Confused

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by thalamic

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This font has no idea what it wants to be when it grows up. Stupid designer.

28 Comments

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Un-kerned...
Comment by thalamic 5th february 2009
Once again this is so F**kin cool.
it's really becoming tiresome how good you are. I'd buy Fontlab and start producing professionally you'd make some serious dosh.

PAYING FOR DOWNLOADS
I'm trying to get Fonstruct to charge people who downloads fonts. Say $2-$5 each download. Fontsrtruct take $1, the designer takes the rest. That way everyone gets paid for their creativity and effort. What do you think could it work?
Comment by djnippa 5th february 2009
really good one!

Is the "All Alone" part forced Italic?

@djnippa: not shore how Fontstruct would work commercialy, licensing issues, lack of opentype features, ttf format,...besides the free word atracts a lot more people.
If Thalamic or any one else wants to make money out of there fontstructions they should keep them private and then try to sell them else were.
Comment by jmarquez 5th february 2009
WOW.

i love the '0'.
(and i'm not going to make sex to it. it's platonic, you know.)

i love the "un-kerned ...", too. :)
Comment by guentersen 5th february 2009
mega cool
Comment by dada 5th february 2009
LOL, Nippa! A skewed compliment more telling than a straight one. Thank you. Really. :) FontStruct forces creativity upon you. Would this font have been the same if I could curve the s differently? Probably not. It was the truncated s that forced me to balance the dangling s with dangly bits in other glyphs. And because I went down with some characters, they had to be balanced with extended bits above in some others. Once I went up and down, it then became a matter of balance not to overdo it. Limitations breed inventiveness. Had I been doing this in Illustrator, it would have ended as something completely different. Luckily, I had no pre-conceived idea what I wanted to do.

I have Fontlab. I did my master's in advertising. I wanted to do the thesis on type and typography but that wouldn't have fulfilled the requirement for it. Being advertising, I had to do a full ad campaign, among other things. I wasn't ready to give up on type so I got creative. I decided to promote a new type foundry that specialized in multi-lingual fonts. What self respecting designer would do a master's thesis with someone else's typeface? So I had to generate a new typeface just so I would have something new to promote in the ad campaign. The typeface took four times longer to do than all the other work combined. I had to learn all about OpenType, Unicode, Volt, etc., etc. from a huge list of resources that didn't really feel like being anything close to helpful (excluding the Fontlab manual, i.e., which is excellent). I have no idea how I got it all done in time. Ah...enough reminiscing. The point is: I have Fontlab and the thesis font was the only font I ever did on it. It is hard frickin' work. I don't think I have the energy or drive or consistency of nature to do it over (and over) again. That's why I love FontStruct—I just play with it to avoid boredom and occasionally come up with something I am not embarrassed to share.

As for being paid for it…the thought never occurred to me. FontStruct is to me what video games are to others. But if you go the paid route, there would have to be a whole slew of rules, such as the characters that must be present, some standard type design criteria, originality, etc., etc. that must be met to make a font eligible for payment. It’s unlikely to happen here, nor is it my interest.

PS: You are second-to-none yourself.

@jmarquez: Thanks. It’s Faux-Italic in Photoshop. Someday, if I feel brave enough, I will do a true italic in FontStruct.

@guentersen: Thanks, buddy. Are you sure you won’t change your mind about sexing up the 0? It’s the perfect shape for it.

@dada: Thanks.
Comment by thalamic 5th february 2009
Another stunner. And the sample is a great demo.

djnippa is right. I see your stuff and almost lose heart in my own.
Comment by aphoria 5th february 2009
It may not know what it wants to be, but it sure is great. Beautiful work, thalamic.
Comment by SquarePeg 5th february 2009
@aphoria: Oh no no no, there will be no losing of heart, especially by someone as creative as you. If I am not mistaken, Union Flat, Paperclip, Solida, Futility, Villa, Cowboy, etc., etc. are all your fonts, aren't they. All excellent. We all learn from each other. Some interesting innovation you employ may give me an idea to do something new on my own and vice versa. We used to have a user named 'williaum' who was awesome and came up with new and creative uses of the same bricks we get. I learned a lot from him. He has since left due to personal reasons but there have been no shortage of many more designers to display their own creativity, yourself included. You and your work is inspirational to many. Keep up the good work. And no losing of any heart. Please.

@SquarePeg: Your encouragement always makes me feel good about myself. Thank you.
Comment by thalamic 5th february 2009
We all learn from each other.

Well said! And I heartily agree. :-)
Comment by SquarePeg 5th february 2009
@iMarquez

There are a number of reasons to bring in a small charge for each download.
1) Some people spend hours, days & weeks perfecting their fontstruct. Surely that deserves some form of payment. Charging $2-$5 is a small amount, considering the effort and skill some people put in.
2) Some designers have had over 1000 downloads x $2-$5 that's $2000-$5000 dollars! That's great money in anyone's books.
3) It would not scare anyone away, it would do completely the opposite, as there's a possible chance that everyone can make money.
4) It would increase the number of Fontstructs. The more you have out there the more chance you have of making money.
5) It would bring an even higher standard of Fontographers to this site.
6) More Fontogrphers = more fontstructs
7) A few quality designers have already left the site, as Thalamic said, if there was more of a financial incentive they would have probably stayed.
8) Why should people design fonts on this site, then try and sell them on another site? Surely Fontstruct & Meek should take some of the profit for providing the service and tools used to create the font in the first place.
9) It would turn out to be similar to hugely successful www.istockphoto.com - the better you are the more you make.
10) There could also be a no charge option available if you want to give it away.

