cap H as a control character, so I could gauge the amount of space on each side of every letter. The numbers were quite easy to adjust, since most of them are the same width and have straight sides. Below is a screenshot of the number set before and after applying metric adjustments.

Next, I adjusted the left and right side bearings of the punctuation glyph set, using the cap H as a control character. Some of the punctuation was a bit tricky to adjust for, for example, the forward slash has a part of the slanted stroke that goes below the baseline, and it was difficult to gauge how much space was on each side of the letter. After a while I managed to get all of the side-bearings adjusted to range I was happy with. Below is a screenshot of the punctuation glyph set before and after applying metric adjustments.

Lastly, I adjusted the left and right side bearings of the symbol glyph set, once again, using the cap H as a control character. The symbols for the most part were pretty easy to kern for, as they featured simple shapes with straight strokes. The only one that was really a bit tricky was the percent symbol, but after a while I got the spacing right. Below is a screenshot of the symbol glyph set before and after applying the metric adjustments.

Once I’d finished adjusting the fitting of each glyph, I decided to export the font to run it through some tests in InDesign. I copied some text from Kern King into a document to look for problematic kerning pairs; this text featured single quotes/apostrophes, that, to my surprise, weren’t appearing correctly in the text, in fact not appearing at all. I headed back into Glyphs, and found that the text was using variants of the single quote glyphs called the Quote Left and Quote Right. To remedy the problem of these glyphs not appearing, I added them to my font, and used the comma’s shape in both glyphs, adjusting the positioning and width to be equal with the single quote glyph. Upon exporting the font again and pasting the text, the quotes now appear correctly. Below are screenshots of the Quote Left glyph and the Quote Right glyph.

The last thing I did today was adjust a few basic kerning pairs. Using the Sample Kerning Pairs section from the Basic Kerning Text website, I kerned some of the most common kerning pairs; these pairs have been kerned anywhere from -15 ems to -60 ems. All of them are looking much better than before they were kerned though. Below is a screenshot of the kerning pairs on the Basic Kerning Text website, along with a screenshot of these kerning pairs set in my font, after I had made my adjustments to them. The blue squares below the pairs denote space that has been kerned.

Shortly after I’d finished this task, I got a call from my dad saying that my sister was having her baby and he was on his way to get me. Of course, this meant I spent the rest of my evening up the hospital, so I didn’t have much chance to get work done. On Saturday though, I want to complete the kerning of the font, and run some tests of the spacing and kerning before I move on to using the font in designs on Sunday.

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4th May 2017 - Final Touches (Part 3)

Today marks the third and final part of my final touches to my font’s design. It’s been a long road up to this point, but the design of my font is finally complete. All that is left to do at this point, is kern the font, which I estimate to take probably 2 days, and then produce promotional materials for the font such as posters and flyers.

I started my day off by making changes to the cap A. I noticed I hadn’t actually set about straightening out the crossbar of the cap A, and so I rotated the crossbar to be straight rather than slanted, making the cap A match better with other letters such as the cap E and cap F. Below is a screenshot of the adjusted cap A.

I also made some changes to the number 6 in the morning. I changed the curve at the top of the number to be the same as in the number 9, so that it comes back down towards the mean-line after curving near the cap-line. I think this looks better, and makes the 6 look more consistent with the 9. Below is a screenshot of the adjusted 6.

After adjusting these two glyphs, I had my tutorial with Jake and Simon where they went over the entirety of my font, looking at the letter shapes and testing out different glyphs in practice. Both of them said that they font is looking really good right now, which was quite flattering to hear. They did of course have a few more changes to suggest before I completely wrapped up the font’s design. These suggestions included making changes to the curve in the question mark, increasing the stroke weight of the vertical stroke in the exclamation mark, and experimenting with a slalom shape in the lower-case x. Below is an image of some rough sketches Jake produced to better illustrate these suggestions.

I first adjusted the question mark and the inverted question mark. To make the curve more consistent with others found in the font, I completely removed the already existing one in the question mark, and replaced it with the curve found in the lower-case s. I then put a rounded stroke of 100 em stroke weight on top of the curve so that it stops in the middle of the glyph and comes down towards the jot. This curve fits the font style much better, and helps the two question mark glyphs create a harmony between the other glyphs. Below are screenshots of both the question mark glyph, and the inverted question mark glyph.

Next, I adjusted the stroke weight of the exclamation mark and inverted exclamation mark; by using the Offset Curve filter, I was able to expand the paths by 5 ems horizontally to make the stroke a fraction thicker. The thicker vertical stroke gives the exclamation marks more strength, making them stand out a bit more in practice. The vertical stroke also appears to be equal in stroke weight to other glyphs now. Below are screenshots of the adjusted exclamation mark glyphs.

