One challenge that crossed my path whilst creating my font was whether or not to make it Serif or Sans-Serif. Typically, geometric fonts are sans-serif as the serif disrupts the flow and the symmetry of the lettering but I thought it would be an interesting twist and it would give me my own kind of ‘style’. I tried playing around with this but I didn’t think it worked at all. In stead of creating my own style it looked like I had used the pen tool on Illustrator with my eyes closed. I scraped this idea and just decided to stick to a generic sans-serif geometric typeface.
Completing my Typeface
I really enjoyed creating my geometric typeface. It gave me a chance to experiment with different tools and skills over a wide range of platforms. As I come close to finishing my final typeface I had a brain wave and I’ve realised what I can do to complete it and make it look more professional. I am going to completely remove all of the vertical lines in the type and replace them with horizontal lines – giving the type a stripy look whilst maintaing the geometric style.
If all goes to plan then this typeface should look extremely interesting and visually stimulating – almost like an optical illusion. The lines horizontal lines will guide your eyes around the type and will flow nicely between letters. I think this is a very hard thing to achieve without using a cursive font, but with the right tools I am sure I can make this typeface look better than ever before!
Typeface 3
Further continuing the development of my typeface, I noticed that adding the extra line made the typeface look uneven. Because of the slant in the vertical lines in the lettering. Adding two parallel lines in a horizontal position made it look uneven and didn’t give it a good look- so I decided to add a further two lines and to change the starting point and the end point of them.
I think this typeface looks a lot better than my other two, it looks more tidy and professional. I’m still not entirely happy and think it still needs a bit of work but it is definitely along the right lines of what I am aiming for. To improve on this typeface I am going to continue adding horizontal lines to fill the letters out, and maybe get rid of the vertical lines.
Second Geometric Typeface
In my opinion the first typeface I made needed quite a bit of improvement. I wanted to try and expand on it and make it more dynamic and interesting. Continuing with this line of thought I played around with pen and paper and came up with an idea to add another horizontal line to each letter. This made the typeface look a lot more unique and professional. I think it still needs quite a bit of improvement but it is definitely a good advance from what I have previously made.
Finding Out How Type Works
Type is all around, it is in our everyday lives; from the ingredients of our breakfast cereals, the roadsigns that direct us and even on the cards we use to prove our identity. ‘Professionals in all trades, whether they be dentists, carpenters or nuclear scientists, communicate in languages that seem secretive and incomprehensive to outsiders; type designers are no exception’ (Spiekermann and Ginger, 2003). This backs up my initial thoughts on how influential type is and the power it holds over people- no one wants to read an exciting headline in a magazine with comic sans font. They want a typeface that matches the power of the headline, something that sticks out and catches your eye.
With type, there is so much more than meets the eye. Designers spend hours, days, even weeks, developing and perfecting original typefaces for a range of mediums. To the untrained eye, typefaces are just a tool used to write word documents and emails. To designers, typefaces are so much more. They open up a window to numerous possibilities. Theres so much you can do with type – manipulation, altering, skewing – the list is endless. I have created my unique typeface based on a geometric style, and therefore I don’t want it to be classed as just another piece of type. I want it to be seen as a work of art. A unique take on a font. The stylistic choice I made of using two thin lines to accentuate the main features of each letter makes my typeface stand out, and different to the bog standard style you see in every day life.