Construct A look into a methodical working practice for creating and constructing typefaces.
Focussing on one typeface - Simplex, this publication follows the method and route I take when designing the typeface, from the beginning stages right through to the final moment of having a fully complete typeface.
Construct A look into a methodical working practice for creating and constructing typefaces.
Emily Lodge | 2015 OUGD603 | Extended Practice Context & Methodology Publication
Focussing on one typeface - Simplex, this publication follows the method and route I take when designing the typeface, from the beginning stages right through to the final moment of having a fully complete typeface.
Introduction Creating a typeface is a lengthy process with a lot of obstacles and decisions to make, some which compromise a character or two to get an overall consistency for the entire typeface. These decisions need to be made confidently as the outcome can change the entire tone of voice and appearance at the end.
What’s Needed? • Precision • Patience • Clear Direction • Confidence • Attention To Detail • Contingency Plan • Open Mindedness
While creating a typeface is very precise, an open mind must be had because one small design to a character can create a new idea and potentially have a profound effect on the entire typeface. Keeping an open mind and following these changes will refine the characters and create a more considered overall design.
Typeface // Simplex This publication details how I went about creating the typeface Simplex, created in Brief 15 as part of Extended Practice. It shows my method from the beginning stages, research, designing and refinement. Simplex is a good example of my method because this typeface did not end how I had initially wanted it to look in the beginning stages. It shows clear refinement and decisions made at points that changed the design and overall appearance. This shows how having an open mind in typeface design is a good thing and can benefit the design in the end.
01. Initial Decisions The initial decisions to creating a typeface are the most important as they set the overall tone and aesthetic qualities to how the typeface will work and look. While there are no visual design decisions made at this point, getting a solid idea for what I want to achieve is key to keeping a consistent approach to each character.
What typeface style do I want to create?
How would this typeface be used?
Slab serif.
The main aim of this is to create a display and header typeface.
How will this be designed? By hand then digitised for refinement.
Is there a specific weight? Bold.
Why do I want to do this? Currently, I have a large interest in slab serif typefaces as they bridge the gap between a sophisticated serif style and being contemporary. At this point, while there are slab serif typefaces that I do like, I am currently finding that there are none which perfectly cater what I like in a typeface.
What is the use of this typeface? The initial use of this typeface is to be used in my own personal self branding, however with hopeful success, I do hope to be able to use it across a variety of media and reasons.
What is the tone of voice? I want the typeface to be contemporary and be very simple in design. It has to be something that will not be outdated quickly.
What characters will I be designing? Basic characters to begin with. Expansion to glyphs and numerals to potentially follow.
What characteristics do I want to get across? • • • • • • • •
Contemporary Simple Bold Easy to read Considered Sophisticated Structured Balanced
02. Ideas & Influence Ideas and inspiration for a typeface design can come from anywhere, from a bespoke logo design to a shape. Wherever this influence comes from, it can be developed and expanded upon until it becomes something realistic and usable. An example of this is the typeface Futura by Paul Renner. This typeface is built up purely on the use of geometric shapes.
For this typeface, I want to create a slab serif which is contemporary. Looking at a variety of people’s approaches to this style of typeface will give me a much clearer idea into what characteristics I want to include. The main thing to do in a typeface is make sure it is consistent and the letters flow to one another well. Certain characteristic traits that I might like do have to be considered for all letterforms, not just one character. I collected together a variety of images of slab serif typefaces and put them on a sheet together. This allows me to look over them collectively and quickly edit down to the characteristics that I want to move forward with. It is much more productive to do it this way as it means I can see a variety of ways of creating the same letters, but quickly decide which to work with.
03. Setting The Rules Setting the rules for a typeface is key in keeping the appearance of the letters consistent and in line with the original intention of the typeface. If rules are not set, individual letters may follow the same general appearance and form, but the individual characteristics may differ and be very obvious when letters are put next to one another. The aim is to get all the letters to have consistent characteristics and follow the same design to make them flow well.
