Design Process – Fragments of Beauty

Between Naturalness, Terribleness and Sweetness

elementi — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 07:38:32 +0000

Today, next to my morning cup of espresso, is a small opusculum, first printed, it seems, in 1949. It is a small monograph on the Centaur typeface by Bruce Rogers. My friend Chris Wakeling, an excellent English printer, sent it to me. And again, it makes me philosophize about that love of printed letterforms that I still love so much and that has been with me through all my life’s circumstances. It’s such a pleasure to look at these shapes, once so carefully drawn or engraved by hand, or more recently created digitally on a screen. And I still wonder where they came from, what it is that makes them shine so mystically for me. It’s no longer a secret that I draw my Bézier lines inspired by the shapes, curves and lines of the female body. It is something like a game between many factors. In a book about Raffaello, the Italian Renaissance painter, I read about these influences in terms of “Naturalness”, “Terribleness” and “Sweetness” that the artists of those days struggled with, to tend to either one side or the other. And I think it’s always this that shapes our designs. On the one hand, admiration of nature: how it creates “outlines” of forms guided by an inner structure, like the curve of a leaf or, yes, the beautiful sinuous lines of a female body, conditioned in themselves by bone and muscle. On the other hand, there is also a certain will to achieve an ideal form in the sense of geometry. Our eye loves it when things become symmetrical or oval shapes become perfect circles. Because, as often said, it was this striving for perfection that pushed artists to their limits. Bones and muscles, extreme bends and perspective forms were called “Terribleness”; “Sweetness” was the opposite, that is, the willingness to refine the created forms so that they became almost artificial, self-sufficient and praising more the artists than their own origins. And finally, there was “Naturalness”, which can be described as a successful balance between these tendencies. Creating forms that show their original principles, movement, strength and organicity, but without exaggerating. A balance between brutal structure and sweetness.

We wrestle with the structure and pressure with which the pen put its forms on paper, and the will to find in their inner and outer forms something that tends to be geometric, ideal or perfect.

I have always thought that this also applies to the forms of printed letters. When we draw their outlines “artificially”, imitating a calligraphic form once written, we wrestle with the structure and pressure with which the pen put its forms on paper, and the will to find in their inner and outer forms something that tends to be geometric, ideal or perfect. Above you can see some pictures of the process of creating Bézier curves for my font Signer, which is meant for text sizes. For inspiration, I used the beautiful photograph of Marc Lagrange on my desktop background. When I drew the curves of ‘9’, or rather corrected what I found when it was systematically derived from the very thin original shape, I especially liked the connections of the bowls. It reminded me of such shapes as we find in the movement of a shoulder, which lets us see clearly what forces are at work here to bend muscles and incline bones before they form the curves of their surface on the skin. I liked the way the lower part of the hairline enlarges before dipping into the main oval on the right side. But at the same time, almost unconsciously, I became aware of what was happening to the inner shape, the oval enclosed in the eye of the character, the so-called counter. I tried to round it softer, to get it closer to a circle (read also the previous post why). In a word, I was getting dangerously close to the “Sweetness”. The softer and rounder our counterforms become, the more the letter as a whole loses its structure, its stability guided by inner forces. The female body itself is the perfect example of this precarious balance. So when we draw in reality, we are always struggling, once approaching one side and then perhaps returning to the original principle. Yet the human body, at least to me, is the crown of these principles. Because when we create something, we may want it to be similar to ourselves. Credits: Marc Lagrange | Photography

That’s why we (perhaps) love circles

elementi — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 10:26:47 +0000

As promised, I will publish some posts about the ongoing work on Signer Text. However, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to present the work process in a truly didactic way. It is very difficult even for myself to keep track of what I am doing. The process is so very intuitive and must be based on something almost unconscious. Recently I saw a very interesting documentary about an American writer who once claimed that writing is the division into two parts: the work of a drunk, revised by a sober. I have a feeling that this is quite similar in the process of designing typefaces. The drawing process, which interestingly enough usually makes crucial turns and progress during the night, is revised and slightly corrected in the early morning. Consequently, it is difficult to force oneself to jot down, to photograph ideas in this intuitive, unconscious, “drunken” phase. Nevertheless, I will try to reflect some thoughts and influences that push my letter images in a certain direction rather than another. In creating the Signer Text, I’m not quite sure yet what its destination will be, what I want to express character-wise. Certainly there is the eternal inspiration of the Franklin Gothic to achieve something truly elegant, classic, dynamic, but also stable and solid.

