Nina's Exercise 1&2

why i like it

Well, Gill Sans Ultra Bold , perhaps the typeface I use most. It is the typeface which continue to sur­prise me with their beauty and versatility. It seems lile every character have life and face with this kind of shape.

As we’re all prob­ably aware Gill Sans is a pretty stand­ard font these days, used and abused as a res­ult of being part of a default font install­a­tion on cer­tain oper­at­ing sys­tems. Like Times New Roman, a lot of people have become tired of its express­ive curves (yes, that’s right, I did say ‘express­ive’). I'm hop­ing after read­ing this, at the very least, you’ll look upon Gill Sans with fresh eyes.

In terms of Gill Sans Ultra Bold, I love its cute and round shape. The char­ac­ters are hard, sculp­tured forms which clearly show Gill’s edu­ca­tion and artistic roots. There’s the legib­il­ity of a serif face, bal­anced with the author­ity of a sans-serif. Gill Sans can seem friendly in its lighter weights, mak­ing it per­fect for body text, and with its roun­ded let­ter forms and lim­ited adorn­ments, it’s highly legible. The bolder weights are per­fect for dis­play or sig­nage pur­poses.

Personally, I think the character "a ,r, f, j"work well with this shape. Because they are balanced and hard. It looks like their have their own personality.

Where do I use it

Generally I use this typeface for propagand especially in comic books and animation.

About this font

Gill Sans™ Ultra Bold was first introduced in 1928. Eric Gill studied under the renowned

calligrapher, Edward Johnston, the designer of the London Underground sans serif typeface.

This influenced Gill who later experimented with sans serif designs, and in due course produced

a set of capital letters. Gill Sans Ultra Bold is a twentieth century sans serif that has a simplicity

of form which does not reject traditional forms and proportions, and gives the face a humanist

feel. The lighter weights are highly readable in text and suitable for magazine and book work,

whereas the heavier weights are best used for display in advertising, packaging, and labels.

The uppercase of Gill Sans is modelled on the monumental Roman capitals like those found on the Column of Trajan, and the Caslon and Baskerville typefaces.
The capital M from Gill Sans is based on the proportions of a square with the middle strokes meeting at the centre of that square. The Gill Sans typeface family contains fourteen styles and has less of a mechanical feel than geometric sans-serifs like Futura, because its proportions stemmed from Roman tradition. Unlike realist sans-serif typefaces including Akzidenz Grotesk and Univers the lower case is modelled on the lowercase Carolingian script. The Carolingian influence is noticeable in the two-story lowercase a, and g. The lowercase t is similar to old-style serifs in its proportion and oblique terminus of the vertical stroke. Following the humanist model the lowercase italic a becomes single story. The italic e is highly calligraphic, and the lowercase p has a vestigial calligraphic tail reminiscent of the italics of Caslon and Baskerville. Gill Sans serves as a model for several later humanist sans-serif typefaces including Syntax and FF Scala Sans. An Infant variety of the typeface with single-story versions of the letters a and g also exists.
The basic glyph shapes do not look consistently across font weights and widths, especially in Extra Bold and Ultra Bold weights, and Extra Condensed width. However, even in lighter weights, some letters do not look consistent. For example, in letters p and q, the top strokes of counters do not touch the top of the stems in Light, Bold, Heavy fonts, but touch the top of the stems in Book, Medium fonts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_Sans

Exercise 2: research questions

Can I produce a font that formed with balloon?

Can I produce a font that is floating?

Can I produce a font that children would like to play with?

Can I produce a font that have face?

Can I produce a font that have more than 3 dimensional visual effect?

Alexia's homework

EUROSTILE

Why do you like it?

I think that the primary reason why I like it is that there is a nice blocky-ness to it. There is a definite squareness to it, but it is softened ever so subtly by the curves. It’s an old font, but I believe that Eurostile isn’t used that much because people tend to opt more for the gentler fonts like Helvetica, Gills Sans and perhaps even Futura to a degree. Eurostile has a particular strength and sense of dimension to it.

What characters work best?

For me I think that the K, B, G, S, O, a, e, k, m, t and o work the best because they have that balance between the rigid box and the subtle curve.
Those that could work better
I think that M, W, X and Z could work better if they were slightly more condensed because they feel wider than the rest of the Cap fonts.

How often do you use it?

