Sachsen Type Process and Specimen Book

sachsen original type design by Abigail Whigham

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Š 2016 Anderson, SC Published By Abigail Whigham Sachsen Designed by Abigail Whigham

table of contents About Dresden 4-5 Research 6-11 Development 12-17 Type Specimen 18-21 Context 22-27

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about Dresden

Dresden, Germany is one of the larger cities in Germany. Known for it’s traditional demeanor and quiet character, it’s a staple in Germany because of the community-minded city clinging to traditions of old Germany in a modern world. The city itself is a monument to the archaic, capturing the beauty of the past while celebrating the excitment of the present.

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research

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research

the problem

The typeface used in the city’s advertising in marking is a basic serif type, very legible and versitle.

I felt like a city with such character should have it’s own typeface to use to show the character this hidden city has to the rest of the world.

Dresden is by no means a plain city.

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research

concept & inspiration

FRAKTUR

BLACKLETTER The concept for Sachsen was to design a typeface that captured the tradition of Germany visually but maintained a modern style.

The design used calligraphy, specifically blackletter, the effect of the pen on the letterforms.

Sachsen is a display type because the qualities of blackletter, the typeface in large quantities would not be legible.

Fraktur is the official typeface of Germany and is based off traditional blackletter from the medieval ages.

I used the letterforms here to spring board sketches and make notes on the qualities I wanted to preserve for my own type face.

I studied blackletter calligraphy to help solidify the visual qualities of Sachsen and to study how the pen moved in the writing of the style of calligraphy.

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development

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development

brainstorming & sketches

I started by listing all the qualities of Dresden and quickly settled on the blackletter style because of the strong ties to Germanic culture and tradition. Although to modernize blackletter though I had to research successful sansserif typefaces as a starting point alongside studying blackletter and calligraphy characteristics.

I had the concept solidified before I started the sketches, but even so I went through the development stage of finding the base form for every letter. The more I sketched with the concept in mind, the stronger the forms became.

These aren’t the final letter forms, but they were a strong start.

These images go through the qualities I picked and how I tried to achieve them.

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development

solutions

Several letters were difficult to work with, mainly the straight letters such as “M”, “N”, “V”, and “X”.

Here I’ve chosen to focus on the process for “X” and “V” because of the vast change between the original sketches and putting them into digital paths. I had to let go of what I was used to seeing to make it work.

“V” caused the most trouble for me.

The solution didn’t fit with the style and other solutions I tried looked too much like the “U” and caused harder legibility. The “O” was the best form to use for the final form.

“X” was difficult at first, but then once I decided to use the base form of the miniscule “a” and place them on top of each other I had a strong form that went with the blackletter style.

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type specimen

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnop q r s tu v w x y z 1234567890 . , “ ” ‘ ’ ! ? & roman

A B C D E F G H I JK L M NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 .,“”!?&

bold

ABCDEFGHIJKLM N O P Q R ST U V W X Y Z abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 .,“”!?&

oblique

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context

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