Jake again suggested trying out a lower-case x with curved strokes, this time telling me to try out a slalom shape to achieve the curved x. I tried two slalom type strokes that cross each other, but it produced the same result as the pair of u shapes that I tried yesterday. I also tried moving the mid-stroke up a bit, which made the letter look a bit better, but ultimately I think the lower-case x with the straight slanted strokes is the one to use. Below are screenshots of both iterations of curved lower-case x that I created today.

Lastly, I made a quick change to the Ampersand. When me and Jake spoke earlier in the day, we both decided that the best ampersand to use was the one that had the top stroke coming back down towards the baseline from the cap-line. Whilst it doesn’t look like a traditional ampersand, it does indicate parts of a traditional ampersand in it’s shape, and through that it becomes recognisable as an ampersand, and works well in practice. Below is a screenshot of the final ampersand.

With the final change to the ampersand, the design stage of my font was complete. Once I’d finished the design, I had one more quick chat with Jake just to go over the suggestions I attempted; we both agreed the question marks and exclamation points were much better, but even Jake admitted that the curved lower-case x simply didn’t work, and that it was better to stick with the slanted stroke x. Below is a screenshot of the final glyph set for my font.

From here, I spent the rest of my afternoon and will be spending the rest of my evening refreshing my memory on the practice of kerning. For this, I’ll be rewatching the Fitting and Kerning section of Charles Nix’s Glyphs App Essential Training course, and also reading through the Spacing and Kerning chapter of the Glyphs Handbook. Tomorrow morning I’ll be making a start on the kerning, which I expect to complete at the very latest by Sunday evening, so that I can begin to make promotional materials for the font on Monday morning.

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3rd May 2017 - Final Touches (Part 2)

This post is the second part of a three part series on the final touches being added to the design of my font. I didn’t have as much time to work today as I thought I would due to family related matters; nevertheless, I did get everything done today that I wanted to, and I’m happy to say that my font’s design is about 95% complete. Tomorrow I’ll be going through my font one last time with Jake and Simon just to get their okay on the design of each glyph before I move onto kerning.

I started my day off by adjusting the lower-case x, more specifically, bringing in the bottoms of the strokes by 5 ems to move the midpoint of the letter down. This changes makes the letter’s centre to be just that, in the centre, when in fact it’s slightly below that; this is because of an optical illusion that makes the letter seem top-heavy when the centre is in the mathematical centre. Below are a couple of screenshots of the lower-case x on it’s own, and in practice.

I then began to experiment with the lower-case x’s shape. Jake suggested to me yesterday creating a lower-case x with curved strokes rather than straight slanted strokes. I tried two iterations of this idea, and they both didn’t work at all. The way my font is made doesn’t really allow for this sort of shape without radical changes to stroke weight, which I’d then have to reflect throughout the whole font to maintain consistency. It was an interesting experiment, but unfortunately it didn’t work at all. Below are screenshots of both of the experimental lower-case x’s.

Following on from what’s left on my font to-do list, I adjusted the capital N. I remade the shape of the cap N so it was all one shape rather than three, making it easier to adjust in the future. I moved the points where the diagonal strokes meet the vertical strokes up and down by 5 ems, to make the diagonal stroke’s weight appear optically even with the stroke weight of the verticals. Below are screenshots of the adjusted N by itself and in practice.

I then adjusted the cap V. I moved the position of the crotch up by 5 ems, making the diagonal strokes appear a bit heavier, better matching the stroke weight of 100 ems throughout the font. Below is a screenshot of the cap V.

Next on my to-do list was the lower-case j. I duplicated the lower-case j shape, and made a version where the bottom end of the vertical stroke curves and comes back up to the baseline, instead of finishing 50 ems below it. I’m still very unsure of what to do with this letter, I think the original j I had where the stroke ended 50 ems below the baseline is the best one to use, as when it comes to kerning, I can kern other letters to sit on top of the end of that curve, closing up the large amount of space in the letter. I’ll be sure to seek feedback from my tutors on this tomorrow. Below is a screenshot of adjustment I made to the lower-case j.

Another tricky glyph, the lower-case k. Today I adjusted the width of the lower-case k to be 280 ems rather than 250 ems, giving the letter more breathing room; this allowed me to extend the ends of the diagonal strokes outwards, making the shape look much less squished and awkward. The lower-case k looks much more natural now, and works really well in practice. I don’t think any more adjustments are needed for this glyph. Below are screenshots of the lower-case k by itself, as well as in practice.