Admittedly, I don’t use the font that often because a majority of the projects I work on are community and cultural based so it’s a tad inappropriate.
Where and why you use
I think that it works more as a title/subheading font to illustrate the strength of modernity or something along those lines – instead of body text.

What might you be able to learn from this as an exemplary font design?

It is ‘distinctive without being flamboyant’.

Historical Information:

Originally the type was created as an uppercase font and was drawn by Alessandro Butti (1893 - 1959, type designer and teacher. Art director of the Nebiolo type foundry in Turin), with help from his assistant Aldo Novarese (who later became one of Italy’s premier typeface designers). It was first called Microgramma.

Released in 1952 it was popular for the next 10 years, but proved difficult because it didn’t have lower case letters. In 1962 it was released with the lowercase letters and renamed Eurostile.
Linotype began distributing Eurostile decades ago, and during the early 1980s, it worked together with Adobe to bring Novarese’s creation into the digital age as PostScript fonts.

The most obvious attribute of Eurostile, other than its lack of serifs, is the squared quality of its design. Many of the letters look as if they began life by tracing the frames of old television screens. There is a symmetry and implied mathematical quality to the design. Hermann Zapf dubbed this the “super curve,” and worked with it himself in his serif newspaper face Melior®. The geometricity of Eurostile also puts it together with types like Avenir®, Futura®, and ITC Avant Garde Gothic®, even though Eurostile looks quite different at first glance.
Eurostile has a large x-height and is distinctive without being flamboyant. In plain text, this means that it is not a replacement for sans serif text faces like Univers® or Franklin Gothic™. Nevertheless, Eurostile is easy to use well, and it has the added benefit of standing out from the crowd of other typefaces in the sans serif genre.

http://www.linotype.com/5324/eurostilenext.html

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is my motivation for this font?
Who will I want using it?
Can it be have a multifaceted use?
What is the experience of this font?
How does the font affect the message I want to create?
Can it involve the ‘reader’ in producing it?
Can it be a learning tool?

I think I might extend my research from the publication. Tactile typography and the experience as opposed to just the look of a font.


Highlighter on lined paper. I then used a scalpel to lift the letters from the page.

Ripped up strips of paper and the folded them to create letter forms.

Yoghurt letter forms. Yum!

felix exercise 1, 2, 3, 4

Exercise 1: My favorite font

Optima®




About this font

Optima, one of Hermann Zapf’s most successful typefaces, was released by the D. Stempel AG in 1958.

In 1950, Zapf made his first sketches for his “serifless roman” while visiting the Santa Croce church in Florence. He sketched letters from grave plates that had been cut about 1530, and as he had no other paper with him at the time, the sketches were done on two 1000 lire bank notes. These letters from the floor of the church inspired Optima, a typeface that is classically roman in proportion and character, but without serifs. The letterforms were designed in the proportions of the Golden Ratio.

In 1952, after careful legibility testing, the first drawings were finished. The type was cut by Stempel’s renowned punchcutter, August Rosenberger. Optima was also produced in matrices for the Linotype Machine. With the clear, simple elegance of its sans serif forms and the warmly human touches of its tapering stems, this family has proved popular around the world.

Optima is the typeface used for the text on the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C.

quoted from: http://typophile.com/node/15685?

Why i like this font

It combines the clarity of modern face with the objectivity of sans-serif typefaces.Thus, it is highly recognizable but has a low fatigue to its audiences. The outline of Optima is not exactly erect, but with a micronic curve which makes the font formal, steady, without a sense of stiffness. The scale of its thickness is perfect, let the font seems fairly elegant.

Where do I normally use it

I normally use it on the advertisements, especially for cosmetics.


Exercise 2: research questions

Can I produce a font that expresses a boorish sense?Can I produce a font that expresses a compare of stillness and movement?
Can I produce a font that is stupid?
Can I produce a font that is luxury?
Can I produce a font that is aboriginal?

Exercise 3: Handwritten Lettering

This will be post later.


Exercise 4: Develop a sample of five letters that are “written” with unusual mark-making instruments.

attempt 1: Rough

This is an attempt to answer my first research question: Can I produce a font that expresses a boorish sense?

