OUGD404: Design Principles - Study Task 2: The Birth of a Font

For the second of the practical sessions for the Design Principles module we were asked to cut dissect the uppercase 'A' 'B' and lowercase 'a' 'b' by separating the bowls and stems.

From these we were able to create new letterforms, as a class we agreed on 70 variations for each (A, a,  B and b). 

Study Task 2

• From variations made in the session, select the five most successful and create the letterforms 'A' 'B' 'C' 'a' 'b' and 'c'
• Trace and render letterforms and create 'X' 'Y' 'Z' 'x' 'y' and 'z'
• Name your five fonts

Five most successful variations

As I was also required to create the 'X' 'Y' and 'Z' - upper and lowercase - for each of the five fonts I designed I printed out these letterforms out in my original four fonts - Times New Roman, Gill Sans, Impact and Monoline Script - which enabled me use the same process I used for the 'A' 'B' and 'C' to create the 'X' 'Y' and 'Z'. 

1st Font - Parallel

Final Font

Overall, I believe that Parallel would be a successful typeface as each character is legible and would therefore the readability would not be effected should the typeface be used within a sentence. However, I feel that the Parallel would be more effective as a headline or display font as the heavy stokes used throughout would not scale down well.

2nd Font - Inkling

Final Font

Overall, I believe that Inkling would be a successful typeface to be used within body copy as each character is legible and would therefore the readability would not be effected should the typeface be used within a sentence or paragraph.

3rd Font - Loiter

Final Font

Overall, I believe that Loiter would be a successful typeface as each character is legible and would therefore the readability would not be effected should the typeface be used within a sentence. However,  should I use the typeface within a context I would perhaps rework the lowercase 'a' as the bowl looks out of proportion compared to the stem.

4th Font - Dwell

Final Font

Overall, I believe that Dwell would be a successful typeface as each character is legible and would therefore the readability would not be effected should the typeface be used within a sentence. However, I feel that the Dwell would be more effective as a headline or display font as the design has 'intricate' detail which would perhaps not scale down well.

5th Font - Glimpse

Final Font

Overall, I believe that Glimpse would be a successful typeface as each character is legible and would therefore the readability would not be effected should the typeface be used within a sentence. However,  I believe the typeface needs some sort of uniform design throughout out each of the characters as particularly the lowercase 'a' and 'c' look out of place.