There is the eternal inspiration of the Franklin Gothic to achieve something truly elegant, classic, dynamic, but also stable and solid.

While drawing, I noticed that I seem to be following some symmetry ideas that are particularly evident in Signer. In the capital letter ‘S’, for example, I recognized the symmetry, the balance between left and right on the upper inner form under the “ceiling” of the top turn of the lettering toward the top. This seems to give the letter some stability. So I temporarily added a new intermediate curve point that almost perfectly matched the hidden circle, which of course I only had in my imagination while I was drawing. I added the red circle later to make it easier to understand. Again, I strongly believe that these ideas should not be slavishly followed during the working process, because that would prevent us from getting into that intuitive state of mind. Since the Renaissance, the circle has had a strong meaning. It is also a metaphor for stability, harmonious movement, and even something that, on another level of perception, signifies life itself. The beautiful 19-year-old Natalia Vodianova, photographed by Paolo Roversi, might give us a clue. I put her on my desk while drawing, and as many, many years ago, she still inspires me. The rest is pure imagination… Read also [German and Italian language] Credits: Paolo Roversi | Photography Natalia Vodianova | Model

Metamorphosis

elementi — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 06:49:42 +0000

One of the most difficult tasks any type designer has to deal with, for one reason or another, is deriving different weights for a type family. In my particular world of type design, it's usually a matter of taking my original designs, which are often extremely thin and detailed, and creating a typeface for smaller reading sizes. I’ve always envied the type designers out there in the professional type design world who seem to just use some sophisticated technical systems and programs to do it. That may be, or rather, it is most likely a mistake to think so. For me personally, however, it’s tough stuff. I would go so far as to say that it’s like designing a completely new font – again.

I would go so far as to say that it’s like designing a completely new font – again.

The first difficulty I run into is the large amount of time that has passed, in most cases, between the time I created the first version and the time I decide to go with the text variant. It’s incredibly difficult to dive back into an original idea you may have had years ago. It takes quite a while to understand its specificity, its inner character. Although it may seem from the outside that my designs all have a kind of #handwriting, a similar touch, that’s not the case for me. Even if I start switching from one typeface to another only after I’ve been working on it for a while, when I take a quick look around, say after a week has passed, the older typeface has already become “strange” to me, a kind of foreign body. This is because really every single font has its own personal character, like a child that has grown up under your careful observation. It has its own way of being, reacting, getting into a flow between individual letters, and so on. Axes have a slightly different inclination. All these details, which we hardly notice consciously, adjust instinctively over time. I say unconsciously: at least that’s how I feel. Speaking of details. It’s mostly these that make it a whole new task. We can start with some font program automatism as deriving mechanically weights. First of all, if we want to make a typeface with more weight that is easy to read at smaller sizes, it needs to be larger in rhythm and bolder in stems, but not uniform. I usually give much more weight to the horizontal direction than the vertical. This is because most letters have their hairlines on the horizontal axis. FontLab does this with what are called Actions that you can apply to the whole character. In a second step (which is a bit annoying), you need to fix all the rotten connections between the lines that merge into stems, etc. If you are creating a text face from an existing font, you may also want it to retain some features of the original. You can’t do this 1:1. Some details have to be lost as the stems get bolder and they no longer make sense or would disappear at a smaller scale anyway, others have to be exaggerated for the same reason so they still stand out. It’s funny, but some of the idiosyncrasies of an original character you don't get to know until you try to create a new variation of them. It’s like leaving a person for a while and then returning to them to discover their peculiarities in behavior, their hidden weird little edges that you may not have noticed the first time around, or only noticed at first glance and then forgot to see them after you dived deeper into their personality.