I think about using the surface of ground tile as bottom textile and the surface of sole as upper textile to produce such sense.

following is the whole process

step 1: print and cut

step 2:making the edge become rough

step 3: finding the bottom textile

step 4: acquiring the textile on the paper

step 5:coloring the upper textile

step 6: producing

step 7: initial outcome


step 8: segistration

step 9: final outcome


attempt 2: light writing



This is an attempt to answer my second research question: can I produce a font that express a compare of stillness and movement?

I use a laser pen to "write" the alphabets on a big screen with recording by a digital camera to achieve it in a dark photographic studio.
The alphabets is the track left by laser-light's movement which captured by camera, but nothing was really reserved on the screen. after the camera stop its shoot, it seems that nothing has happened before.

Gopi Exercise - 4

Exercise - 4

This is my one of experiment to create font with the use of paper, USB wire, fruit and clay.

Gopi Exercise - 1 & 2

Exercise - 1

Centable Book

It is very difficult to select pick any one font as my favourite since I have a likening for too many fonts. But if I have to make a choice then Centable Book stands out for me. Primarily it is a very clean and readable font which is why it tops my list. One can read anything written with it from a distance and it also gives a spacious feeling.

Though it comes from the serif font family, some of it’s characters have a contemporary touch. That makes it quite exclusive. Moreover this font can be use for different purpose and for various subjects. For example the same type can be use in body copy as well as a headline.

In particular I like alphabets a, g, e, q in lower case and also the dot on ‘i’ and ‘j’. The shapes are pretty different from the regular round or square ones which makes the fonts special to me. If you observe the letters closely the base of some letters are a bit slanting which proves that the letters were not totally designed for formal reasons. Therefore, the lowercase are more special to me than the uppercase. Given a chance, I would like to make some changes in the uppercase characters. Not many but surely some of them. Letter Q, O, M, R and S are the most impressive from the uppercase.

Whenever I have a simple and decent design to make, I consider this font as a priority. For most of my project I used this font. As a professional, I used this font at in various campaigns. Sometimes even in stationary design and also while creating logo designs when the name of company was started with letter G. Since ‘G’ has the most exquisite look amongst all the characters, upper or lower case.

Exercise - 2

Can I produce fonts which can be eatable?

Can I produce a font which melts like an ice cream.

Can I produce a font in which people can live?

Can I produce a font which can be modified?

Can I produce a font which people can use as cloths?

Can I produce a font which people can use for next 50 years?

Can I produce font which reminds you of nature.

Can I produce a font which can be attracting small kids?

Iris: exercises 4

There are a couple of experiments with making letters, one is some green bean drawing models and the other some paper.

Iris: exercises 1&2

I love Papyrus font. Because it looks like handwriting, I like it.
Papyrus font is a popular and unusual roman typeface that effectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letterform with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy.
It’s handcrafted and irregular as well as rough look give Papyrus a distinct look that lends itself well for display type. It is especially suitable for anything that needs to look a little bit antique.
Although this typeface has been overused in the past decade so many people are currently bored with it. But it value can be used in everywhere, such as logo, information board, book covers and packaging. Some people even use it for PowerPoint presentations. I think the small letter like b, d, f, h, k etc look better, because they are look very slightness and unique. Interestingly, they are even longer than capital letter. In addition, capital letter like E that the first bar is shorter than the middle one looks very funny.

This unique style font created by American designer Chris Costello, a designer and illustrator, created Papyrus using a calligraphy pen and textured paper. His intent was to create a typeface that looked as if written on papyrus 2000 years ago. On his website, he says that he has“affection for classic lettering styles”. He has also designed the typefaces Blackstone, Letterpress text, Mirage and Virus. He is a professional bass player and a black belt in Tae-Kwon Do. In an interview, Costello talks about the inspiration and process for Papyrus: I took a calligraphy pen and some textured paper and just started drawing “old looking” alphabets in many different styles. I was thinking about the ancient Middle East and I then began writing words, dates and phrases from the history of that time in all upper case lettering. I soon came up with what I thought vernacular writing may have looked like if the English language existed 2000 years ago. It probably would have been written on papyrus and figured that would be the perfect name for the font.
Papyrus was re-issued by linotype and ITC. It is now included with Microsoft and Apple as a system font.

Research question:
1.Can I produce a font that can be familiar with others?
2. Can I produce a font that can be use in holographic projection?
3. Can I produce a font that can be collapsible?
4. Can I produce a font that would melt?
5. Can I produce a font that can attract living creature such as butterfly?