There are many more other good pointers to bring in a fee for downloading a font. I'm sure they'll come to light as the discussion heats up.

The negatives are far out weighed by the positives in my book.

All I know at the moment is, it is being discussed as a possibility. To me it makes perfect sense. i'd gladly pay $5 for downloading Thalamic's stuff.
Comment by djnippa 5th february 2009
See the trouble with staying away from FS for even a few days is missing things like this. Or rather, not being in on the beginning of it.

A groovy, groovy font thal, and I'm completely with you on your Illustrator/Fontlab comment. I'm learning Illustrator by creating a font in it (I've always been crap at Illustrator). It's daunting just how much freedom there is to do whatever takes your fancy. If I didn't have the discipline of FS I wouldn't be getting any further than foxgloves.

@djnippa: paying. Now there's an idea... my wife often hints I could be getting paid for doing what I do on this site. With this idea I could fob her off for for another few months...

Just joking...
Comment by intaglio 6th february 2009
@djnippa
I never meant that fontstruct or Meek or any fonstructor don’t deserve to be paid for their (Hard/Talented/Inspirational) work. But right now trying to profit from fontsctructions can’t be done through Fontstruc’s site so youre better of trying to sell them somewhere else.
I agree with you that a fontstructor should be rewarded if he chooses to be so, the “10) There could also be a no charge option available if you want to give it away” Is a great idea. Or maybe there could be a donation type of system.
There should be a Fontstruc Forum so that we could debate things like this in a more “public way” and not just in Thalamic’s Confused Font. :)
Comment by jmarquez 6th february 2009
Oh I support the public forum thing completely. This discussion of payment in this font's comment stream is making me, uh, uncomfortable.

@intaglio: Don't forget to show me what you came up with in Illustrator. I'm already looking forward to it.
Comment by thalamic 6th february 2009
I vote for a forum too. I have had several times I wanted to ask you guys something, but didn't feel right asking in the comments of a font.

I'd like to see more discussion of the for-pay idea too. I'm of two minds about it, but think a discussion would be good.
Comment by aphoria 6th february 2009
@thalamic

Thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot.

I have no formal training in typography, graphic design, or anything related. I'm an IT/programmer by education, training, and career, but I love type and design related stuff.
Comment by aphoria 6th february 2009
It hasn't been popular so far but there is a discussion forum with RSS support for FontStruct at Flickr.
Comment by Rob Meek (meek) 6th february 2009
@aphoria: Oh you've gone an piqued my curiosity. You can always ask questions anywhere, I don't think anyone would mind. Or if you feel like asking any one particular person, you could use the Message tab to contact him/her directly. Also, check out this today; now. It's been one of my favorite type-related books for, oh, some 12, 13 years. Also also, being the programmer type, couldn't you whip up some cocktail of some opensource code to implement a forum here at FontStruct (out of the goodness of your heart, of course)? Please include predicted traffic and storage capacity estimates for the next 12 months in your submission. ;)
Comment by thalamic 6th february 2009
Comment by thalamic 7th february 2009
I always manage to forget about the Message tab. I'll try to remember that. :)

Thanks for the link to the book, I'll definitely check it out.

I've never implemented a web forum, but I'd be willing to help out. No traffic estimates or storage estimates though! :)
Comment by aphoria 7th february 2009
Lovely, Thalamic. I think its interesting that you don't know how talented you are and how valued your work is. :-)

I have so much to say on the concept of commercializing fontstructions that I don't know where to begin. I'm right there with djnippa on many of his points and then some. But I don't want to add to any uncomfortability on this subject here.

Stewf has posted a great article on going pro on Typographica.

PS. Since Guentersen is platonic with the O, I think I'll ask her out for a Valentine's Day date. I'll let you know how it goes.
Comment by geneus1 14th february 2009
no need to say this font is outstanding!

thanks for that link, gene.
Comment by kix 15th february 2009
@aphoria: It was a joke. I have no connection with FontStruct other than that of a user. :)

@geneus1: Thanks for the kind words, encouragement and the link. How fortunate to have StumbleUpon! FontStruct not just because I know so much more about type as a result but because I know so many other typophiles.

@kix: Danke.
Comment by thalamic 15th february 2009
@thalamic I know you were joking, but I was serious, I would help out. :)

I ordered Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works...hope to receive it this week. I'm really looking forward to it.
Comment by aphoria 15th february 2009
I feel the same way about the FontStruct community, as well as how it has influenced me in exploring creative directions that I normally wouldn't have.

PS. So I went out with O on our big Valentine's date, but nothing happened. As you can see, it appears she was on her period.
Comment by geneus1 16th february 2009
LOL! At least it is open to the idea.
Comment by thalamic 16th february 2009
This is so nice! Super smooth in the sample but still very cool large.
Comment by Stelios Constantinides (sconstantinides) 7th march 2009

Why do you tag it sans serif and serif?

Comment by Aceblack10 4th december 2019

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