In a word, what we are trying to do when we create a new weight is a kind of metamorphosis in progress.

In a word, what we are trying to do when we create a new weight is a kind of metamorphosis in progress. Partly controlled with the help of the techniques of type programs, partly unconscious, instinctive, as we begin anew to draw lines, curves and details. I’m usually fully aware that this task will take me a very very long time, although admittedly I cheat myself every time by telling myself, come on, it already exists, it can’t be that hard to make a version for smaller sizes! Yeah, if I didn’t do that, I probably wouldn’t even start. Because there’s still a long way to go, a kind of journey that will take us to places we might not expect at the beginning. In the end, it is also we who will be transformed. Both the designer and the creation go through this magical metamorphosis. Above, some of the “new” Signer textface letters in their infancy. I promise to try to go deeper into the details of the working process in the next posts. Credits: Cecil Beaton | Photography

What happens if you get influenced by Spanish type?

elementi — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:25:00 +0000

During my recent researches for the Girl character involved in a Balenciaga lettering it happened that I woke up in the morning for my early espresso coffee studying historical Spanish typefaces. Which we all know have a very special and distinct style. They stand out in the history of the evolution of printed typefaces right from the beginning in the early 15th century. At the same time I was using this beautiful Marc Lagrange photography to inspire myself and compare the forms that I was trying to refine for my Advanced Sans Serif typeface. This girl has this beautiful flower at her ear and I thought: Well, this could be it. It is kind of a “flourish” element that those early (and later) Spanish type-cutters added to their letters. Where others used flat serifs or rectangular stroke endings the Spanish typefaces used to do add little curvy lines, sometimes a little curlycue here and there.

It is about something deeply rooted in their cultural story.

But, it’s not that their typefaces simply are decorative. Because they aren’t and it would be a great injustice to say so. Because this would diminish their effect, the class of their own they have. It is more about something deeply rooted in their cultural story. Recently I also watched old photographs in a book about the early Bazaar years (to see Balenciaga’s style) and there was this photo of a beautiful young bullfighter woman with a hat that almost seemed part of a costume typical for her profession. There were strange looking ribbons folded like leaves on its top, kind of curvy and playful. Because, if we are honest, not one flower would have a straight line in its shapes. All was in tension, yet wounded around its axis. But, just like in this Balenciaga hat which had a strict circle, almost stiffy base form what happens to make those Spanish forms more than merely ornamental is their juxtaposition to at the same time rigorous geometric principles.

They aim for the perfect circle and in this they are more than most of all other typefaces near to early Italian Renaissance spirit.

This is what I also see in Spanish incunabula typography. The tendency to allow those decorative elements but melt them with severe classic constructive principles. To say this more simply: they aim for the perfect circle (within this lies the simple secret of #beauty) and in this they are more than most of all other typefaces near to early Italian Renaissance spirit. There is nothing of Baroque in their forms. Ideas that later on would have done so much harm to the best principles of printing types! So, I worked on with my Advanced typeface numbers. I am already in a phase were I am not willing anymore to do great changes (so tiresome achieved an overall balance) but I almost unconscioulsy (the fact that I am writing about, I guess, proves that not so unconscious) reviewed Bézier details on the stroke endings as here in the ‘3’, added an inclined ending on the upper ‘7’ horizontal and others.

It is quite interesting that the slightly more decorative stroke endings and conjunctions which tend to close the counter forms a little bit more, in this tend to support the mentioned circle ideals instead of doing harm.

