an gl ai se
Specimen for Anglaise MA typeface design 2008/09 University of Reading Designed by Anette Schmidt
Content Thoughts
Characteristic features Cupcake recipe Typeface range
Typeface
c
Born in Denmark and living in Copenhagen
where I work as a graphic designer, possibly my Scandinavian, architectural background has influenced my design with its strong vertical and horizontal lines ...
cAnglaise is designed for display. It likes to
cWhat I do know is, that the graphic
be big and present, filling the width of a whole
designer in me has enjoyed playing with
spread. Anglaise does not lean on tradition,
the letter shapes, pushing the boundries of
but is one of its kind and will always add char-
normality and in the end using the typeface
acter and personality to a design.
to layout this specimen book and see the finished typeface come to life on the pages.
Process cAnglaise was designed as part of a oneyear Master of Arts in Typeface Design at the University of Reading.
cThe design phase has been long but
rewarding. From developing the first humble sketches and ideas to later evolving and expanding them into a complete coherent design has been interesting. I trust the underlying thought process is reflected in the finished typeface.
cThe family is planned to consist of a bold and a light with corresponding italics. The
bold and light both have a double character feature – the italics have a swash option. These features will be explained in more detail further on.
cExtreme is key, both in the difference in stroke thickness but also in weights. That
is why there is no regular or medium. In the Anglaise universe everything is simply black or white.
cIn this little specimen book, I have shown a range of different genres where Anglaise could be used – from sweet and innocent cookie recipes to more sinister and serious designs.
Brick Lane Double character feature Meadow spread Swashy features My x-ray ... Flowers
features features Thin spiralling stems
Deep horizontal cuts
Oval shapes
Pertruding shapes retract into stems
Vertical stress
Oval turns into leaf shape
Width of counters mirror white space between letters to create an even rhythm
More diagonal stress
Diagonal replaces horizontal
4
Longer in- and outstrokes
The big difference between light and bold is the increased amount of white space in the light versions and the change of the oval shape into a round shape mirroring
the narrower stem width. The decision of not squeezing the round shape into an upright oval shape marks the limit of how light the typeface can become. See right.
features features
5
Vanilla c cupcake 2 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 4 egg whites from large eggs 1 cup shortening 1 cup milk 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla
6
Example of Anglaise bold used in a headline and Anglaise light used for big text with the OpenType feature of double characters switched on.
For reference see words like teaspoon, eggs and vanilla. The background is a pattern made from one of three fleurons designed for the Anglaise bold italic
and Anglaise light Italic versions of the typeface. Another of these fleurons is used in the headline as a decorative element.
7
typeface
8
a c æ ø ó ô m n Æ Ç Ý fb ¼ ½ / (
d e f å à á ö � ù o p q È É Ê ff ffi fh &&? ) * +
g â ú r Ë fi ¢ ÷
The range of characters that will be available for Anglaise bold, bold italic, light and light italic. As Anglaise is a display typeface, the focus has been on designing
h ã û s Ì fj £ ×
i ä ü t Í fk § #
range
j å ý u Î fl Š <
k l æ ç ÿ a vw Ï Ð ffl ft $ ‘ = >
ligatures and special features, rather than designing a very expanded range of characters, fractions etc. See page 12 and 16 for an introduction to the special features.
n è b y Ñ 0 " »
o é c z Ò 1 ’ «
p ê d æ Ó 2 : ±
q ë e ø Ô 3 ; °
r ñ f å Õ 4 . |
s ì g À Ö 5 , −
t í h Á Ø 6 @ -
u î i  ٠7 © _
v ï j Ã Ú 8 ®
y ı k Ä Û 9
z ò l Å Ü %
9
Londons Brick Lane market on a spring day in May 10
Anglaise bold used in layout on top of a photograph taken on a trip to London earlier this year. The text is overlapping in alternating black and white and illustrates
how the typeface can be used for very different purposes and styles.
11
toffee twiddle cookies
cookies twiddle toffee
lullaby express giggle
giggle express lullaby torrent ecco toddler toddler ecco torrent
brilliant groom glitter glitter groom brilliant
12
Words with double characters set in black in Anglaise bold upper- and lower case. The idea is to compress two same characters into a form of ligature for an added
possibility for customizing the layout when designing headlines. Most of the time the first character will merge into the one next to it, but in a few cases as with g, j and i,
the characters expand above normal x-height or below normal descender height. In order to see the words without this OpenType feature, turn over the book.
13
summer breeze
14
Anglaise bold used as headline on a spread. The upper case characters refer to stems, thicks and thins of the lower case but look radically different when used in up-
meadows
per case only. Using the double character OpenType feature on the words summer breeze would create yet another variant. See right.
summer breeze summer breeze
15
Psst ďż˝
swishy swashy letters to play around with 16
The swash features made for the Anglaise bold italic and Anglaise light italic, make it possible to emphasize the leaf shape even more, switching them on and turning
them off depending on the words and the style of the design. A single feature of blowing leaves has been added as well for use at the end of words as shown in Psst.
17
x
-ray vision is out of focus in the very dark ofnight
My 18
Mixing all the versions of Anglaise on one single spread, playing with black and white of counters and characters
19
Daisy honey suckle dandelion lillies lilacs anemon lavender roses 20 21 Example of Anglaise Bold Italic used in a purely typographic layout with initial swashes in the upper case as an added decorative element.
Because of the vertical design and the even rhythm of the counters, setting lines of text directly on top of each other creates an appealing and still readable texture.
Credits For financial support, thank you Direktør Ib Henriksens Fond Dreyerfonden Knud Højgaards Fond Also thank you to everybody who helped make this year unforgettable Photos by Anette Schmidt Typeface used for text Franklin Gothic
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Typeface Design University of Reading, 2009