Brutal Exchange of a Smug for Some Faith

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by afrojet

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The designer of this FontStruction has chosen not to make it available for download from this website by choosing an “All Rights Reserved" license.

Please respect their decision and desist from requesting license changes in the comments.

If you would like to use the FontStruction for a specific project, you may be able to contact the designer directly about obtaining a license.

A play on brickstacking, 'Brutal' is an experiment in creating a one brick fontstruction for multilayered screen printing. To use this font, you simply need to layer the uppercase alphabet on top of (or underneath) the lowercase alphabet (see below for a sample).

Obviously, it doesn't look like much in the Fontstruct preview.

The inspiration for this typeface came about when I was putting together this Flickr gallery of modular multi-colored lettering.

The first 25 downloads are all mine. It was a hard one to test.

41 Comments

Comment by afrojet 16th november 2009
Simply awesome. I hope someday to see some stunning real-world applications made possible by this riddle of an elegant offering.

Too many beautiful glyphs to count. The U and the N and the R. The H and the X. The masterful compositions with just the right touch of brickstacking for certain layers (The Q, the G, the D, the B, the C, the K). A vs. V. L vs. J. M, W, and E! But especially the F. And, again, that magical Q!

I could go on, my friend, singing the praises of this masterpiece. The question becomes: How to properly display this as a featured download?
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 16th november 2009
Amazing! I tried to make something like that, but failed. Actually, the solution was simply beatiful... or beautifully simple.
Comment by igorrossi 16th november 2009
What especially blows my mind after taking a tour of the flikr gallery you put together: amongst all the similar constructions that inspired you, Brutal embodies the greatest legibility born of arguably the strictest ruleset. And with absolutely no dearth of playful style.
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 16th november 2009
You say 'Brutal' is an experiment ... well, the experiment was a fantastic success.

As someone who was involved in screenprinting (way back in the 60s) I can really appreciate this design (and the others in your gallery) .... hmmmm, I can almost smell the tri-chromatic inks.
Comment by p2pnut 17th november 2009
Words fail me.
Comment by thalamic 17th november 2009
Thanks for the great responses everyone. I definitely want to pull some prints of this one. The digital sample doesn't do it the justice it deserves. The red is a bit too pink. I'd like it to be much more of a tomato soup red. Wondering now if either the M, the E, or the W shouldn't be reversed to make one of them more unique.
Comment by afrojet 17th november 2009
A well coordinated mixed-case setting enables palette swapping for any of these layered glyphs, right?

I get your point (if one had to change, I would pick M). But I really dig the conceptual elegance of rotated and repeated forms. It’s the rhythm that helps showcase those showstoppers (Q, O, X, Z – yeah, and especially that F again). But is it punk or is it polka, music or muzak, acid jazz or bad acid? I know what my ears say, but yours must ultimately decide.

Actually, though, I have always been unreasonable fond of the pacman-style Art Deco M. In that case, mirrored chucky trapezoids might do the trick. This just brings up the idea of using the diacritics for alternates (Å+å = YAY!). But, then again, why bloat something already so willfully, brutally paired down to its most fundamental elements?
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 17th november 2009
uuhnn blkrr flbpppft... (stupefaction)
Comment by intaglio 18th november 2009
Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Brutal Exchange of a Smug for Some Faith” is now a Top Pick.
Comment by gferreira_admin 18th november 2009
Thanks for the tongue spittle Intaglio (aka Bill The Cat). And thanks Gustavo for Top Pickery.