The rules • The typeface must be bold • There must be a feel of it being hand rendered, but clean and professional • All letters must work to the same grid • Perfect circles must be used in all curves • Widths and heights of all strokes must be consistent • Same height for all uppercase letters • Serifs must remain the same size in width and height • Serifs must be on the outside of the letter only • Numerals should follow the same grid
• ‘A’ crossbar must be lower than the centre of the letter • ‘B’ bowls must be the same size • ‘M’ strokes must not touch the base line • ‘M’ should have straight stems • ‘Q’ tail should not come out the base of the letter • ‘R’ leg must come from the curve, not the stem • ‘W’ strokes must not touch the cap height • ‘W’ stems should be angled • ‘A’ and ‘V’ should be proportional • ‘M’ and ‘W’ must be wider than the other letters • ‘M’ and ‘W’ must be the same width • ‘Y’ should use the same stroke angle as ‘X’
With the rules now set, general and specific, it gives a very clear direction of how the typeface should be built. At this point, I have a very clear idea in my head of the way the letterforms should look in form, but the size of the serifs and style of these is unknown. This is where the experimentation will lie as the serifs will be the only element which is the same on every letter. To start the typeface, a grid must be created. As the rules state, perfect circles must be used, so the grid must be a square to work to this. With the creation of the grid, the width of all the strokes must also be decided. As this is to be created by hand initially, these decisions must reflect an ease in being able to create the letters at a workable size.
In starting the drawing of the grid, I used ‘X’ as a basis. The idea is that the ‘X’ would fit perfectly into the ‘O’, working with all letters being proportional to one another. There were two options I tried - one with the serifs included within this square space, and one with the serifs outside this square space. I chose the second option with the serifs outside the space as it means the letters won’t be squeezed into the space due to the serifs. It works on the idea of the serifs being an add on so the letters could potentially work as sans serifs in the future, and still remain proportional. Final Decisions: • All stokes measure 5mm in width • All serifs measure 5mm in width • Serifs must be proportional to all letters • Grid is measured to 5cm x 4cm - Perfect circle fits centrally, with 5mm either side for serif space.
04. Creating the Typeface Now the rules are set and the grid is decided, the next thing to do is start creating the letterforms. While the rules are key to the design, this stage is what defines the typeface as small decisions made will impact the overall appearance of the typeface. This is the point where all the letterforms are created for the first time, sometimes multiple of the same letterform are created in a variety of styles to reach a more considered or consistent design. This makes for a long process where a lot of concentration is needed.
As I am creating this typeface by hand it allows me to create the shapes freely and more accurately in terms of how I want the overall letter to look, however there will be an obvious lack of precision and perfection that comes with a digital vector design where perfect curves and lines can be created.
I tried a variety of serif styles for the letters. I had initially wanted to use a thin serif, however on letters such as ‘E’ the serif looked uneven when it didn’t line up perfectly with the arms of the letter. I also tried a larger serif which lined up perfectly with the arm heights, however I felt that it was quite generic and I wanted something a bit more unique to this typeface. With this in mind, I decided on a slanted serif, moving away from it being a standard slab serif.
Now all the letters have initial drawings, the chosen letters are copied and blocked out on another sheet. This allows me to see how the letters all look in block colour instead of just outlines. It will also make creating the vectors of these much easier as they are block shapes.
05. Digitising Digitising a typeface is the first step towards having a fully usable and functioning typeface. It is also the point where anything which went wrong previously can be easily fixed. Letters can be edited and altered to be at a consistent height, width and proportion to one another.
With the hand rendered typeface complete, it is now a case of scanning the blocked out letters in and turning them into vectors. The original intention was to have a professional appearance, but a bit of a hand rendered feel to it all.
DIGITISED LETTERFORMS
The hand rendered feel to the appearance is definitely there, however this is a lot more than expected, which does take away from the professionalism. Some letters, such as ‘E’ or ‘Q’ work well, but there is not the same consistency across all letters. There are particular problems with letters with diagonal strokes, such as ‘K’ or ‘X’. The strokes do appear to be much thinner than originally thought. The serifs have also come out very large, and while I do think they look good over the majority of the letters, they do seem a bit too large on letters such as ‘J’ or ‘P’. Another problem with the letters is that some of them fit the grid well, but some seem very wide and do not fit the proportions that they should be. An example of this is ‘S’. This elongation of letters takes the typeface towards a style that I definitely did not want initially. I wanted all letters to be proportional and look natural. After consideration, I have decided that this hand rendered feel might be holding back the design, so a clean appearance is the way I will be moving forward with this, using perfect shapes and lines.
06. Refinement The refinement process is the longest part of creating a typeface. Now the base design has been created, this is where these designs are developed and bettered to create a more consistent and considered appearance. It is where all the edits are made and the typeface begins to come together.
The problems with the initial typeface have been identified and the following pages show the development process for each of the letters. These are shown in the order that they were developed. There were three stages to this development, the first where the initial typeface was turned into straight vectors, with changes made to the widths of the letters. The second stage is moving the design to a sans serif. This decision was made to focus purely on the letterforms and not have inconsistencies hidden by the serifs. This means that the overall typeface will be as proportional as it can be, and serifs can be added later. The third and final stage to this process was further refinement on width and shape of letters. Not all letters went through this stage.
