Lexicon Drawings by Bram De Does

The beautiful ink on paper drawings for Lexicon by Bram De Does.

http://www.teff.nl/fonts/lexicon/

http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-24691.html

And there is also a documentary about him and his work, Systematisch Slordig (Systematically Sloppy). You have to be a Dutchman to understand any of this, and few will appreciate this degree of typographic dorkitude, but oh, the examples of book design. Drooling.
Documentary about the Dutch type designer Bram de Does, creator of Trinité (1982) and Lexicon (1992)

Type Design - Plutocrat

Another old typeface. I started this back in 91. Nothing earth-shatteringly original, simple shapes used to create a simple display face, but I still like it. A lot of the time back then my aim was simply to have something  a little funkier than what I had access to, and to have something that no one else had.

Like so many of my typefaces, this was one that I would add a couple of characters to here and there, as the need arose for a logo or headline. Sometimes I would generate an actual font to load into the system, and sometimes it would remain as a Fontographer file, with characters to be exported as needed. So a lot of my early typefaces were only Fontographer files and not having a way to access them, kept many of them locked away for ages. I’ve converted all of them with FontLab’s FogLamp, and it’s neat to see stuff I haven’t seen in a decade or more.

Back when I did this I had to spread alternate characters across three different fonts, but now with OpenType I think I’ll just stick them all into one font. 

And in use in a logo.

Logo - Exploriment Needle & Thread

No particular reason for this. Just goofing around, finding things to do with Cosmodrome, and a vague notion to have some kind of symbol for the sewing branch of the Exploriment Corporation.

Type Design - Cosmodrome Serif Micromum

Another weight a good portion of the way done. Lots of kerning, etc., still to be done. And a big part of this is trying it out, printing it out at various sizes, those sorts of things. That will reveal flaws, inconsistencies, etc. For the most part all I see are individual characters in their cell. Sure, I can set a little “The Quick Brown Fox....” in FontLab Studio but I don’t have a huge monitor so I’m limited as to how large I can view it. Nor is it that easy to set different text. Turning it into an actual font and being able to easily see multiple characters combined in a view different programs on a few different monitors is very helpful. This better tells me if some characters need to be narrower, or wider, or any other problems it may exhibit.

Read more about it, and the other variants I’ve managed to complete so far here.

Typeface Design – Cosmodrome

This is an old typeface I started in late 92. Originally it was for use in ads for a college radio show. Playing around with very orthogonal forms - a line and a circle. I had a bunch of ideas for forms and I spread the different ideas out over two weights - one set of ideas in the bold, one set of ideas in the regular. They looked somewhat similar....but different. Some of the characters I liked, and some I didn’t. These are a few of the old characters. Some okay ideas there, but some of them are just too obtuse. I ended consolidating the two different sets into one bold weight a while later. I took all the characters I liked and if they were in the lighter weight I made them bold. Over time I would still use it for a headline or try it out in a logo, but found myself drawing whole new characters (in that style) when I thought they just didn’t work.

Now that I once again have the means to work on type, I decided to have another crack at this. There was still something I liked about it, and decided to take it in a different direction. Namely to standardize it a bit, have lots of alternate characters, have sans-serif and serif versions, and maybe if I have no life, a semi-serif version, and have a few different weights, and maybe even wide and condensed variants. I still have a bunch to do on just this font and weight before I even move on to any other aspects of it.

I spend my days trying to wrap my brain around learning HTML code and all that, then when I go home I spend hours trying to figure out the intricacies of OpenType coding. I am just a barrel of fun.

Like I said, lots that will still change about this, but I was keen to generate this as an actual font so I could play around with it a little bit. Even though it’s not entirely ready, it is still valuable to use it in page layout or illustration program and type it out, see how it all looks as lines and passages of text, etc.

And I’ve gotten close to completing a bold serif version as well.

I think what I’ve come up with is the logical result of tossing DIN, American Typewriter and Lubalin Graph into a crock pot and letting it stew to create this. Or, to be all type geek about it, a globose adnate unmodulated geometric modernist typeface.

Another variant a good chunk of the way done. Decided to go back to a naming convention I’ve used before This one will be Micromum, the ones I did before will be Maximum, and in between that will be the Minimum and Medium, and I’m also going to do an even heavier version which will be called Megamum.

Smoke & Draw Night

Little flyer for a weekly drawing night. Everyone smokes....cigars and draws. Used some old drawings I’d done of drawing implements, that I jazzed up a little with some gradients. Mainly it gave me a chance to use an old/new typeface: Cosmodrome SansSerif Bold. One I did initially 20 years ago, and altered over the years. Now I’m reworking it all again to be a serif/semi-serif/sans-serif with four weights in each, OpenType typeface. As if learning about HTML coding all day isn’t enough, I then go home and in the evening build type and delve into OpenType coding. Generated it this morning. Still a whole lot to fix up and perfect here, but I was itching to fiddle with it in something other than FontLab Studio.It’s unfinished, but at some point you need to actually see it in use, whole pages of text to check the colour of it, how everything works in conjunction, that sort of thing.