Just like with the lower-case x, Jake suggested creating a lower-case k with curved strokes in place of the slanted strokes. I tried this iteration out, but just like the lower-case x experimentation, I found that it didn’t work out all too well, the letter just looked way too awkward and out of place among the other letters. I think I’ll just stick with the lower-case k that features slanted strokes. Below is a screenshot of the lower-case k experimentation.

Next, I adjusted the lower-case v. For this letter, I moved the tops of the strokes outwards by 5 ems to knock the crotch of the letter down a little bit, making the letter feel less chunky. The letter’s new width is 310 ems. Below are screenshots of the lower-case v by itself and in practice.

I then adjusted the number 1. I decided to go back to the more complex version of the shape, and according to suggestions by Jake, I shortened the length of the slanted stroke by 40 ems, and widened it by 6 ems, making the stroke appear optically even in weight with the vertical stem. I think the complex version of the number 1 works better because it’s much more recognisable as a 1 than a straight stem all by itself, which could be a cap I or a lower-case l. Below are screenshots of the refined 1 by itself and in practice.

Next, I adjusted the number 7. I made some small changes to the weight of the letter, changing the weight of the horizontal stroke to 105 ems, so that it appears more optically even with the weight of the slanted stroke. Below is a screenshot of the adjusted number 7.

I then made a quick adjustment to the space, changing it’s width from 200 ems to 150 ems. I think this tighter space works well with the font because of it’s narrow proportions, but I’ll be sure to get some feedback on this change from Jake and Simon tomorrow.

The Ampersand, easily the glyph I’ve had the most trouble with throughout this whole project. I duplicated the ampersand’s shape, and changed it so that the end of the top horizontal stroke curves back down and rests on the mean-line; Jake suggested trying this out, and while I do find the shape interesting, I simply don’t like the look of it. I feel like the design of this glyph is too unique for it to actually be recognisable as an ampersand. I still need to do some serious thinking on how to solve the ampersand problem. Below is a screenshot of the experimental ampersand I created today.

Next, I made some adjustments and tried some new things with a few of the numbers. In particular, the number 2, 3, 8, and 9. The first changes I made were actually suggestions by Jake, and they were to level the central stroke of each number so that they were all in line. This meant raising the central stroke of the 2, 3, 8, and 9 by 50 ems. The new things I tried, were extending the end of the bottom stroke in the 3 up higher to be in line with the 5, and also adding this curved ending to the 9. I think all of these changes work really well, and make the numbers much more harmonious as a group, but I’m still a bit weary of these changes being made to the 9. I’ll be sure to seek feedback on them tomorrow. Below are screenshots of the risen central strokes in the numbers, and screenshots of the curved ending changes to the 3 and 9.

Lastly, I experimented with the number 7′s shape. I created two new versions of the number 7, one which has a shorter horizontal stroke with a steeper slanted stroke, and another one with the two aforementioned changes, as well as the left side of the top stroke curving back down towards the cap-line, similar to the top of the number 3. I think the first new iteration of the 7 works decently, but I’m slightly concerned it may be too narrow; the second iteration on the other hand, I don’t really like. I feel like having a stroke that curves back down in the 7 is quite odd, and gives the number a weird silhouette. I’ll be sure to seek Jake and Simon’s feedback on these two iterations of the 7. Below are screenshots showing these two versions of the number 7.

Tommorrow I’ll be going through the whole of my font with Jake and Simon, and making the absolute final changes to it’s design. I hope that by Friday morning, I’ll be able to make a start on the kerning.

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2nd May 2017 - Final Touches (Part 1)

You may be wondering why this post is titled “Final Touches (Part 1)”, and there’s good reason for that curiosity. The title is Final Touches (Part 1), because over the course of today and tomorrow, I’m applying the final touches to my font’s design. On Thursday I’m going to have a tutorial with Jake and Simon where they both go through the font just to check everything is fine with the design before I move on to the kerning. I estimate it’ll take me about 2 days to get the font kerned perfectly. Once it’s all kerned, it’ll be ready to export and ready to use.

Before I started my font design work today, I needed to print out university emails and such for my CTX folder. I think my CTX folder is coming along well, I just need to spend an hour one day going through everything and making sure I have it.

