Centaur – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com Typeface Works and Essays Sun, 10 Mar 2024 17:34:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.5 https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cropped-Homescree_icon-32x32.png Centaur – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com 32 32 Ein Blick auf den Bücherkosmos der Stamperia Valdonega https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2023/12/ein-blick-auf-den-bucherkosmos-der-stamperia-valdonega/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2023/12/ein-blick-auf-den-bucherkosmos-der-stamperia-valdonega/#respond Sun, 10 Dec 2023 09:31:28 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=3152 https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2023/12/ein-blick-auf-den-bucherkosmos-der-stamperia-valdonega/feed/ 0 Between Naturalness, Terribleness and Sweetness https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2022/02/between-naturalness-and-sweetness/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2022/02/between-naturalness-and-sweetness/#respond Tue, 15 Feb 2022 07:38:32 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=3123

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 ]]>

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 ]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2022/02/between-naturalness-and-sweetness/feed/ 0 “All The Old Fellows… https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/all-the-old-fellows/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/all-the-old-fellows/#respond Sat, 02 Dec 2017 10:57:53 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2326

… stole our best ideas” was the famous phrase by Frederic W.Goudy, American type designer in the early past century. What he meant was that many of the solutions we find for certain letter details or else may not at all be so new and already used by some type designer of the long gone past. I remembered this phrase (and the beautiful book that I have in my office about this celebrated personality in type design history) when I was working on my ‘Advanced’ webfont. I struggled quite a bit to fit my rather compressed ‘g’ with a more dynamic appearance as it seemed for a long while now to lack the right connection between the upper bowl and the curve below. What I finally did was to implement this sudden break point in the inner oval. Not a new invention as it is nearly the same that another of my heroes of the past did in one of his typefaces. Namely, the sympathetic Bruce Rogers and his Centaur typeface. It is in fact not quite clear if Nicolas Jenson whose original Roman typeface has been the base for Roger’s design really designed his ‘g’ or better struck it into his metal punch with that little ‘notch’, but it is certainly one of the most charming details of Centaur and in addition a superb means to underline its broad nib character. I was happy with my solution (who knows for how long…). And it, by the way, reminded me to liberate myself sometimes from the monitor and open a good book once in a while. What do you think? ]]>

… stole our best ideas” was the famous phrase by Frederic W.Goudy, American type designer in the early past century. What he meant was that many of the solutions we find for certain letter details or else may not at all be so new and already used by some type designer of the long gone past. I remembered this phrase (and the beautiful book that I have in my office about this celebrated personality in type design history) when I was working on my ‘Advanced’ webfont. I struggled quite a bit to fit my rather compressed ‘g’ with a more dynamic appearance as it seemed for a long while now to lack the right connection between the upper bowl and the curve below. What I finally did was to implement this sudden break point in the inner oval. Not a new invention as it is nearly the same that another of my heroes of the past did in one of his typefaces. Namely, the sympathetic Bruce Rogers and his Centaur typeface. It is in fact not quite clear if Nicolas Jenson whose original Roman typeface has been the base for Roger’s design really designed his ‘g’ or better struck it into his metal punch with that little ‘notch’, but it is certainly one of the most charming details of Centaur and in addition a superb means to underline its broad nib character. I was happy with my solution (who knows for how long…). And it, by the way, reminded me to liberate myself sometimes from the monitor and open a good book once in a while. What do you think? ]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/all-the-old-fellows/feed/ 0 The Centaur Films https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/03/the-centaur-films/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/03/the-centaur-films/#respond Sun, 19 Mar 2017 10:02:33 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=1780

From a typeface history research point of view surely one of the most exciting projects I have ever taken part in was the development and maintenance of the Valdonega Aesthetic Line brought into life by Martino Mardersteig and the skilled Stamperia Valdonega team among them Alberto Adami, Massimo Tonolli* as well as the exceptionally trained hot metal department (I apologize if I don’t remember their full names by now!). To give here only a very brief summary, its intent was to digitalize many of the famous Monotype hot metal characters in a very faithful manner splitting them up also into different font families based on several chosen guide sizes. When I came to the team most of those fonts were already done and I had to do only minor optimizations concerning kerning, drawings and similar. Yet, besides my main task to present this wonderful product on conferences and sell it to influential potential editors, I was also personally in charge for the new creation of VAL typeface Centaur in four text sizes. Could there be a better goal for me (deep Jenson admirer) than that?
I remember the beautiful light flooded Italian mornings still in bed holding those films against the sun and scrupulously observing letter spaces in 10 point size.
What you see here are some of the original films that were exposed on the Stamperia’s machines. I remember the beautiful light flooded Italian mornings still in bed holding those films against the sun and scrupulously observing letter spaces in 10 point size (which in Centaur was particularly small similar to a standard 8 point). With those impressions in the back of mind I came into office and very carefully modified the tiny glyph measures in a program called FontStudio (Letraset). I also used very special techniques of Bézier curves settings which could be another theme for another post here to follow…  
  *Who today form Trifolio (www.trifoliosrl.com)]]>

