There was an increase in entries in the typeface design competition this year. We received 9% more entries. Of the 176 typefaces entered from 29 countries, 16 were selected. The winning typefaces came from seven countries. 79 % was outside the U.S.
Dave Farey, HouseStyle Graphics, London was the chair. Dave stated that it was stimulating to see such a wide range of new styles across al the categories, particularly the non latin alphabets. The panel of judges were very meticulous in their selections – sadly, not all entrants work was chosen, but all of them were carefully considered, and appreciated. The jury included Gail Anderson (Spotco, New York); Gary Munch (Munchfonts); Daniel Pelavin and Doyald Young.
Ingeborg
Typeface Designer: Michael Hochleitner, Vienna, Austria
Foundry: Typejockeys (www.typejockeys.com)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic, Fat, Fat Italic, and Block
The Ingeborg family was designed with the intent of producing a readable modern face. Its roots might well be historic, but its approach is very contemporary. Ingeborg‘s Text Weights are functional and discreet. This was achieved without losing the classic characteristics of a Didone typeface, which are the vertical stress and the high contrast. The Display Weights on the other hand are designed to fulfill their job and catch the reader’s eye by individual form and a whole lot of ink on the paper. Nevertheless both are of one origin and work together in harmony.
Deliscript
Typeface Designer: Michael Doret, Hollywood, California
Members of Typeface Family/System: Upright and Slant
Although initially inspired by the neon sign in front of Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, the design of Deliscript soon took on a life of its own–such as the variable length tails which can be accessed in six different styles, and the crossbars which can be extended outward in either direction from the lowercase “t”. These unusual features only became possible after enlisting OpenType programming assistance from Patrick Griffin of CanadaType, and they help make possible typesetting that approaches the look and feel of handlettering.
Kazuraki
Typeface Designer: Ryoko Nishizuka, Tokyo
Foundry: Adobe Systems, Inc. (www.adobe.com)
Language: Japanese
Members of Typeface Family/Superfamily: Single, Display, and True Proportional Calligraphic Type
After revising the typeface design, which started as my 1995 graduation thesis from art university, I was able to turn it into a working font. A fully-proportional Japanese typeface design is not only about the design. Turning it into a working font is not possible without technological help. By defying the boundaries of traditional Japanese type design, I think that I was able to create a freely flowing design.
Urbana Lnd
Typeface Designer: Birgit Mayer, Vienna, Austria
Designing Urbana Lnd was mostly about looking very closely at something that already exists, extracting parts and transferring them into a new context. I was not even aware that I was designing a font when I first started engaging myself with its forms.
I found them in the road network of London, which is full of beautiful little ornaments when seen from above, It was important to me not to add any streets or change the course of the roads, but allowed myself to leave out streets and proportion the ones I kept.
What I like most about the output is that it shows a very particular design process, which is much more related to exploring than it is to inventing.
Joos
Typeface Designer: Laurent Bourcellier, Scherwiller, France
Foundry: (typographies.fr)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Classic and Pro
Joos is a revival of an upright italic created in 1536 in Gent. This work is not a formal revival but it faithfully fits into the scheme of Joos Lambrecht (punchcutter), which was to idealize roman types by bringing together the characteristic graceful shapes of italics and the angularity of romans. In order to make the character optically vertical, it was necessary to work on each character with a specific angle, which was defined by its structure and dimension. Capitals have geometrical vertical stems while the lowercase letters have an angle which varies between zero and two degrees.
Espinosa Nova
Typeface Designer: Cristobal Henestrosa, Mexico City, Mexico
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular, Italic, Bold, Rotunda (Bold Alt), Titling, and Ornaments
This revival is based on the types used by Antonio de Espinosa, the most important Mexican printer of the sixteenth century and very probably the first punchcutter anywhere on the American continent (1551).
Lavigne Display
Typeface Designer: Ramiro Espinoza, Amsterdam
Foundry: ReType
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular, Italic, Light, Light Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic
“Lavigne Display” is the first release of a type family aimed at publications such as interior design and women’s magazines–anywhere a touch of distinction is to be desired. The philosophy behind “Lavigne” is to achieve the high contrast and other refinements observed in classic ‘modern serif’ typefaces, without borrowing too much from history. Accordingly, the main source of inspiration was careful observation of pointed-pen calligraphy and sketching.