Subtly, in that way I enhanced the calligraphic principles, slightly opening the endings (like a flower) and at the same time refined their inner forms a bit to achieve cleaner circles. And it is quite interesting that the slightly more decorative stroke endings and conjunctions which tend to close the counter forms a little bit more, in this tend to support the mentioned circle ideals instead of doing harm. I knew that this inconspicuous play with details would lead me to change many of my letters, seek again for their subtle tension between geometric inner form and calligraphic endings. Nevertheless, I decided to let it happen. Because, in the end, I always had a soft spot for those Spanish typefaces. ¡Olé! Credits: Marc Lagrange | Photography

Working on Girl Editor for a Balenciaga lettering

elementi — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 11:46:59 +0000

Recently I have been working on a lettering for Balenciaga. I had been inspired by those experimental looking magazine pages Diana Vreeland did in the late sixties for Vogue. Liberman used those extremely elongated semi-classicist headline typefaces even in italic variants. They look quite strange and somewhat unusual to modern eyes but if we look close they are not bare of fascination. Yes, as the word in itself seems to suppose: fashionable. Excentric. At about the same period the clothes of Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga were “en vogue” and many of the editorial pages speak about him and show his couture dresses that are surely not less daring experimental. A couple that matches. From a type design point of view, however, this is somehow hard of an excercise. The name is extremely long, set in an wide character with thin hairlines and harsh stroke contrast. This intrigued me.

Cristóbal Balenciaga · Tailoring Work

In a certain way the great Spanish couture master acted like a type designer himself. With the utmost scruples taking care of the perfect fit, specially there where tailored forms intersect with the female body.

I decided to re-work on my Girl typeface. Some letters were needed to be adapted in size as I left them in the early 2000 years incompleted. I had some beautiful ‘n’ and ‘m’s with subtle details as broken stems and slightly curved straight lines. The ‘a’ was needed to be re-done. I wanted to keep the experimental spirit using large ellipsis as counter forms, but at the same time I surely am type designer enough to give them what someone may call the forms of a “real letter”. Because it is often that you do quite easily a fascinating graphic form which however lacks the fluidness and organic quality which makes those forms fit together in a line. Which enables them to attach one to another, chains them together. A quality which is hardly explainable but comes from a long experience of looking on historic typefaces and semi-calligraphic forms. These are images from a first stage of Girl Editor (re-)design which show some adapted letter forms and the new lowercase ‘a’. There is still a long way to go… Read also
See on Letters (stefanseifert.com) Credits: Henri Cartier-Bresson | Photography (small)

Design Updates on Threeadvanced Sans Serif

elementi — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 11:26:37 +0000

Some screenshots from the design updates on Threeadvanced Sans Serif typeface. The focus lies on rounding even more the inner bowl forms of letters and numbers. Moreover, the stem-bowl conjunctions have been re-elaborated, as for example on the lowercase letters as ‘n’ and ‘h’.

During my work I was inspired by Belgian photographer Marc Lagrange. Credits: Marc Lagrange | Photography

Progress on Threeadvanced Numbers

elementi — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 07:36:20 +0000

Recently my graphic design work keeps me occupied a lot. But still I find some time in the remaining hours to work on Threeadvanced, the webfont I am using for my personal website www.stefanseifert.com. It is inspired by typefaces as Franklin Gothic and some of the more recent Sans Serif characters. So it consists of slightly accentuated stems’ contrast between thick and thin lines and roundings that open up a little at the endings as if created by a pen stroke.

I love the idea of having all kind of hidden circles that are at the basis of the bowls’ design.

Particularly interesting is the numbers’ design. Middle height is slightly increased compared to lowercase letters and they are oldstyle which means they have alternating ascenders and descenders. I love the idea of having all kind of hidden circles that are at the basis of the bowls’ design. Which is kind of a Renaissance classic alike spirit. I also prefer to see it as something a bit old fashioned combining it with Paolo Roversi pictures that have this gloomy and dreamy atmosphere while being sexy and feminine as well. Here we see the boldest set of numbers in work progress which pairs the refinement of Bézier curves to the letters’ spacing. Read also Credits: Paolo Roversi | Photography

Is it symmetrical?

elementi — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 08:09:33 +0000

In the design of a typeface typically there are letters more interesting to do than others. The ones we use to determine a typeface’s style, look or feel and the ones which we might want to neglect for some time. Inevitably yet, sooner or later we have to spend some time drawing also the less interesting ones. And at this point someone may ask, as well: are they really so uninteresting? One of these candidates surely is the minor letter ‘o’. While creating a Sans Serif typeface we may be tempted to construct a circle. At least, even in the serif fonts where stroke widths swell in horizontal we hope that by drawing a quarter part and duplicating it four times we might get the job done. But human eye follow its own rules! Doing so the result is a letter seemingly out of balance, some kind of weird element among others. This depends in part on the direction of reading, as well as on other habits of watching in general.

