An avantgarde serif with a mild horror theme. It takes advantage of the properties of antialiasing/text smoothing algorithms to render a convincingly handmade aesthetic.
Making attractive, consistent, nonpixel serif designs at this grid size is quite a challenge. Making them look handmade is even moreso. I've tried that many times, but this design is the first such one I felt was truly usable. It doesn't quite look typewriter-esque, but blends well with other designs that are.
For this I used many different serif shapes, with each one depending on how the line it was attached to wanted to bend or terminate. This is in contrast to most other serif designs I've seen, in which the serifs themselves are more consistent in shape. I decided against faux-bezier curves for this, because they all looked way too polygonal. I think this is one of few cases where a rectangular O and S enhance the overall design rather than weakening it.
A variant of Clockwork Macguffin in which most curves are changed to 90° angles. Whereas with most fonts a change like this would result in a more authoritarian or "professional" look, this one became quirkier. I like it!
This is a clone of Clockwork MacguffinA seriously spurless sans-serif. It approaches minimalism, but doesn't quite get there. This gives it a look that lets it blend in with lots of things!
It reminds me of a font I saw years ago on some futuristic-looking tinned rations. I don't remember what the brand was, but I remember the label having a very rounded sans-serif font like this one.
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See also:2K4S
Version 1.0
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A slightly quirky font made to be good for chat and marquee display. The global matrix is 8 pixels tall. This works well for IRC clients, MUD clients, and so on. Supports Dutch, English, and Greek!
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Original size: 6pt
I finally made a folded-/ribbon-style design. This one contains a number of experimental techniques. Most notably, the swept parts of glyphs are allowed to extend beyond the letterwidths and sometimes even the baselines. This enhances the sense of movement, creates some interesting linkages, and reduces the need for kerning.
All of these shapes can be constructed with paper or ribbon, although lots of clever folding tricks, doubling, and pinning down/securing with glue would be required.
Alternate tilde on "±".
More multiline Romanesque doodle thing.
This is a clone of QuartzthroneThe design process is typical in its atypicality (yes, it is a word, or, at least, should be!).
The atypicality necessitates the telling of the story behind it.
Looking for something to do...something easy to do, I came across the font shown 5th from the top in this article on Dieline. "I can do this," thought I. I did a 2 that looked similar. Based on that, did the 3. 5 6 9. 0 8. 1 7. "Hmm." Add the horizontal stripes. 7. 4? "No." Re-4? "No. Another 4? Perhaps thinner sides?" "Even thinner." "Hmm." Redo 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9. "Maybe this is better. OK, lets do the letters." Start with Z because it is almost a 2 with minor curve tweak. Do the S. B because 3 is done. A. V. C. E. F L. J. Etc.
The glyphs so far have a 3 horizontal band appearance. Do the lowercase. a is two bands. b is two bands...but how high should the ascender be? Also, the x-height seems wrong. Off somehow. "Can I do a 2 band uppercase with the letter slightly taller. Maybe 2 bricks taller?"
Redo A. Redo B. "No this B is not working." Redo B. Redo B. Redo B. "Hmm. Maybe." Redo C D. Redo E F L. "OK, this might work." Redo to all uppercase letters.
Do the lowercase. "Yes I like the new f." Redo other letters to include the flip. Most of the letters are the same width. "Maybe I can make this a mono-space font." Redo m. Redo M. W. V. "The A looks odd." Redo A. And so on.
The font may have started as a simple thing but it is very different now. "I'll just publish it." "No, I should at least do the basic punctuations." "No this hyphen is too thick." Redo. "Now it is too thin." Redo. "Now it is too wide. But this is mono-space font. The width cannot be altered." +. "That just looks weird." Redo +. Now the - looks off. Redo -. Now they both don't fit with the rest of the font. Redo + -. "No. I'll come back to them." Do [. "No that's too heavy top and bottom." Redo [. Do (. "This needs a different curve." Redo (. "Can I use this new curve somewhere else?" Redo @. "Hmm." Do ©. Do ®. Do ™. Do “. "I can't make this so wide." Do ‘. "Definately cannot make it mono-space." Redo all punctuation to be their natural width. "This is no longer a mono-space font. Should I redo M m W w to be more natural?" Redo do m. "No this is too much work. I can't be bothered anymore. Let the m's and w's be."
"The punctuation looks niiice. Should I do a font to match these?"
Create New FontStruction
Small-grid doodle which creates new combinatorial forms.
I considered this design rather rough and unappealing until I gave it negative spacing. This caused the forms to merge together in unpredictable and interesting ways. The lesson here is that sometimes the metrics, not the aesthetics, are what "make" or "save" a design.
It's called Choices because this basic idea lead to numerous minor iterations that completely changed the character of the...er...characters. All the unused possibilites are now sitting dormant in another font. Perhaps they will become a full font (or three)...someday.
This is a cloneMade experimentally as an alternative to "Nimbus Mono L". The serifs just sort of do what they want, sometimes fitting in naturally, sometimes not.
It's not meant to be monospaced, but is meant to have the same sort of neat constant-width look. All uppercase letters and numerals are 5 width, while most of the lowercase letters are 4 width.
See also:Slabberton
Version 1.5
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3x3 slab serif. This is based on Wallerton, Anachronistic Gunslinger, an IRC-based "TV show" which I used to write and produce. All the characters in the show were my AIs pretending they were cowboys.
Well, I managed to successfully produce a lowercase for this one!
Recommended: Use with kerning.
A gnarled, pointy design which fits into many historical periods and aesthetics. It makes me think of Wild West woodtype and gargoyles.
Confidento is a typeface based and styled on the word Confident, aiming to produce a type which uses features that are strong and bold. One of the main characteristics I have aimed to encorporate throughout this process is the use of a balanced type design, enabling the design to not become too heavy. I achieved this through the means of having large variation in width across different aspects of the text.
Iteration 4: Basic Latin kerning finished.
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DOODLE DOODLE DOODLE!
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Design Rules:
1. Letters with spurs will have the spur begin at the baseline. This provides the distinctive "high heeled" look.
2. Any letter whose traditional design has a straight vertical line on its left side will keep the line, no matter how the lines of the actual letter travel.
A Quartzthrone variant that looks like fancy upholstered furniture (or cactus heartwood).
This is a clone of QuartzthroneApparently, it is quite easy to forget what gets a fontstruction going. Something about ultra condensed bla bla bla. The rest is just a matter of having a creative activity to occupy the mind. And if in the process you can help out a friend, all the better.