“Lavigne” is planned as a family with two main divisions, Display and Text. The range will cover every type-hierarchy required in modern magazine design. The six distinct styles in the Display version are published in OpenType format, featuring small caps and four sets of numbers (proportional old style, tabular old style, proportional lining and tabular lining), as well as matching currency symbols.
ITC Legacy Square Serif Pro
Typeface Designer: Ronald Arnholm, Athens, Georgia
Foundry: International Typeface Corporation (www.itcfonts.com, www.fonts.com, www.linotype.com, www.faces.co.uk)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Book, Light, Extra Light, Medium, Bold, Bold Italic, and Ultra Foundry
Rounding out my ITC Legacy family is the square serif version, begun as pencil sketches on tracing vellum. I worked alternately over specimens of the serif and sans, with the square serif concept being my hypothetical interpolation between the two styles. Final sketches, scanned and brought into Photoshop for editing, allowed me to work in a manner similar to that of pre-computer days, before moving to Fontographer.
At a microscopic level, the serif corners create a very strong definition to the edge of the baseline, x-height and cap height, giving it a crisp color on the page; the two degrees of bracketing and tapering of some serifs prevent it from being overly assertive. The diagonal humanist stress creates interlacing between letters, and along with the serif asymmetry, produce a forward momentum, a feeling of warmth, humanity, readability, and legibility on both paper and screen. Sentences are like a braided rope, rather than a chain of beads; they are like music, instead of being the mere repetition of sounds. In text sizes the font does not assert itself as a square serif, since it is not seen as that style, meshing perfectly with the serif. But at display sizes it is definitely a square serif.
Retiro
Typeface Designers: Jean François Porchez, Clamart, France
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular and its extensions
A daring interpretation of Spanish typography: severe, austere, and yet full of life. Named after a lovely park in Madrid. Madriz magazine wanted stereotypical “Didot” as in the masthead of women’s magazines: L’Officiel, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar. The result is an imaginary Castilian and Andalusian vernacular Didot, as this kind of typeface doesn’t exist in Spanish history of typography. The project started as an unusual collaboration: Retiro was commissioned by a publisher rather than an art director. During the summer of 2009, we finalised the typeface, adding many additional glyphs, removing undesired ones. Madriz magazine, a guide to Madrid life and culture for residents and tourists alike, is a witness to the contrasts between the city’s modernisation and its traditions. Madriz is a biannual, bilingual city magazine first published in 2007.
Narziss
Typeface Designer: Hubert Jocham, Lautrach, Germany
Foundry: Hubert Jocham Type (www.hubertjocham.de)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular, Drops, and Swirls
I was always fascinated by Tony DiSpigna’s lettering in U&lc, so I designed an earlier typeface, Mommie, with very high contrast. Narziss is an upright neoclassic serif with very high contrast, too. In the swirls version, I wanted the swirls to overlap with the neighboring characters.
Rieven
Typeface Designer: Steven Skaggs, Louisville Kentucky
Foundry: Delve Fonts (www.delvefonts.com)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Uncial and Italic
Rieven Uncial retains a richness and elegance found in traditional uncial forms but it has been carefully tempered to be much more versatile. The accompanying Italic works perfectly well with its uncial cousin despite being structurally quite distinct from it. The trick is to make the contrast with the uncial be one of narrow to wide rather than straight to slanted.
Rieven italic slants only five degrees. To make it relate to the uncial form, it was given ‘knuckles’ which suggest the branching direction of the uncial while, in fact, it actually branches from the bottom like a cursive. The two different forms have been carefully brought together into a single family with the flexibility one has come to expect for general text work.