Type Design - Alpenjager

A typeface I’ve been working on for a long time. Well, long in terms of years between spurts of effort, but it’s just plain taken me a long time. I started this back in 96, because I wanted something to set a resume in. Kookoo for cocoa puffs I know. Sure there were lots of other typefaces I could use, but given that I design typefaces, I figured I should try my hand at tackling something of my own. I had ambitions to do some narrow widths in addition to regular widths as well as italics. Yeah.....maybe one day.

Now that it is more or less done, I want to change quite a bit of it. I have ideas to redraw many of the characters, and add lots of little features to distinguish it. I think only real type dorks could point out all the things that distinguish it from Frutiger, Univers, etc. But it was fun for me to do and as always, I learn a lot from doing it.

Typeface Design – Siegfried

Mmmhh, design may be a bit of a misnomer – production may be more appropriate.

Along with Freddy, this was commisioned by PostContemporary Records for use on one of their Zeuxis and the Painted Grapes releases.

The example they had was from a Morgan Press Type Collection Catalog. In the sixties there was a big revival of turn of the century, art deco faces, and that is indeed the era this is from. Released in 1900 by the Wilhelm Woellmer Schriftgießerei in Berlin.

If you totally love this typeface, you can get it free from here and here. Don’t know if they’re the same, and I seriously doubt that it’s the one I did. But if you want it, go there. (Maybe my version is better, but I don’t even know where I have an actual typeface copy of it (never thought enough of it to actually use it myself). I know I have a .fog file somewhere, but without Fontographer, there’s not much I can do with it at the moment.)

Refreshing Flyer

Flyer from a bunch of years back for a weekly club night.

Logo – Sea Level

Logo for an Australian group that promotes sustainable seafood. Another chance for me to try out a new sans-serif I’m working on, Alpenjager.

Logo – King Carpentry

New logo design. Still need to tweak it a little, namely the bottom line of the bowl of the “g” but I think it’s pretty cool. The “carpentry” is in a typeface I’m working on called Alpenjager. It’s the bold weight and there is also a regular. It’s close to completion and I’m also slowly tackling the italics. Very slowly.

Logo – Vespidame, 2nd try

So, I showed an earlier attempt at this here. I thought it was okay, but immediately knew that I wanted to keep working on the concept. And this is the result. I went through a bunch of iterations of this, and I may still tweak it some more. But...I like it. It’s always hard to be objective about things when you pore over them for hours, but I think this is headed in the right direction. Still trying to resolve the dot over the I. Might make it a little skull. I’ll see.

Type Design – Anand

I’ve been playing around with a calligraphy pen the last few days, and this is my nascent effort. Going for a fat brushstroke, sign painting look. Fun to play around with, and I’ll keep plugging away at it.

Typeface Design – Ωhm

I had a scrap of paper that had this logo done by my pal Jarkko. I always liked it and years back I mentioned that he should turn it into a full typeface. Mainly cause I wanted to use it myself.

Going through some files recently I came across it and again mentioned to him that he should try turning it into a complete typeface. 

I was inspired last night, so I tried my hand at carrying the core idea through. I can see that more noodling and doodling will be necessary, but I like it so far. 

Logo – Vespidame

First stab at a logo for a piercer that makes corsets. I will work on variations of this and also have some totally different approaches to try out. But I think this has some potential. 

I came up with the name too. Vespidae means wasp. Wasp waisted is an analogy for a corset. Wasps have stingers that they pierce with. Dame is another word for a sexy, curvy mama. Babe that pierces and makes corsets. Vespidae+Dame=Vespidame.

(You can see my second, and much better version here.)

Zapf Civilité

After working on Engravers Initials 3 and Engravers Initials 2 and noodling around with Piel Script, I’m beginning to have a renewed appreciation for calligraphy. I’ve always admired the skill involved , but I never really tried my hand at it. My type design origins were pretty firmly rooted in reading Vinyl and Face Magazine and buying records with sleeves done by Steven R. Gilmore. Those were my inspirations.

But really poring over those faces mentioned, and studying them and how they would have been constructed has made me delve into the art of calligraphy anew. Went to the library and spent an evening looking at the surprising number of books on the subject they had was very edifying. Some of it I still find a bit twee. To me uncials are just a hallmark of corny leprechauns and St. Patty’s day Irish kitsch.

But some of it is just spectacular. One example in particular, Civilité by the great Hermann Zapf caught my eye. His name will undoubtedly be familiar to almost anyone with a computer as the man responsible for Zapf Dingbats and Zapf Chancery, but also as the designer of such ubiquitous typefaces as Palatino and Optima. And many other fine typefaces. I liked Civilité so much I searched for it online. Turns out it has never been digitized. I did find a crappy jpeg of it. Hhhmmmmmmmhhhh......

