Hello typedrawers,
it is my pleasure to introduce myself with my first, and truly humbling, attempt at designing a typeface. In the past I have always been drawn to letter shapes and practiced calligraphy on and off for years. In the past I have worked as interface designer and web developer (feel free to check my portfolio), so I have had a lot of contact with typography, however, so far not on such a macro level. Currently I am doing a MA in New Media at the Media Lab Helsinki, so this gives me time to indulge in such a demanding learning project as this.
![]( "Image: http://johannesneumeier.com/static/untitled-font-previewsheet-wip-johannes-neumeier-1.png")
Check previewsheet.pdf
This yet to be named typeface started mostly out of interest in exploring how seriffed letters are constructed and how the overall process of designing a typeface works. Some inspiration came from the predominant slab serif trend, but my professor also kindly pointed me to Scotch typefaces. All in all, though, I could not say (or at least name) any particular clear inspiration.
Over time the use I imagined this typeface for has developed to be somewhat of a text face for medium length texts, possibly with a focus on screen publication (however, I am unsure if that particular "aim" is really met or evident in any way). In terms of progress I have drawn and tweaked the roman alphabet for a while now, added punctuation and some numerals, and (not shown so far) played around with diacritics. Metrics and kerning (last two pages of the PDF) are still very rough - I am learning the technical aspects still, as well as struggling to implement my design choices coherently.
Before jumping on to cursive (which I have some sketches for) or trying bolder versions I wanted to refine this font still by exposing it, and myself, to some criticism from more experienced designers. This can range from detail aspects to the overall impression. As a learner, I would really like to hear your reasonings and how to approach solving issues you might point out.
Also some concrete questions:
Is hinting a thing still, and should I be planning on hinting the font?
I know webfonts, and CSS, start supporting open type features. But how about open type kerning, is that an "automatic" standard in modern webfont formats when generating them from a open type source?
But most importantly, your opinions on this typeface design so far? What to improve, where are problems, and can you recommend or point me to similar typeface references?
Many thanks,
Johannes
it is my pleasure to introduce myself with my first, and truly humbling, attempt at designing a typeface. In the past I have always been drawn to letter shapes and practiced calligraphy on and off for years. In the past I have worked as interface designer and web developer (feel free to check my portfolio), so I have had a lot of contact with typography, however, so far not on such a macro level. Currently I am doing a MA in New Media at the Media Lab Helsinki, so this gives me time to indulge in such a demanding learning project as this.
Check previewsheet.pdf
This yet to be named typeface started mostly out of interest in exploring how seriffed letters are constructed and how the overall process of designing a typeface works. Some inspiration came from the predominant slab serif trend, but my professor also kindly pointed me to Scotch typefaces. All in all, though, I could not say (or at least name) any particular clear inspiration.
Over time the use I imagined this typeface for has developed to be somewhat of a text face for medium length texts, possibly with a focus on screen publication (however, I am unsure if that particular "aim" is really met or evident in any way). In terms of progress I have drawn and tweaked the roman alphabet for a while now, added punctuation and some numerals, and (not shown so far) played around with diacritics. Metrics and kerning (last two pages of the PDF) are still very rough - I am learning the technical aspects still, as well as struggling to implement my design choices coherently.
Before jumping on to cursive (which I have some sketches for) or trying bolder versions I wanted to refine this font still by exposing it, and myself, to some criticism from more experienced designers. This can range from detail aspects to the overall impression. As a learner, I would really like to hear your reasonings and how to approach solving issues you might point out.
Also some concrete questions:
Is hinting a thing still, and should I be planning on hinting the font?
I know webfonts, and CSS, start supporting open type features. But how about open type kerning, is that an "automatic" standard in modern webfont formats when generating them from a open type source?
But most importantly, your opinions on this typeface design so far? What to improve, where are problems, and can you recommend or point me to similar typeface references?
Many thanks,
Johannes