Fugu
Typeface Designer: Neil Summerour, Jefferson, Georgia
Foundry: Positype (TypeTrust.com, MyFonts.com, veer.com, FontShop.com)
Fugu is intended neither to be perfectly flowing nor over-the-top. It is the product of sumi brush on cotton paper and written in an intentionally casual pace. Each letterform relies on how the hand reacts from character to character. The interplay is instinctual and deliberate with resulting forms taking a more visceral appearance on the page and screen. The texture is “real,” void of software trickery or plug-ins. The casual style is refreshing and contemporary–further expanded by alternate glyphs, swashes and ligatures found in both the type and glyph palettes.
Ysobel
Typeface Designers: Robin Nicholas, Alice Savoie, and Delve Withrington
Foundry: Monotype and fonts.com (www.monotypeimaging.com and fonts.com)
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular, Italic, Light, Light Italic, Semi Bold, Semi Bold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Display, Display Italic, Display Light, Display Light Italic, Display Semi Bold, Display Semi Bold Italic, Display Bold, Display Bold Italic, Display Extra Bold, Display Extra Bold Italic, Display Thin, and Display Thin Italic
“The idea for the design,” says Robin Nicholas, “started when I was asked to develop a custom version of Century Schoolbook. I wanted to give the design a more contemporary feel, although the client ultimately decided to keep their typeface closer to the original. The project nevertheless gave me ideas for a new design. Since designing Nimrod some 30 years ago, I had wanted to make a more modern typeface family for newspapers and magazines.”
Ysobel has the soft, inviting letter shapes of Century Schoolbook but contrasts these with more incised serifs and terminals. Its capitals are also narrower than those of Century Schoolbook, and care was taken to ensure that they harmonize perfectly with the lowercase. Ysobel’s x-height is full-bodied without disrupting lowercase proportions.
Rum Black
Typeface Designer: Trine Rask, Copenhagen
Foundry: Types United (www.myfonts.com)
Rum is designed inside out, focusing on the counters. The counters are repeated throughout the typeface, which gives a strong text image in small and especially display sizes. It is both very simple and very delicate in detail. It has a large character set with alternative characters that make it possible to create a more soft and round text image. It has very delicate swashes that work like a discreet period after a word.
“Rum” means space in Danish.
Aisha
Typeface Designer: Titus Nemeth, Paris
Foundry: www.tntypography.com
Members of Typeface Family/System: Regular
Language: Arabic
Aisha was created as part of my research within the post-diplome programme at the ESAD in Amiens, Frances. Originating from an enquiry into the history of an Arabic metal fount cut in the 19th century, part of this typeface qualifies as an historical revival. Its reinterpretation provided insights into its creation and practices from the past.
Moreover, a redefinition of the historic model within contemporary practice through extension of language support and the design of a Latin companion added value and interest. Based on the calligraphy practiced in the Maghreb and covering North Africa as well as most European languages, this typeface aspires to be a usable and relevant contribution to Arabic typography of today.
DecoType Nastaliq
Typeface Designer: Mirjam Somers, Amsterdam
Foundry: DecoType
Client: Winsoft, France
(www.winsoft-international.com)
DecoType Nastaliq is the latest fruit of more than 25 years of analyzing Arabic scripts in their pure, pre-typographic form. Like its close relative ruq?ah, nastaliq retains the original two-dimensional aspect of Arabic script. To capture this for use in an essentially Latin-based technical environment is a great challenge. The final glyph set consists of a minimal set of functional shapes, with which for all Arabic-scripted languages all imaginable combinations with any diacritic attachment can be generated. This is possible solely with the use of ACE, the Arabic Calligraphic Engine, a radical departure from conventional thinking in Gutenberg-style movable type. ACE was developed by the DecoType team, Thomas Milo, Peter Somers and Mirjam Somers, initially for the ruq?ah script, later it was expanded for a very broad analysis of the naskh script. Today ACE drives any Arabic typeface and is the core engine of WinSoft’s Tasmeem enhancement of Adobe InDesign Middle Eastern version. The seminal rôle of ACE for the development of smart font technology, including OpenType, was recently acknowledged with the Dr Peter Karow Award.? DecoType Nastaliq is dedicated to the memory of John Cooper, Islamic scholar (1947-1998).
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4311108
The Latin portions of the DecoType Nastaliq Specimens are set in Grotext Ultra Light, designed by Karsten Luecke.
