I was asked to design a hairline face to go with this face:


I was given as reference these two faces. It was suggested that the final typeface might be related to these two:



and




This is what I came up with:




There are lots of problems with this kind of relationship. One is that there is a visual problem between bold and light faces because the counters of light faces are visually larger, while the strokes are smaller. It makes the two weights hard to integrate successfully.

I was watching the English / USA World Cup today (supporting England because a) my parents grew up there, and b) the USA already wins enough stuff). Imagine my typographical delight that England has names and numbers in Gill Sans, quintessentially English typeface from 1925 or thereabouts. Very few countries can claim to have such a universally known yet specifically national typeface (maybe Switzerland...). I don’t know how much this affects non-typographically obsessed people. Does the British fan recognize (probably subconciously, if at all) the fact that it is a particularly English face? Do people from other countries?
And it’s true unimproved Gill...check out the characteristic overly simple, slightly too tall “1” on Wayne Rooney’s shirt.

Tacky eighties / cool seventies typeface

I've been working on this typeface for the last little while. It’s not really my kind of thing: too geometric. I can’t decide whether I like it or not. Sometimes it feels like something from the 1980s, an adolescent science fiction techno-utopia kind of face, which I really don't like:

At other times, I like its 1970s Dutch modernist Wim-Crouwelish graphic design modularity:

Anyway, just about any typeface will work somewhere, with some copy, and even if I can't see any use for this one, I will probably keep working on it....

Subpixel typefaces

I am fascinated by the phenomenon of how perception of type is affected by gestalt and physiological stuff. It is really evident with screen typography, and the smaller it gets, the more obvious it becomes. Here is an example: there is no way I could tell what the letters are in the large version, but at a small size (below right), I can make them out. (Open image to see the original).

It’s from this Typophile thread, which is worth reading not only for the discussion of the subject, but also for the vituperation as StoneCypher practically climbs into his computer to attack Miha and his claims.