All about "Swift", a Classic Typeface / Font Basics

SWIFT FONT BASICS
Type: Serif
Designer: Gerard Unger
Other fonts the Designer has designed: Markeur, M.O.I, Demos, Praxis, Hollander, Flora, Vesta, Argo 
Date it was designed: 1985
Classification: Transitional Serif, Neue 
Swfit's family members: Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic, Black Condensed


TYPE STYLES
Old Style: Roman typefaces of the 15th and 16th emulates classical calligraphy. (Sabon, Adobe Garamond Pro, Minion Pro, Livory).    
Transitional: Letterforms with sharper serifs and more vertical axis, which makes for sharp forms and high contrast. (Baskerville, Americana, Bulmer)  
Modern: Radically different from previous styles, and even considered to be 'abstract' for the 18th and 19th centuries, these letterforms have thin, straight serifs, vertical axis, and sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes. (Bodoni, Marconi, Walbaum) 
Slab Serif: Orginally designed for advertising, these letterforms have thick, blocky, 'slab' serifs. (Rockwell, Soho, Clarendon)
Sans Serif: These letterforms are basically Old Style (Humanist Serifs) with the serifs chopped off. (Frutiger, Gill Sans, Mentor Sans)

Stroke Weight: The thickness of the stroke (the lines) that make up a letter
Axis or Stress: An imaginery line drawn from top to bottom, bisecting the top and bottom strokes of a letter form 
       example...

Small caps: Shrunken versions of ALL CAPS.  They match the x-height of lowercase letters.  

Lining Figures: Figures that are uniform in height and align with baseline and cap height, and are usually the size of capital letters.  

Non-aligning figures:Also referred to as "Old Style figures", are numbers designed to harmonize with the proportions and rthym of lowercase letterforms.  

Ligatures: When two letterforms of a font overlap when next to eachother in a word, such as a lowercase 'f' followed by a lowercase 'i', a ligature happens when a combined letterform is created in order to control letter spacing and allow to letter forms to harmoniously exist next to eachother.   

Summarize Type measurement: [I believe this quote from Linotype Font Feature describes Type Measurement well]  "When type was cast in metal, the printing surface – the “face” – was mounted on a block of metal called the “body”. The type sizes – measured in points – refered to this metal body rather than the face itself. The proportion of the face on the body could vary considerably from one typeface to another.

This principle still applied. For example a 10 point type is one that measures 10 points from baseline to baseline when set solid (ie without any extra space being added between the lines). So it is possible for one 10 point type to look smaller than another but they will both take up the same depth from line to line."

Font Comparisons

DIRECTION #1 
descriptive words...
GLEEFUL      SPARKLING    ORNATE     JOYFUL     ENCHANTED    FESTIVE    LAVISH    MAGICAL    WONDERFUL        




DIRECTION #2   

descriptive words...
ROUND      SOFT      EASY      SUBTLE      ROLLING      SWOPING

           

Hand Lettering vs. Typography

What is the difference between lettering and font design? 

WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY? "The style, arrangement or appearance of typeset matter, and is a product of the movable type printing system that much of the world has used for centuries."  So basically, typography involves the design of a font- which is a set of characters (letters and symbols) that are made into digital files that can be resized and styled, and printed again and again.  Typography is actually a subset of lettering.

WHAT IS LETTERING? "Lettering can be simply defined as the art of drawing letters."  Unlike fonts or typography, which is a full alphabet and symbols/numbers, lettering is created for a specific combination of letterforms crafted for a single use and purpose (such as a quote or name) as opposed to using previously designed letters (a font) as components.  

The following link provides more very interesting information concerning the difference between hand lettering and typography: 
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/01/understanding-difference-between-type-and-lettering/

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Famous type designers to know:

SUMNER STONE is the creative mind behind Adobe's typographic program, including the Adobe Originals and founded the Stone Type Industry Inc in California, which has produced a variety of award winning custom type designs including those for clients such as General Motors, Mobil, and The San Francisco Public Library.  He continues to teach typography and calligraphy, lecture around the country, and has written two books.
http://stonetypefoundry.com/aboutsumnerstone.html

MATHEW CARTER is well-known for co-founding Bitstream in 1981.  He also designed famous typefaces, Verdana and Georgia for none other than Microsoft, which are unique in their ability to be extremely legible at very small sizes on a screen.  He has been awarded numerous awards for his work, including the a Medal from the Type Directors Club for having made significant contributions to the life, art, and craft of typography and a MacArthur Fellowship award for exceptional creativity.  
https://www.myfonts.com/person/Matthew_Carter/

BRUNO MAAG is the co-founder and owner of Dalton Maag, possibly the largest independent custom type company in Europe.  Maag studied in Switzerland, and has previously worked in London.  With his company, he recently worked on a huge font project for Nokia and a font design for the 2016 Rio Olympics. 
https://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/201209.html

    

The Letter Fountain; reading notes

Small Caps are not just smaller capital letters, but are actually specifically designed small capitals.  Simple using a reduced font size of a capital letter can cause its appearance to become too light, and can affect the width of a character.  Therefore, using a Small Capital font ensures the best appearance of small capital letterforms.

