COALESCE typographic process and specimen book
COALESCE
CONTENTS
4
problem
10
research
16
concept
20
development
32
specimen
38
mockups
PROBLEM
MEET A&E For the southern New Hampshire community, A&E Coffee and Tea is a staple. Many local coffee shops carry the beans that A&E roasts at their Roastery in Nashua, New Hampshire. In addition to the roastery, they have two cafe locations in Amherst and Manchester, New Hampshire.
The name “A&E” comes from the owner, Emeran Langmaid, and her husband, Adam. They have a mission to provide each customer with personalized service and the finest coffee and tea possible in a business that promotes environmental stewardship and economic fairness to growers. Coffee provides an amazing opportunity to positively impact global land-use and agricultural practices; every cup of coffee from A&E costs about three cents more than most coffee shops, and this small difference makes a large impact. Sustainability, charity, and economic fairness are at the heart of all that A&E does as a company.
6
A LACK OF CONSISTENCY Currently, A&E uses two logos interchangeably for most of their branding. They are both based on the same basic idea, but one of them is a lot darker and heavier, while the other feels much lighter. This creates inconsistency when experiencing the brand as a whole.
The goal of this project is to combine these two differing brand identities into an updated, unified aesthetic that reflects A&E both as a coffee shop and as a company.
8
Logo one
Logo two
RESEARCH
GETTING DIRECTION The first step of this project was to pick some adjectives that embodied the feeling the new typeface was going to achieve. In this case, the adjectives were open, elegant, and inviting. Coffee shops are open and inviting spaces, and A&E is no exception. The element of tea adds the elegance that Coalesce also hopes to create.
12
FINDING INSPIRATION The typeface Louize Display influenced much of this project. Unlike many serifs, Louzie manages to feel organic while maintaining its elegance. This echoes the aesthetic of A&E Coffee and Tea.
A serif is the projection off of the stroke of a letter. Looking a little bit closer at Louize, the unique serifs on the letterforms are what distinguish it from other typefaces. They are a thicker, more triangular shape, and flow naturally out from the body of the letter. These qualities were noted and emmulated to some degree in Coalesce.
14
These serifs blend seamlessly with the rest of the letterform.
L Louize Display
The serifs of this typeface were a source of inspiration for Coalesce.
CONCEPT
COALESENCE coalesce (v) to come together to form one mass or whole
Personifying its namesake is the overarching goal of Coalesce. Most coffee shops tend to have branding with simple sansserif typography, while tea has an elegance that calls for a more sophsitacted serif. Since A&E Coffee and Tea caters to both of these audiences, Coalesce aims to be a combination of both serif and sans-serif type. Just as coffee shops bring people together, Coalesce unites two differing type styles into one whole.
Practically, the overlap of the serif Louize Display and the sansserif Circular led to the beginning of Coalesce. Other typefaces were used as references, but these were the main two.
18
ALB Louize Display + Circular
DEVELOPMENT
ANATOMY OF COALESCE When creating a typeface, it is necessary to form a set of rules that the letterforms follow. This creates consistency across the letters as a whole. Once these basic rules are made and followed, they can be broken for optical reasons, but they are the baseline upon which everything else is built.
In the case of the Coalesce, the rules were pretty straightfoward. Firstly, a simple, triangular serif that curves into the letter body was used. All of the strokes of the letters were the exact same width; there was no variation in weight whatsoever. In order to merge serif and sans-serif typefaces, if there was a case where a serif could be removed from the letter and it would still appear balanced, that serif was removed.
22
consistent stroke weights
triangular serif
movement created by not placing serifs on both sides of strokes
ANGLES Once the rules were established the letters were made, beginning with the letter a. It determined the width and feeling that would be carried out across the rest of the type. All the other letters were made in reference to this one.
To keep in line with the open feeling that Coalese was aiming for, all of the angled letters have wide open negative spaces. Unless it would make the letterform appear awkward, the serifs on these spaces pointed inward.
24
wide letterforms
A X unless awkward, serifs on open triangular spaces go inward
CURVES The curves of the letter B and its miniscule had a major influence on the rest of the letterforms. Once this was finalized, the curved letters really began to take shape. C, G, O, P, Q, R, S, U, and all of their miniscules draw from those two basic shapes.
All of the curves are basically perfect circles at the end, but flatten out into straight lines. They form right angles where they meet the vertical strokes.
26
Bb
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE Much of the development of Coalesce involved the reuse of forms to create multiple letters from one basic shape. Based off of the curves of B, the letter O produced numerous other letterforms. These were: C, G, Q, and U.
When the right side is cut off, C is made. From that basic shape, a crossbar and a downstroke complete the letter G. The vertical stroke of the G is flipped and rotated on its side to make the Q.
28
OO C O GO Q
bd pq
hn ur
SPECIMEN
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P
Q
R
S
T
U V W X Y Z
a
b
c
d
e
f
g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
. &
,
; ?
: !
MOCKUPS
SOURCES Images credits to A&E Coffee and Tea and Unsplash.