I started off my font design work by adjusting the cap E, F, and H. I had a little chat with Jake this morning, showing him a few things I’d changed over the past few days, and he pointed out a few changes I should make to the font. One suggestion was to get rid of the slanted strokes in the cap E, F, and H. Whilst this stroke was a key part of the MERZ identity, I feel like my font has grown and developed into something of it’s own. It’ll forever be inspired by the MERZ logotype, and that inspiration is obvious, but it’s made it’s own identity for itself now. I straightened out the slanted strokes in the cap E, F, and H and I adjusted their height placement (in the E and F they are slightly above the centre of the letter, in the H the stroke is centred). Below are screenshots of the cap E, F, and H by themselves, along with screenshots of the refined letters in practice.

Jake also suggested to me this morning creating a simplified version of the lower-case j, to solve the issue of the huge amount of white space on the left hand side of the letter. I decided to create a very simplified version of the letter that is akin to the lower-case i, except the bottom of the vertical stroke ends 200 ems below the baseline. I don’t really feel like this simplified version works all that well, nor do I think it’s even recognisable as a lower-case j, but it does make the spacing around the letter feel much more snug. I’ll ask Jake and Simon what they think of this on Thursday. Below are screenshots of the simplified j by itself and in practice.

The last suggestion Jake made to me this morning, was to adjust the shape of the lower-case w, to be similar to that of the lower-case m, saying that the former should look like the latter flipped vertically. I did try this iteration of the lower-case w, but I’m not really sure the curved shape works as well was the straight w shape I had; sure, it’s works, but I just can’t shake the feeling that the letter shape is wrong for a w. I’ll let this one sit for a while and come back to it in a few hours. Below is a screenshot of the curved lower-case w, along with a screenshot showing the letter in practice.

One of the items on my to-do list for today was to adjust the lower-case f’s shape. I simplified the shape of the letter, getting rid of the left side of the crossbar just like I did with the lower-case t. This change makes the letter’s shape much simpler, and makes the spacing around the letter flow much smoother. I think this simplified f works really well and so I’m going to use it over the more complex shape. Below is a screenshot of the simplified f by itself, along with a screenshot showing the letter in practice.

Next up, I made some small changes to 9 of the glyphs, which I’m just going to bunch up into one paragraph, so try and keep up! I first adjusted the cap B, where I moved the top loop closer to the vertical stroke by 10 ems. I then shortened the middle horizontal stroke in the cap E by 10 ems, and the bottom horizontal stroke in the F by 10 ems. This shortening of strokes is so at smaller point sizes, the horizontal strokes look equal in length. I then adjusted the cap M and cap W, increasing the stroke width of the diagonal strokes to be optically even with the vertical strokes. Next, I adjusted the cap X, bringing in the bottoms of the strokes inwards by 5 ems, which in turn, moves the midpoint of the letter down to adjust for optical evenness. I then adjusted the cap Y, adjusting the diagonal stroke angle to be the same as in the cap X, I also centred the vertical stroke. Next, I adjusted the lower-case z, increasing the diagonal stroke’s stroke weight by 5 ems to appear optically even in weight with the horizontal strokes. Lastly, I adjusted the number symbol, decreasing the angles of the ends of each horizontal stroke, which gives the symbol less of an italic look. Below are screenshots of the cap B, E, F, M, W, X, Y, lower-case z, and number symbol after I made these changes.

After making these changes, I updated my font to-do list feature changes I was still yet to make. In total there’s only 14 changes left to make before the design is complete, which is pretty exciting.

Just before the end of the day, I sat down for a quick tutorial session with Jake, where me and him went over the majority of my font’s design to make sure everything was how it should be. Jake agreed with me that most of the font was complete, and gave me a few suggestions for some of the bits I still needed to complete, such as the ampersand and the number 1. He also recommended a few things for me to experiment with before I completely wrap up the design stage of my font. These experimentations include adjusting the ends of strokes, changing slanted strokes to rounded strokes, and adjust angles of strokes and adjusting widths. I got Jake to write down (or sketch) all of the stuff he wanted me to experiment with on a piece of paper. We’ve both agreed that I’ll make all of these changes over the course of Wednesday, emailing Jake if necessary, ready for another final tutorial on the font’s design on Thursday with both Jake and Simon. Below is a scan of the feedback sheet Jake sketched up for me.

Just before I left today, I made changes to the lower-case w and the space. Me and Jake came to an agreement that the curved shape works much better for the lower-case w, and so I set it as the master. I also mentioned to Jake that I felt the space was too wide, and he suggested setting it to 200 ems, which both me and him agreed looked much better.

