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Final Typeface and Rationale

Inspired by the old-style serif typeface Garamond, my font Lyndon is reminiscent of old-style metal casted ligatures. One of the main features that is unique to Lyndon is the inclusion of a serif at the base of the lowercase "b", as well as unique "dog-ear" serifs on the top of "p" and "q". I chose to design these features because I felt that they gave the serif font more movement and continuity when used in words and sentences. During my research, I found that many old style serifs had small x-heights (including Garamond), which made the font difficult to read when used in normal, everyday point sizes. Because of this, I have chosen to exaggerate the x-height in Lyndon slightly, and I find that this has a considerable positive impact on readability.

The font I have designed also reflects upon my design moral and style. When designing, I like to take an ordered approach, using grids and even spacing. I like to take precise measurements of elements in order to arrange them with great visual appeal. The font I have designed, Lyndon, is a reflection of these habits. The font is very visually orderly and formal, incorporating contrasting strokes in each letter. Each letter has been designed to be evenly balanced - both vertically and horizontally. The use of contrasting stroke widths allows for better typographic colour when used in blocks of text. In addition, I took this as an opportunity to incorporate what I would have liked to see in Garamond, into Lyndon. One of the main differences between Garamond and Lyndon  is that upon close examination of Garamond at very large point sizes, one can see that the strokes that were meant to be straight, are in fact not. For example, the horizontal bars in the letter "E" had a slight humanization and variation from a purely horizontal line and made the ligatures look hand-cut. I never liked this feature of Garamond as it seemed like an imperfection, and so in my font, I have used perfectly straight lines in these situations. This, in my opinion, gives the font a much more refined look that is more visually appealing.

Exercise 6: Concepts

These are three concept drawings that I have created for the type design project.

LYNDON - Sans serif font for books and typesetting.

PONYO - Fun display font, designed for children.

ANDROID - Clear, neutral display font.

Exercise 5: Typographers Past and Present

Giambattista Bodoni

Designed by Bodoni in 1798, Bodoni  is characteised by its stroke contrast and geometric design. It is also know for its unique roll in the spur of the "R" ligature. The typography Bodoni produced is still regarded as some of the most refined and structraul ever produced. Bodoni's large x-height and high contrast makes it suitable and easily legible in a wide variety of applications, from posters to books.

Jan van Krimpen

Van Krimpen (1892-1958) specialised in elegant book typefaces, especially for monotype printing presses. His serif font, Haalemmer, features smooth serifs that allow the ligatures to flow into the next. Although this font is not monospaced, it has a large x-height allowing for practical use in typesetting.

Max Miedinger

Max Miedinger is best known for his role in the development of Helvetica. Helvetica is a grotesque sans-serif font and is primarily used as a display type due to its high clarity, although it has seen a variety of different applications. It is notable for its Swiss design, balance and harmony between the positive and negative spaces. This harmony is often seen to attribute neutral meaning to the type, and no meaning in its form. Instead the meaning was attributed to the words and phrases that it formed and has lead to use in signage. 

Exercise 4: Visual Onomatopoeia

Visual onomatopoeia is the use of typography to represent the meaning of a word. Using scale, kerning and spacing, I have created some examples below.

Exercise 3: Logos Using Initials

Using an official looking Garamond font, clip art and subtitle text was added. The letterspacing was decreased to give the logo a more unified feel.

Using Garamond, once again, the text was given an inner shadow in order to create the illusion that the type is recessed into the red square.

This logo uses negative space to form the letters within a black rectangle. The font used is Arial. I chose this font because it allowed the edges of the characters to sit flush on the border of the black rectangle.

Using Arial once again, the letterspace was decreased and some gullliemets were added. This would make a good logo if i were to sell skateboards or work gear.

Kinetic Typography

My first attempt at kinetic typography, featuring Tobuscus.

Exercise 2: Appropriate Typography

Appropriate fonts are able to sucessfully express the meaning behind a logo or a word. Below are some examples of appropriate typography that can be integrated into various businesses.

Perpetua Regular
Clear, formal font that respects past family members and pets.

Garamond Regular
Professional serif that will be clear and formal in long documents.

Lucida Fax Regular
Both an adult and child friendly font that is pleasing to the eye, unlike Comic Sans.

Zapfino Four Regular
Gone are the days of the overused Lucida Calligraphy Italics. Zapfino creates a look that is unique and traditional.

Harlow Solid Italic
A modern font, a metaphor for neon lights. This line of trendy clothing will have you wishing you were sober more often on Friday nights.

Franklin Gothic Book Regular
Clean, gothic grotesque (sans-serif) font that is bright and clear on any shop front. Suggests "no frill" products.

Typograph Pro SemiBold
Looking for a café close in the city with a friendly atmosphere? Look no further!

Eurostile LT Std Medium
It's fast, it's modern, it'll get you anywhere!

Segoe UI  Regular
Photographers should use a clean, crisp, neutral font that doesn't draw attention away from their works.

Rockwell Regular
Very straight edged, mechanical font that allows people to associate it with bicycle frames.

Parchment Regular
Try and guess what this business does!

Exercise 1: Font Analysis

I have chosen to analyse the fonts Garamond and Haettenschweiler.

(Garamond 72pt type)

Garamond is an old style typeface designed for clear readability in blocks of text. It is a proportionally spaced font that is characterised by its unique small bowl and eye of the "a" and e" respectively. Extenders and serifs of characters have a downward slope. Garamond is among the most legible serif typefaces when used in print media.

(Haettenschweiler 72pt type)

Haettenschweiler is a display font designed for use in high impact print media. Its heavy weight and dark colour places emphasis on the text. Haettenschweiler is a realist condensed sans-serif (Schmalfette Grotesk). Often compared to other fonts such as Helvetica Inserat and Impact, its unique characteristic is the uppercase "R" which has a curved leg similar to Helvetica. Due to Haettenschweiler being a display font, it is unsuitable and often looses legibility when used in smaller point sizes.