The ampersand symbol is a combination of the letters "e" and "t", which form the greek word "et", meaning "and."  Sometimes, the ampersand symbol appears to resemble an "et", and other times it is more abstract in the commonly known "&" appearance.

Modular typefaces are digitally created using a dot matrix to fill in pixels into the stick, grid-like form of a character.

We take most of our letter references from ancient Roman inscriptions, which were created as geometric forms, anchored in a square/rectangular base.  Compasses, triangles, and rulers were likely used to create the first letter forms.  The letters A, C, D, G, H, K, N, O, Q, T, V, X, I, M and Y were found in the ancient roman alphabet, but we added the three letters J, U, and W after finding no Roman examples.

Sometimes, capital letters are bolder than lowercase letters in a typeface, to produce a more distinct feeling of importance to the start of a sentence (with a capital letter).

Characters should have an even white space between each other, created visual harmony.

In the 70s, type was changed by the influence of punk and graffiti styles, and the cutting off serifs from serif fonts, and adding to it sans serif fonts - creating 'mutant' typefaces.  Art Chantry, Jamie Reid, Rob Schroder, and Lies Ros laid the foundations for created music posters, and hand lettering before it became digital.

Phototypesetting machines began slowly replacing mechanical typesetting machines during the seventies-eighties.  The first digital type company was founded in 1980, called Bitstream.  However, this new digital era also brought many limitations because of pixeling and legibility issues.  Designers such as A. Frutiger and W. Crouwel fought against this problem, designing Univers and the New Alphabet.

Fuse Fonts

Can you Read Me: 

Designer?  Phil Baines

What is different about the font? It's titled "Can you read me" but its actually almost illegible because most of the characters are halfway horizontally cut off. 

How is it constructed? As stated earlier, the bottom half of each character is almost completely gone, except for some choose dips and curves of descenders such as "p"s. 

What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "a" and "p" because they have bottom halves, unlike most characters in this typeface

5 words describing the font? unique, abrupt, complex, hooked, curled 

Pop: 

Designer?  Neville Brody

What is different about the font? It's created out of little dots only.

How is it constructed? As stated earlier, its created in a retro, block form of a series of dots.

What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "G" stands out because of its awkward serif that sticks out and "k" because of the wide counter and short right 'ascender leg.'

5 words describing the font? square, noisy, retro, dotted, light

Moonbase Alpha: 

Designer?  Cornel Windlin

What is different about the font? Each character has a chunk taken out of it. 

How is it constructed? Bold, slightly curved blocks are interrupted by small square gaps taken out of corners of each character.

What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "O" because it has a lot of white space and is so abstract that it resembles a flower or plus sign as much as it resembles an "o".

5 words describing the font? gooey, chunky, gapping, thick, round

Emigre Fonts

For each of the fonts you have “researched”: include an image of the font. Designer. What is different about the font? How is it constructed? What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting. List at least 5 words about the Voice, Vibe, Feeling… (ex: strong, dynamic, gothic, awkward, pointed, sharp, aggressive,…


Base 9 & 12: 

Designer?  Zuzana Licko 
What is different about the font?  Thick and dramatic serifs.  Extremely various weights.  
How is it constructed?  Thick, straight lines.  Thick, blocky serifs.  Even the thin typeface has thick serifs. 
What letters stand out? r and a because of their sharp diagonals 
5 Descriptive words?  thick, bold, strong, square, stiff




Cholla: 

Designer?  Sibylle Hagmann
What is different about the font?  Square-ish "o"s.  Thin link/necks.
How is it constructed?  Round, sans-sertif lines. Square "o"s, thin links/necks, flat at x-height. 
What letters stand out? "a" because it looks different in the oblique form.  
5 Descriptive words?  round, square, retro, thin, arched 




Oblong: 

Designer?  Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed?  Thin, long counters.  Thick serifs.  
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words?  blocky, digital, pixels, retro, splayed 





Platelet: 

Designer?  Conor Mangat
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed?  Thin, long counters.  Thick serifs.  
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words?  Stout, rounded, clean, simple, circular



Variex: 

Designer?  Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The variety of heights and widths within each within each character.
How is it constructed?  Slight curves, sound lines, abrupt terminals.
What letters stand out? "S" and "f" because of their silted titled, wide curves, and "h" because of its uneven height.
5 Descriptive words? unique, abrupt, slashed, modern, clean





*my pick* 



Los Feliz: 

Designer?  Christian Schwartz
What is different about the font? The different families all look fairly different from each other.
How is it constructed?  Thick stokes, thin necks/links.  Short, stubby serifs.
What letters stand out? "r" because it has a little hook in a very rounded typeface.
5 Descriptive words? classic, thick, painterly, stubby, rounded 

Who is Wim Crouwel?

Wim Crouwel is a dutch graphic designer, known for founding the design agency, Total Design (now, Total Identify, and creating famous typefaces such as the New Alphabet and Stedelijk.   

Courwel was born in the Netherlands in 1928.  He was both an Extremist painter and a functionalist designer.  He designed the New Alphabet after noticing that the digital production of existing typefaces were not being produced correctly.  The New Alphabet was a highly abstract form, consisting of a dot-matrix system.  The New Alphabet was able to fit any grid system, making it widely popular and usable.  


Sources:
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/wim-crouwel/
http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-24196.html