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1st May 2017 - Final Design Stages

Today I worked on correcting most of my font’s major design kinks; this involved adjusting curves, widths and the shapes of some glyphs. After the progress I made today, I feel like the design stage of my font is coming close to it’s end, ahead of schedule too which is good. Once I’ve finished working on the design, I’ll be able to work on the kerning and leading, and then the font will be ready to use.

The other day I sent Jake an email asking him what he thought of the At symbol and Ampersand redesigns I had done. This morning I received a reply from him on the matter. He said that he liked the at symbol redesign, and agreed with me that it works really well in practice, but he did also point out that the ampersand could use some more work. He also pointed out the crossbar in the lower-case t, and how I should get rid of the left-hand side of the crossbar to give the letter a cleaner look. I noted down Jake’s suggestions in my notebook to act upon today. Below is a scan of the notes in my notebook.

I started off my designing today by acting upon Jake’s suggestion for the lower-case t. I removed the left hand side of the crossbar, which simplified the shape, and brought the width down to 196 ems. I think the simplified t works really well, and does solve a majority of the issues with it’s spacing. I have however kept the more complex version of the glyph on another layer, just in case I change my mind on the shape before the deadline. Below is a screenshot of the lower-case t by itself, as well as a screenshot showing it in practice.

Next, I made some changes to the ampersand, in response to Jake’s suggestions in his email. I’ve shortened the central diagonal stroke to where it meets with the top horizontal stroke of the loop, and I’ve also brought in the right side of the symbol. The new width of the symbol is now 400 ems, and I also rounded off the bottom left corner of the top-most horizontal stroke by a radius of 25. I think this refined version of the ampersand does look a lot better, and fits the proportions of my font better, but I’m still a bit unsure. I’ll be sure to seek Jake’s feedback on this ampersand, and the other variation I created yesterday. Below is a screenshot of the refined ampersand by itself and a screenshot of it in practice.

One thing I noticed whilst working on the lower-case t is that a lot of the lower-case glyphs have odd widths. I decided to round all of these widths to their nearest 10, to give the lower-case letters a bit more unity in their widths. I adjusted the weights of the lower-case f, j, m, r, t, v, y, and z. Adjusting these weights involved moving a few elements only a few ems so I figure it’s not worth going into detail, but now all of these glyphs have even widths that are easier to work with, and look better when placed with other glyphs. Below are all of the glyphs whose widths I adjusted.

According to my to-do list, I needed to do some general fixing up of the cap H. I increased the weight of both vertical strokes to 100 ems, and adjusted the weight of the slanted stroke to be optically even with the vertical strokes. I did also centre the slanted stroke. The H looks a lot more even and symmetrical after these changes. Below is a screenshot of the cap H by itself, and a screenshot of the H in practice.

One thing that Jake had pointed out to me last week that was stuck in my mind, was that the cap letters and lower-case letters slightly seem like they’re both from a different font. To remedy this problem, I decided to round off select corners of the cap letters to give them a similar aesthetic to the lower-case letters. I didn’t round off every single corner, as this would have created problems with shape and proportions. I rounded off only select corners to a radius of 25, to create a universal harmony in the aesthetics of the font. Just a quick sidenote, whilst I was doing this, I did have to adjust the angle of the diagonal strokes in the A, K, V, X, and Y after rounding their corners, to keep the letter widths the same. I’ll be sure to see what Jake and Simon think of this big change, and just incase it doesn’t work out, I’ve kept the old versions of all of the cap letters on seperate layers. Below is a screenshot of all of the cap letters after I rounded off their corners.

Another thing on my to-do list was to adjust the curves in the cap B, P, and R to better match the aesthetic of the font. Using the loop shape from the number 3, I was able to refine all three of the aforementioned cap letters to have a curve shape that fits the font aesthetic much better. I also adjusted the leg in the cap R using the leg from the cap K and narrowing it. I think these changes make the letters look better and fit in better with the rest of the font, but just in case, I’ve kept the old versions on another layer, and I’ll be seeking Jake and Simon’s feedback on these changes. Below are screenshots of the refined cap B, P, and R, as well as a few screenshots showing these letters in practice.

The last letter I worked on today, was the cap S. I went ahead and altered the curve angles and curve stroke weights to better reflect the dollar symbol S shape, and to optically match better with the rest of the font. These changes make the cap S look much better in my opinion. Below is a screenshot of the refined cap S, and a screenshot showing the letter in practice.

As we begin the 8th week of the FMP, I’ll be seeking feedback from Jake and Simon for any further refinements I can make to the design of the font, then finishing up the design stage of the font and moving on to kerning and leading. Below is a screenshot of my entire font as of Monday the 1st of May 2017.

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