What makes it so hard creating a well done ‘o’ is exactly that subtlety: making it seem symmetrical while taking care of these optical balance effects.

Even in typefaces which have a non inclined character, on the contrary to the antique Roman characters as Jenson and others, we might find that the inner circle, for example, needs to be inclined nonetheless a little bit. So that the eye while reading is not stopped in the flow of a line. In addition, the bottom curves of the apparently symmetrical ‘o’ behave differently to the upper ones. So, what makes it so hard creating a well done ‘o’ is exactly that subtlety: making it seem symmetrical while taking care of these optical balance effects. And let me assure you: it is a hard one! In part we are relieved of this task in the italic typefaces where by nature we have only a flipped vertical symmetry. And in general the eye is inclined to pardon small divergences more easily. In this typeface called Reflection Italic (later Urbino) I implemented more concise pen characteristics such as tiny edges on its outer curves. This not only helped to make it a more harmonious partner to its quite edgy Roman pendant but makes it more liberal in the choice of how to handle symmetries. In order to get inspired for what regards its reading flow I used Sandro Botticelli’s paintings for he is a true master of movement and lines’ dynamic. Read also [German and Italian language] Painting: Sandro Botticelli | Primavera (detail)

Ultrafine Ravish Numbers Revisited

elementi — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:38:31 +0000

Sometimes it needs a little input to turn back to work on a character we did in the past. I owe this one to a very special person. These ultrafine numbers belong to a typeface which is called Ravish. I did a series of different weights varying also between rhythm and letter widths. It has a slight remembrance of characters such as Helvetica, yet is meant to add some special elegant detail. Most of its letters have unclosed lines. Beautiful Gemma Ward photographed by french photographer Patrick Demarchelier inspired me during the work process. Special difficulties arise on such very fine letters where it comes to form conjunctions as here in the ‘2’. Detailed Bézier curves were introduced to keep the transition between its upper bowl and the diagonal downstroke smoother. Credits: Patrick Demarchelier | Photography

What is it that makes letters elegant?

elementi — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:46:45 +0000

I always tried to achieve a certain elegance in my typeface creations. Which is an elegance to be confronted with youth, the female body, but at the same time a certain classicism. And yes, letters and alphabets suitable for luxury products. Things that are resembled in this photography. What do we see here? Sunlight. Wine. A beautiful young woman. The clearly visible structure of her legs’ bones. Difficult, ambiguous areas as in the zones around her knees. Where we see parts of bones that seem to fight for prominence. Subtle parts of her skin where the sunlight flows between her skin’s hair. But, as well, a certain hint at luxury, #allure, warmth and elegant Renaissance architecture in her background. We may think of Chanel’s logotype. The simplicity of those lines. Instinctively we search for products on this table to be marked with its appearance. We might as well imagine the scent of this young lady. ‘G’ and ‘A’ from Advanced typeface in the process of growth. What I like about this character, as an example, are the well pronounced horizontal lines. Which is a one of the tricks to add elegance to a sans serif font. And, even though it is much easier to balance a letter’s structure with elements that add stability (as it is the vertical foot line in Helvetica’s ‘G’, for an example), I tried to renounce them. Upper parts of this ‘G’ are still way before being perfect. It might take further months or years to elaborate this character’s lines. Just as long as I am inspired by images of beauty combined with personal dreams, personal artistic views on a world which is (we know that by reason) non existent. But, which we still admire and reach out to express.