O
X
N
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO I do the ‘O’ first because it is the easiest and quickest letter to do. In the decision to move to a clean cut appearance, this letter is created using two circles. There is no development to this letter following this initial design.
Following the ‘O’, the ‘X’ is a very easy letter to do as it goes from corner to corner. This letterform initially started as a perfect fit to the ‘O’ and grid, however, working with the widths of other letters through the stages, it became clear that the ‘X’ suited a slightly thinner width which made the letterform appear taller instead of a square.
The ‘N’ is also a very easy letter to do due to the shapes involved and how this works in the grid. Line the ‘X’, this initially fit perfectly to the grid but suited a slightly thinner width. The ‘N’ is also the letter where I decided to definitely continue working to keeping serifs on the outside only during stage one.
FINAL LETTERFORM
O
X
N
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
H
Z
M
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘H’ has stayed the same through the three stages, with the removal of the serifs being the only change.
The changes to the ‘Z’ have also been minimal. The width of the initial ‘Z’ was very wide and followed the same design as the ‘N’. The width of this letter was changed in the first stage.
The ‘M’ has only changed in the height of the centre point. It has been lowered to create a more natural appearance to work with the width of the letter.
FINAL LETTERFORM
H
Z
M
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
E
F
L
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘E’ changes very little from the initial design. The width is smaller and the central bar width is more considered to give a more proportional appearance. The initial design for the ‘E’ is also design that convinced me to move forward with flat serifs as I did not like the way the serif did not line up with the arms.
The ‘F’ works off the ‘E’ letterform to keep a consistent appearance.
The ‘L’ also works off the ‘E’ letterform. These three letters are changed at the same time.
FINAL LETTERFORM
E
F
L
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
I
P
B
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘I’ is one of the simplest letterforms to do. I felt the initial design was too thick and chunky with the serifs on both sides and on the top and bottom. To counter this, I decided on doing a serif of either side during stage one. It gives a bit more of an individual appearance.
The ‘P’ was designed to the width of the ‘O’ due to the use of a bowl. However, due to the x-height, this bowl looked elongated. In stage one this was amended to a longer but thinner bowl to create a much more proportioned appearance.
The ‘B’ initially followed the design of the ‘P’ in terms of bowl height and placement. In stage one it followed the same width changes, but kept the bowls at the same height to keep a symmetrical appearance.
FINAL LETTERFORM
I
P
B
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
D
C
G
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘D’ follows the same base design as the ‘O’ in using a perfect circle. This design changed very little during the three stages.
The ‘C’ follows the same design as the ‘O’ in being a perfect circle. The initial design of cutting the centre right off with straight lines worked well in the hand rendered design, however when taken digital and cleaned up, it looked very abrupt. In stage three this was changed to a softer angle cut to create a thinner and symmetrical letterform.
The ‘G’ follows the design of the ‘C’. In the initial design there is a spur, however this did not work in the digitised version so was removed. The central serif did not work well in stage one and two, so was corrected with a different approach in stage three.
FINAL LETTERFORM
D
C
G
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
T
U
V
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘T’ is a very simple letterform and takes influence from the ‘E’ and ‘I’ in design. Initially I felt the letter was too wide, however during stage one the opposite happened where it seemed too thin. With the reduction of the serifs, the proportions worked a lot better.
The ‘U’ originally started at the same curve as the ‘O’, however, it was clear that proportionally, this should not be the case. The letterform did not change much through the stages, only getting slightly thinner.
The ‘V’ was initially the same width as the ‘X’, however, through stage one and two, it became clear through this design and the same design in the letter ‘A’, that it was too wide. Following the same width as the ‘U’ and previous letters, the ‘V’ was thinned.
FINAL LETTERFORM
T
U
V
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
A
K
J
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘A’ follows the same design as the ‘V’. It was clear through the ‘A’ that the width was too large and a thinner appearance would look more natural.
The initial design for the ‘K’ worked with the idea of the upper arm being more prominent than the leg, however during stage one, it was found that the design worked much better in a symmetrical appearance. Like previous letters, the width was thinned in stage three.
The ‘J’ is a very individual letter as it involves a small curve at the base, unlike any other character. This curve was initially based off the bowls of the ‘B’ and ‘P’. As these letters changed, the ‘J’ only followed the size of the bowl on the ‘B’.
FINAL LETTERFORM
A
K
J
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
Q
R
W
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘Q’ is the letterform which I wanted to have a bit of a flourish on for the typeface as it has the tail which is not present in any other letter. Starting with the tail which went all the way through the centre, it worked very well, however to get consistency with the rest of the typeface, it was better suited o stopping half way.
