Dior – Fragments of Beauty

Another Mirroring

elementi — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 06:58:42 +0000

Another view of Natalia in Dior masterly captured by Peter Lindbergh side by side with the minor letter ‘r’ during design process of Reflection Italic character which later evolved into Reflection Ecriture. The base of the stroke separation in the glyphs like ‘n’, ‘m’, ‘h’ and ‘r’ was pushed down to the bottom almost a little beyond baseline to enhance the flow of the letters and add more of a handwritten character to it. I also experimented with more evidenced calligraphic turning points obtained by inserted interim curves or straight lines into its curves. Reflection Ecriture is conceived as an exclusive font for perfume design and should reflect the classic luxurious elegance of Christian Dior fashion griffe. You may also view it on Instagram and comment on it if you like. Credits: Peter Lindbergh | Photography Natalia Vodianova | Model

Drapery in Letters

elementi — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 07:49:24 +0000

A returning motive in the history of art is that of drapery. The early painting masters in Renaissance were often judged by their capability to execute this fine art of setting shadows and lines in a way that they perfectly reflect the folding of a piece of cloth. A thing very similar is taking place also in font design. As the letters derive from calligraphic writing models, still, after centuries of their development, something of their ancestors is contained in their shapes. It is the character of a ribbon folded. And it is “folded” in a much more complex way than a pure calligraphic flat broad nip pen would suggest. As printing types tend to be more rounded and almost smooth in their appearance in the imaginary world of a type designer they behave more like cloth therefore laying more stress on a certain thickness of this purely imaginary ribbon. Every type designer knows that even in a sober looking Sans Serif typeface we have so called turning points hidden in their structure which help our eye to better understand why a form develops in a certain way along its outline and not in another. Sometimes I get inspiration not only in the beautiful photo models of a fashion shooting but also of the clothes they wear. See here an ‘r’ of a early version of Reflection Italic which later was transformed into Urbino. At its side a masterly crafted Christian Dior robe photographed by Laziz Hamani. Credits: Laziz Hamani | Photography Christian Dior | Robe

A Mirror

elementi — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:44:12 +0000

When I was recently working on my personal website relaunch (www.stefanseifert.com) I stumbled casually upon a photo series by Peter Lindbergh for Christian Dior griffe. It shows beautiful Natalia Vodianova in sensual black and white pictures. Something urged me to put them beside my own Christian Dior typeface researches (purely artistic, no commercial benefits for me). And there it was again: the knowledge why, at all, I am designing typefaces. Letters are made for beautiful sensible woman. Their lines reflect those of their bodies. And not only.

It is something magic that connects them both in my eyes. Maybe it’s about sensitiveness or the way the inner nature of forms matches in them. At least, this would explain why in the history of arts they so often served as muses to us.

Read also [German and Italian language] Credits: Peter Lindbergh | Photography Natalia Vodianova | Model

The Trouble with the Own Name

elementi — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 06:26:44 +0000

One of the most difficult tasks for a type designer is the design of his own logotype. It is kind of a mystery why the proper name looks so ugly for oneself. I guess many designers all over the world have this impression and I sometimes wonder if Madame Chanel (who might not have been a type designer but undoubtedly a designer) whose name seem so wonderful pretty to us all and is so much admired might have had the same intuition about it, or didn’t she? Or let’s think about Monsieur Christian Dior himself struggling with the appearance of his house’s logotype for the same reason. It is difficult to imagine, yet, for me for both logotypes gain so much just because of the beauty of their letter combinations. However here are some screenshots while working on my own logo reviewing its typeface.

Character Sizes

elementi — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 20:01:57 +0000

As for my fonts tend to be very thin in shape (and I would never like to change them, I like them as they are – in that maybe I am like a fashion designer who loves to see his creations on the very thin supermodels – because I think it gives more expression to their curves) I use to make later on different versions for the use in smaller sizes, too.

And like in fashion design those light weight couture forms serve as a master for whatever will become something wearable in succession.

Credits:
[Dior] | Photography

Christian Dior Dresses

elementi — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 07:33:44 +0000

When I am working on my letter designs I use to keep an open book beside my computer monitor. One can learn a lot and the unconscious eye gets #inspired by the way a beautiful dress unfolds around a wonderful female body. In the end the art of drawing letters is all about draping.

Reflection ‘e’

elementi — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 06:59:29 +0000

Read Here

Reflection

elementi — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:09:30 +0000

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

Dior Cancelleresca

elementi — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 11:52:06 +0000

These are the first letters of an additional character set to the Reflection series. I meant those particular letter forms as alternatives or for letterings in the field of beauty product design. Originally I was inspired by Christian Dior’s classic perfume design Miss Dior. So I based it on the Reflection design with which I did so many researches for the famous fashion brand. Credits: Paolo Roversi | Photography

Reflection Dior Numbers

elementi — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 08:56:14 +0000

When I did the Reflection character I was mainly inspired by Haute Couture dress design of the famous french fashion griffe Christian Dior. Its classic roots which are not only expressed by the french Renaissance style logo but also mark the basis for the houses’ creator Christian Dior style of tailoring and highlighting classic feminine beauty urged me to research with semi classic Renaissance characters and turn them into something truly modern, yet, extremely elegant and classy. These are screenshots and partly layouts with a series of numbers that I did for the Small Caps variant of this character that I called Reflection.