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Elective A Typeface Design LNS Typeface
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LCC SGD MAGD 2008 Piero Zagami
LNS a camera lens based typeface
Table of contents Chapter 1: Glyph development
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Chapter 2: Glyph application
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Chapter 3: Process documentation
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Appendix: Glyphs overlay
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Chapter 1
Glyph development The typeface entitled LNS is composed of 11 abstract glyphs. This typeface has no resemblances with the greco-roman alphabet; the glyphs are inspired by a series of images of camera lens components, therefore the resultant forms produce some sort of non existing written language. In this section I reported the development process of the 9 glyphs in order to demonstrate the steps between the original image and the final glyph refinement. The process starts by creating a pictogram of the image; the aim is to reduce the complexity of its form, by defining its key features. To transform the pictograms into glyphs I used different tools, alternating manual techniques (including the use of calligraphic tools) to computer stages (typeface design softwares such as FontLab Studio) to regulate aspects of the typeface such as spacing and other technicalities.
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Glyph name: OFF
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Glyph name: DOT
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Glyph name: ON
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Glyph name: FILL
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Glyph name: CUT
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Glyph name: MID
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Glyph name: PIX
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Glyph name: INCH
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Glyph name: SHUT
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Chapter 2
Glyph application LNS has a heavy photographic influence. For this reason the typeface realization started from the creation of pictograms of camera lens parts. The resultant typeface is a combination of lines and circles. Its vertical orientation is inspired by the eastern world writing systems (such as Japanese or Chinese). The combination of those aspects create abstract forms in which the resultant “words� appear like some kind of alien language. LNS is a purely visual typeface. The following pages show the LNS typeface with different font sizes, applied to a series of landscape non-digital photographs (original pictures).
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eugaiteoloemeleesse issequatisit eumiiamcoiniseeriurem amcommoipiseseniameiua uisionsemig eugiam quamquameuefeugaiiquait issi ea amconum mouae emeieisseimeleugue eiuremi
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eugaiiquaitissi ea amconum mouae emeieisseimeleugue eiuremin uteueoeoigauae eugueuneseer secteaciduis osaiu maipiameiulumsaeuaoe eugiamcommonseo sece commi seia accumnusi ea amconum mouae emeieisseimeleugue eiuremin ueueoeoigauae eugueuneseer secteacugueuneseer secteaciduis osaiu
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Chapter 3
Process documentation This section is focused on showing some manual techniques and methods used to refine the pictograms into glyphs. Filling copybook pages of roughly sketched glyphs was crucial to understand the physical features that distinguish one glyph from another. This phase was followed by a set of calligraphic experiments where the use of specific tools (brush and automatic pen) allowed me to define the shapes of the glyphs. This strategy produced a series of interesting results.
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Appendix
Glyphs overlay The starting point of the creation of the typeface was to design the pictograms of the camera lens components. Since the earlier stage of the process I had noticed an interesting element of these pictograms. By overlaying them on top of each other, it was possible to reproduce an abstract representation of a camera lens “skeleton”. In addition to that, by separating the overlaid objects and recombining them in pairs or in groups of three, it was possible to make several abstract circular objects, which look like mechanical parts of a lens. While developing the various glyph sets I experimented with this “overlay” technique and have included these experiments as a key application or usage of LNS.
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Pictograms overlay
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Gllyph overlay 1
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Gllyph overlay 2
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Gllyph overlay 3
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Gllyph overlay 4
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LNS typeface
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