The initial ‘R’ takes the ‘P’ design and adds a leg. However, like the ‘P’ the bowl is too elongated. With the success of the flourish in the ‘Q’, I decided on adding this in stage one, however in stage three I decided to move back to a more generic straight line as it strengthened the letterform.
Originally, the ‘W’ was the same design as the ‘M’, just with slanted strokes. However through development, it became clear that the low centre point was not working with the rest of the typeface
FINAL LETTERFORM
Q
R
W
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
Y
S
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO The ‘Y’ is taken directly from the ‘X’ letterform. As the ‘X’ developed in shape, so did the ‘Y’, to create a slightly thinner shape.
The ‘S’ is the letter which I always find the hardest to do, so it is always left until last. The obvious issue with the initial design was the width of this. The development of this letter was through the attempts of making it look more natural, while keeping in with the appearance of the rest of the typeface.
FINAL LETTERFORM
Y
S
INITIAL DESIGN
STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
FINAL LETTERFORM
07. Expansion Expansion of the typeface happens at the point where the maker is confident in the aesthetic appearance and characteristics of the base typeface. This confidence allows for quick and logical expansion into the other characters, such as lowercase, numerals and glyphs. It also is the point where different weights and styles are considered.
Now the uppercase has been completed, the next move is to create the rest of the typeface. This consists of lowercase, glyphs and numerals. As well as this, with a basic sans serif, there is also the option to develop different styles and weights. With the original design being slab serif, I will definitely be expanding to this style once the characters are complete.
COMPLETED UPPERCASE
ABCD EFGH IJKLM NOPQ RSTUV WXYZ
UPPERCASE LIGHT
ABCD EFGH IJKLM NOPQ RSTUV WXYZ
Before expansion can begin, I made the decision to put the typeface to the thinnest weight I would ever want it. This is so that when it comes to creating weights, I have a thin base and can create proportional thicker versions. Trying to work the other way around can create issues with line width when sharp points are involved, so starting from the thinnest possible weight makes for a better appearance all round. Creating the thinnest weight of this typeface took time, however it works well and I am confident in its ability to move forward and be used as the base letterforms now.
LOWERCASE
Creating the lowercase is the hardest part to a typeface as the letters have a lot more consideration needed. In uppercase letterforms, these all remain the same height the majority of the time, with the exception of ‘J’ in some typefaces. However, in lowercase, there are letters like ‘x’ or ‘e’ which sit between the baseline and x-height. But there are also letters such as ‘h’, ‘j’ or ‘g’ which need more consideration when it comes to their heights and how they sit against the other letters.
To follow the same structural decisions that were made for the uppercase, the lowercase grid will be formed around the use of perfect circles and lines as well. The descender height will mirror the same height as the cap/ascender height. This is to continue with the use of symmetrical and consistent design.
Cap height
x-height
Baseline
Descender
The first letterforms to create are those which are to the height of the x-height as these are all simple and overall follow the same structural design as their counterparts in uppercase. The same rules of the letter widths also apply to the lowercase, so letters such as ‘V’ and ‘U’ are thinner than the ‘O’. There are three stages to these letterforms. The first is those which work off the ‘o’ or have very simple letterform designs, such as ‘n’ and ‘e’. The second stage is the letters which are a bit more individual in design, such as ‘v’ or ‘r’. Follow this, the third stage is the ‘w’ and ‘m’ as these are built up from the ‘v’ and ‘n’.
X-HEIGHT STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
STAGE THREE
ASCENDER & DESCENDER HEIGHTS STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
Following the completion of the x-height letters, the letters with ascenders and descenders are started. The overall design for these letters are very simple and taken directly from the previous letter designs, with the exception of the ‘l’, ‘f’ and ‘k’. The descender height matches the ascender height. The ‘p’ and the ‘q’ are identical to the ‘b’ and ‘d’ in design.
With the completion of the majority of the lowercase, there are a few letters left to do. First, the ‘t’ and ‘i’. These take a little more consideration because they do not sit on the x-height or reach the ascender height. The height is worked out by finding a compromise between both of the letters. The dot on the ‘i’ can’t be too high up, but the ‘t’ can’t be too low. Following this, an alternate descender height was decided. This was because on the initial descender height, these three letters looked elongated and did not sit as well as the other letters with descenders. It is slightly shorter, but works better with the proportions of the letters.