From a typeface history research point of view surely one of the most exciting projects I have ever taken part in was the development and maintenance of the Valdonega Aesthetic Line brought into life by Martino Mardersteig and the skilled Stamperia Valdonega team among them Alberto Adami, Massimo Tonolli* as well as the exceptionally trained hot metal department (I apologize if I don’t remember their full names by now!). To give here only a very brief summary, its intent was to digitalize many of the famous Monotype hot metal characters in a very faithful manner splitting them up also into different font families based on several chosen guide sizes. When I came to the team most of those fonts were already done and I had to do only minor optimizations concerning kerning, drawings and similar. Yet, besides my main task to present this wonderful product on conferences and sell it to influential potential editors, I was also personally in charge for the new creation of VAL typeface Centaur in four text sizes. Could there be a better goal for me (deep Jenson admirer) than that?
I remember the beautiful light flooded Italian mornings still in bed holding those films against the sun and scrupulously observing letter spaces in 10 point size.
What you see here are some of the original films that were exposed on the Stamperia’s machines. I remember the beautiful light flooded Italian mornings still in bed holding those films against the sun and scrupulously observing letter spaces in 10 point size (which in Centaur was particularly small similar to a standard 8 point). With those impressions in the back of mind I came into office and very carefully modified the tiny glyph measures in a program called FontStudio (Letraset). I also used very special techniques of Bézier curves settings which could be another theme for another post here to follow…  
  *Who today form Trifolio (www.trifoliosrl.com)]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/03/the-centaur-films/feed/ 0 Centaur https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/centaur/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/centaur/#respond Wed, 07 Sep 2016 09:19:33 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?post_type=nor-portfolio&p=895

Since I had become an addict of Nicolas Jenson’s beautiful Roman Type it came quite natural to me being also an ardent admirer of the, in my eyes, only valid re-cut of this typeface: the Centaur by the American type designer Bruce Rogers (his typeface came consciously to my eyes for the first time in a beautiful photo set1 printed calendar about Anselm Adams). In my first years as a student of historical typefaces I began with using Monotype’s digital version and adjusting its letter spaces to get closer to the rhythm that I felt more appropriate for it. For that purpose I scanned old hot metal type set pages in Centaur and used complicated methods to adapt kerning in the in those days available layout programs as QuarkXPress. My knowledge around typeface designing techniques at this time was very rare but it helped me getting kind of a first feeling for what later would have become a live long passion. Some time later when I was engaged in the encouraging project of Martino Mardersteig at Verona, Italy, the VAL (Valdonega Aesthetic Line) font library I had the great luck to come to meet this legendary typeface again. It became my favorite of the VAL fonts bringing me to even invent new special methods in digitalizing those hot metal printed characters and to give them back something of the appearance they once had. Find in the following some images and brief explanations about my researches on the Centaur typeface.  
  1 – This refers to an older photocomposition technique where the letters actually were hand drawn oversized templates and then photomechanically reduced and set into words and phrases. Outlines of letters weren’t hat perfectly digitally “polished”, indeed they showed edgy details as if scratched on the outside when looked upon carefully in the enlargement.    ]]>

Since I had become an addict of Nicolas Jenson’s beautiful Roman Type it came quite natural to me being also an ardent admirer of the, in my eyes, only valid re-cut of this typeface: the Centaur by the American type designer Bruce Rogers (his typeface came consciously to my eyes for the first time in a beautiful photo set1 printed calendar about Anselm Adams). In my first years as a student of historical typefaces I began with using Monotype’s digital version and adjusting its letter spaces to get closer to the rhythm that I felt more appropriate for it. For that purpose I scanned old hot metal type set pages in Centaur and used complicated methods to adapt kerning in the in those days available layout programs as QuarkXPress. My knowledge around typeface designing techniques at this time was very rare but it helped me getting kind of a first feeling for what later would have become a live long passion. Some time later when I was engaged in the encouraging project of Martino Mardersteig at Verona, Italy, the VAL (Valdonega Aesthetic Line) font library I had the great luck to come to meet this legendary typeface again. It became my favorite of the VAL fonts bringing me to even invent new special methods in digitalizing those hot metal printed characters and to give them back something of the appearance they once had. Find in the following some images and brief explanations about my researches on the Centaur typeface.  
  1 – This refers to an older photocomposition technique where the letters actually were hand drawn oversized templates and then photomechanically reduced and set into words and phrases. Outlines of letters weren’t hat perfectly digitally “polished”, indeed they showed edgy details as if scratched on the outside when looked upon carefully in the enlargement.    ]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/centaur/feed/ 0 Reflection https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/reflection/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/reflection/#respond Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:09:30 +0000 http://localhost:8888/frammenti-della-bellezza/?post_type=nor-portfolio&p=639

A Renaissance like character with remembrances to origami techniques. I used it for several researches for perfume design. Here some screenshots taken during the work process of Reflection typeface in particular several phases of the development of the difficult letter ‘e’. Credits: Paolo Roversi, Steven Meisel | Photography]]>

A Renaissance like character with remembrances to origami techniques. I used it for several researches for perfume design. Here some screenshots taken during the work process of Reflection typeface in particular several phases of the development of the difficult letter ‘e’. Credits: Paolo Roversi, Steven Meisel | Photography]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/typeface/reflection/feed/ 0