@will.i.ૐ You're totally right. Seems I was lost within the potentials of my own font. No need for alt glyphs; if you want to flip one of the glyphs just swap lowercase for uppercase (or vis a versa). In this example, the dominant red color is swapped to the uppercase. Punk becomes polka (and Jello Biafra records an instrumental accordion record).
Comment by afrojet 18th november 2009
And just for shits and giggles and because web fonts are the talk du jour...here's an example of 'Brutal' - layered and presented on the web (requires a modern browser with @font-face support).
Comment by afrojet 18th november 2009
Holy crap. Now that’s totally awesome. Loving the new color schemes. Does this make me a polka man? ;)
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 19th november 2009
Okay. I love the design. And that @font-face demo is incredible.
Comment by Sketchbook B 19th november 2009
Great work afro...love the @font-face demo.
Comment by aphoria 19th november 2009
cool font bro...
Comment by IRN 24th november 2009
It' a little hard to read but i can see how you made the letters. Pretty good!
Comment by Atman 30th november 2009
I mean... It's so EASY to read, yet in the FontStruct preview it doesn't look like much.

Bravo on a brilliant font.
Comment by Pingpong4497 1st december 2009
Completely un-readable.
You cant tell the difference between a Q and a O
and you cant tell the difference between an o and a G
It would be kind of nice if you could actually read it.
4/10
Comment by Frozen99 8th august 2010
if the staff were going to pick a top pick, shouldn't they at least choose one thats LEGIBLE?
Comment by Frozen99 8th august 2010
@frozen99
Read this part of description:
"'Brutal' is an experiment in creating a one brick fontstruction for multilayered screen printing".

And look at the example picture that's red and black.

It's only unreadable in the unlayered state.
Comment by TomoAlien 8th august 2010
@ frozen99 - i normally don't comment when ignorant statements are made. hopefully tomo's comment will provide you with the understanding to comprehend this font. btw afrojet is on the FS staff. although he didn't and doesn't self-pick his top picks. it would be to your advantage to expand your knowledge of Fontstruct and typography before you embarrass yourself again.
Comment by funk_king 8th august 2010
@Frozen99 - thanks for the chuckle.
Comment by afrojet 8th august 2010
uhh... your welcome, lol.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
@funk_king

It's not like i have that much understanding anyway. for one thing: i'm only 10 years old.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
so, like, i dont know what a "one brick fontstruction for multilayered screen printing" is.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
@funk_king
keep in mind that there aren't many ten-year-olds that can make a font with almost 200 characters. Heck, most of yours only have 20-50.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
@funk_king
keep in mind that there aren't many ten-year-olds that can make a font with almost 200 characters. Heck, most of yours only have 20-50.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
And i'm not criticizing him, just the fact that I cannot find any way of reading it in its normal state. like, you can't make a word document using this font.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
how did my comment duplicate?
:/
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
oh, and i don't feel at all embarrased, funk king.
Comment by Frozen99 9th august 2010
This font is not supposed to be read in a normal state. You must use 2 layers - one with lowercase letters and second with uppercase.
Remember to use 2 different colors and a right blend mode.

I will post a guide that shows how to use this font if you want.
Comment by TomoAlien 9th august 2010
amazing font. amazing font. simply stunning.
Comment by pain219 9th august 2010
This font has broaden my horizon.
Comment by Tylo 16th august 2010
Beautiful font. Ingenious solution.
@Frozen99: Actually I think most of the alt characters (esp. More Latin & Latin A) are just base letters with diacritics. For a font to be good requires creativity and so an effort put into ~50 letters can be already splendid depending on the font. Quality over quantity, as they always say.
Comment by 3moDuDe 8th september 2010
This is very very nice and very well done!

I hope you don't mind I stole your idea for one of my fonts, if so I'll take it down.
Comment by jorisdockx 9th january 2011
Honestly, this is UBER cool. But... im kinda a newbie... but couldent you change the spacing for the capitols so you could just do Aa and it would work? Sorry if that didnt make sense...
Actually I tested it, it did not seem to work... Oh well...
Comment by Drgrit 9th january 2011
Tomo I'd like the guide please! :3
Comment by Netbook 2nd october 2011

wow. Cool!!!!!! TOO COOL

Comment by RetroPoo 13th december 2015

try using this font. looks better without overlapping two letters

http://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1222233/4x4x

Comment by RetroPoo 13th december 2015

wow. "brutal exchange of a smug for some faith"? lol. afrojet, you're so funny XD

Comment by anna but erik 22nd august 2021

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