ALTERNATE HEIGHTS STAGE ONE
STAGE TWO
COMPLETED LOWERCASE
abcd efgh ijklm nopq rstuv wxyz
NUMERALS
Numerals are a fundamental part to a typeface and getting the design of these correct is extremely hard. While it is simple to follow an aesthetic appearance of the characters, making these look good as well is the hardest task.
To complete the numerals, I decided to base these off the lowercase size. This was mainly because half the letters use circles, and to continue the design of proportional and perfect design, working to the circle sizes of the lowercase fulfils this as it reaches the x-height. There are four types of numerals created - the first with two circles utilised - the ‘0’ and ‘8’. These are very simple base numerals and their width dictates how the rest of the numerals will work. The second kind is the numerals which use just one circle - the ‘2’, ‘5’, ‘6’ and ‘9’. These four are in two pairs. The ‘6’ and ‘9’ are identical. The ‘2’ and ‘5’ are very similar. The third kind is the ‘3’. This works off the use of four circles. Initially it was done in the same design as the ‘0’ and ‘8’, however it looked squashed, so a slightly wider design suited it. The four kind of numeral is the ones which do not use any circles at all. These are the ‘1’, ‘7’ and ‘4’. These also do not follow any structural similarities with the other seven numerals, and are very individual in their design.
GLYPHS
Glyphs are relatively straight forward to create for a typeface. A lot of these are very simple structures which is easy when finding influence from the characters already created. There are a couple of tricky glyphs which need a bit more time spent on them, such as the ampersand or some currency signs.
The glyphs have been built up with the same elements as those in the numerals, and edited when needed. Overall twenty one glyphs have been created for this typeface based on what is the most useful in a given situation.
! ? &
FOREIGN LETTERFORMS
Once the letterforms and glyphs are created, working on the foreign letterforms is something which is relatively quick as the majority of the elements are already there and just need to be put together.
The foreign letterforms created for this typeface are basic European. This is because this is the type which would be utilised the most. The design of these letters are very simple, with existing letterforms edited to create a wide variety of versions for each symbol. Including these foreign letters is something I feel is important as it shows the potential and adaptability for the base typeface.
STYLES
Typeface styles vary a huge amount, from a modernist style serif to rounded. Creating a variety of styles for a typeface gives it a much larger range of uses and contexts. It also shows how workable the initial typeface is and how successful the design is.
For this typeface I decided on three styles. The first is the current style of sans serif. The second is a slab serif as this was the original intention for the typeface to begin with. The third is a rounded style. I think that these three styles show a variety of ways the base letters can be manipulated, showing that these letterforms are workable and adaptable to any context. The slab serif is built up very simply in using the width of the letterform stems as the height of the serif, and doubling that to create the width. For the lowercase, I have decided that to keep a proportionality to the design, the serif will be smaller in width. The larger serif works well with uppercase, but looks a lot bigger when put with the lowercase. For a serif to be successful, it should not be overly obvious, which would be the case with the larger serif. The rounded style of the typeface is very simple in having circles the width of each stroke at the ends and at corners. This creates a much softer appearance. The use of circles in this way is consistent across all letterforms.
SLAB SERIF
ROUNDED
WEIGHTS
Working with weights of a typeface entirely changes the tone of voice, and how it can be used. A thinner typeface would work well as body copy, whereas a bolder counterpart would work better as a heading or display type. There are a huge variety of weights now in use, from ‘hairline’ right down to ‘extra black’.
The last element to this typeface to do is the weight. This is because it affects every letterform and style created up to this point. I decided on four weights as it shows a range at which the typeface works, and shows a difference between each weight instead of there being just minor differences. The four chosen weights are - Light, Regular, Semibold and Bold. Light is the current weight of the typeface and the base weight of the typeface. Regular is slightly thicker than light. Both of these would work as body copy. Semibold is the original weight from the initial hand rendered and digital development stage. Bold is the largest weight that all of the characters can go without there being any issues with visibility. To create the different weights, I simply thicken each and every stroke to every letter. This creates a consistent appearance across all styles, and while some letters may need tweaking, the majority work perfectly.
LIGHT
AAA REGULAR
AAA SEMIBOLD
AAA BOLD
AAA
08. Completion When a typeface design is complete, it means that it is now at a point where it can be input into a software program which will convert each shape into letters to create a fully usable typeface, where all styles and weights will work. What also needs to be decided at this point is the name for the typeface. This is important as it reflects the entirety of the typeface in one or two words. The best names are simple, but considered, and are representative of the design.
Simplex. A simple typeface built to be proportional and contemporary. Readable and usable in any situation. 124 characters. 3 style variations. Sans, Slab, Rounded. 4 weight variations. Light, Regular, Semibold, Bold.