After tackling the two Engravers Initials, I figured, heck why not. Since the example I had was merely a 500 pixel or so, 72 dpi jpeg, I didn’t have much detail to go by, but I could do a fair approximation. Some features would likely end up a bit different than Mr. Zapf had intended, but that x is just too creamy to pass up. I’m also doing some type for a Canada Post stamp design and the numerals were calling out to me. I’m sure purists are aghast, but it was a fun few hours of drawing and doing it gives my ever increasing respect for calligraphy a boost. I would totally love to tackle this for real, if I could just get proper drawings to work from.

Engravers Initials 2

Another one I just did for the tattoo shop. It’s also from Dan X. Solo’s Gothic and Old English Alphabets from Dover Publications. I reckon it’s a bit of a garish monstrosity (I like the E and a few other characters though), but folks still want to get stuff tattooed on themselves in it. Okay then....

If I don’t know much about the provenance of Engravers Initials 3, this one is a total mystery to me. I’m going to guess it hails from the Victorian era?

Like Engravers Initials 3, this one was pretty sloppy, so I tried my best to clean it up. I added a few alternate characters as well. Fun one to kern, that’s for sure.

Engravers Initials 3

I did this up for the tattoo shop. It appeared in Dan X. Solo’s “Gothic and Old English Alphabets” from Dover Publications. I really don’t get this obsession people have with getting lettering tattooed on themselves in “Old English.” (bbbaaaaahhhh) But customers who browsed through the books at the shop to pick out a lettering style that they liked, often picked this one. But we couldn’t find it anywhere as a digital typeface. Photocopying and cutting and pasting it on a curve got very long in the tooth, very quickly. So I was asked if I could transform it into an actual typeface. 

I don’t really know that much about blackletter (as “Old English” is more correctly called.) I know enough about it that this is probably classified as a Bastarda. But I’m not a calligrapher, so I only have a vague understanding of specifically what era and region this came from. Was this from a 13th century German psalter or an 18th century English display typeface for handbills? I don’t know. I’m also not sure if this would have been done with a pen or a brush, or if it could be done with either one. To be honest I’m pretty ignorant of the whole scribal tradition. Type for me starts with Jenson and Griffo.

I’m also not sure how Mr. Solo compiled this. Did he or an underling actually draw this or was it merely copied from a source with a stat camera? I suspect it’s the latter. It’s totally got that look of something that was done at 12 point and then blown up about 10-fold at least on a stat camera. There are a fair number of inconsistencies in it, the size and colour seems to waver, and the thickness of stems and serifs seem off in places as well. The weirdest thing though was the Z which appears to come from a totally separate typeface altogether. Whether it fell off the paste up board at the printers and they stuck the wrong one back on, or whether the face didn’t have a Z at all and they copied one from another and figured that would do....no idea. I think the idea of this book may have been that it was supposed to inspire budding calligraphers, who would then draw it themselves.

I made an effort to remedy some of the inconsistencies, and I made a completely half assed attempt at a Z. My lack of understanding about the underlying structure and intent of this typeface made it only a very mediocre attempt. Kerned it very nicely. Added a couple of alternates as well. There are swooshes on the left hand side of the V and W, so I added one of each where they were raised up quite a bit to avoid crashing into whatever was on the left of them. Also did them up a version without those little bars. There are still some imperfections in it, but it will most definitely allow the artists at the shop to set this much quicker, on all sorts of tricky curves, with whatever outline they like, etc.

Logo - Zoë

Logo for a photographer. Custom lettering.

Type Design - Dundurn

I’ve been getting back into type design after a looonnngg hiatus (and really loving it.) This is one that I started a long time ago and it languished for just as long. After working on a face for Bruce Mau, it got me really interested in gothic or grotesque faces from a century ago, which sound rather whhooo scary to the uninitiated, but are really bold condensed sans serifs used for advertising.

It started me down the path to creating one all my own. Totally stupid, I know; I could have bought one, or just pirated one. (And people wonder why I have no interest in selling my type.) I made it a bit wider than some. I like condensed faces a lot, but I felt I had done plenty of those already. I completed most of it years ago, and finished off some missing characters (there are still a few missing, and a few still need tweaking and correcting), and noodled around with the metrics and kerning (although I still can’t say they’re done either). But it’s close to being near where I’m happy with it. Working on this has given me the chance to immerse myself in FontLab Studio. Previously I was what I would immodestly call an expert user of Fontographer. Studio is a different beast altogether, and in order to learn it I just have to get in and do it.

One thing I did to it is to put a 1º slant on this face. Simple change, but it gives it a bit more oomph I thought. Subtle, but makes it a bit more lively.

Unless you’re a total type dork, I doubt this will strike anyone as something that unique. I just like that it’s something I made and that it’s exclusive to me.