Renaissance – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com Typeface Works and Essays Fri, 04 Oct 2024 10:28:04 +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 Renaissance – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com 32 32 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 That’s why we (perhaps) love circles https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/12/thats-why-we-perhaps-love-circles/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/12/thats-why-we-perhaps-love-circles/#respond Thu, 30 Dec 2021 10:26:47 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=3109

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 ]]>

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 ]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/12/thats-why-we-perhaps-love-circles/feed/ 0 What happens if you get influenced by Spanish type? https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/04/what-happens-if-you-get-influenced-by-spanish-type/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/04/what-happens-if-you-get-influenced-by-spanish-type/#respond Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:25:00 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2982

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]]>

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]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2021/04/what-happens-if-you-get-influenced-by-spanish-type/feed/ 0 Why It Is Sometimes Sill(y) to Work in Metrics Window https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/why-it-is-sometimes-silly-to-work-in-metrics-window/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/why-it-is-sometimes-silly-to-work-in-metrics-window/#respond Sun, 25 Nov 2018 14:23:37 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2653

I guess every (type) designer has his own methods allowing him to work more instinctively, those little tricks he uses to solve inconveniences that maybe only he himself sees in the regular process of work. What personally always struck me in particular while creating typefaces is the balancing act between what is supposed to be so tiny and on what we work while it is so big. To understand that maybe it is interesting to take a look back in the history of printing typefaces and how they have done it centuries before us. The so called punchcutters whom of the last we remember a genius as Charles Malin (which my personal history, strongly connected to the work of Giovanni Mardersteig’s Officina Bodoni, brought me near) used to engrave the final forms of an alphabet in the exact size that it was meant for. Of course, as it was a technical process that didn’t allow enlargement, zoom or reducing an intermediate shape to design*. It was “simply” (and these quotation marks should be typeset in 24 points, at least) chiseling the final letter form into a piece of steel from which the letter’s matrix was derived.
What he worked on was the final size, so he took perfect control over proportions as they are meant to be seen by the eye when reading.
What we do today, instead, is working on gigantic glyphs on an extra large monitor (or even 2 of them). Which is necessary to really have control of the Bézier curves, their points’ placements and tangent handlers’ adjustment. What we still need, though, is to have, at least, the same control over the final small letter image. So what I do in FontLab is combining to different windows while drawing. The expected Glyphs window, of course, showing me the Béziers construct and the Metrics window that is meant for defining the font’s letter spaces. And I do it in a quite strange way which sometimes slightly reminds me (I admit in terms rather philosophically) of the window sills that old Renaissance painters often put in their paintings to serve as kind of a leveling means to balance their composition by adding a horizontal bases to it at the bottom of the canvas. I keep the Metrics open in the way that they fill the whole monitor and place different letter pairings on it which I think could be helpful to compare similar letter forms or simply serve me as an inspiration. The small window sill, however, that is on the bottom of my screen is the glyphs window of the character which I am focusing on. So, with on click of the mouse I can jump from one to another. I choose and activate points or curve zones in the glyph, drag its window to the bottom (make it almost disappear) and then use the arrows on keyboard to correct points position or curve rounding (by activating the curve middle part) inside the glyphs window in the pushed aside but still active foreground. While doing so I do not watch the construct itself but the image on the Metrics window (background). A more drastic way to compare the results is to copy the whole modified glyph’s Bézier construct via keyboard and then revert the font to the latest saved state. The former glyph can then be deleted (still only looking on the Metrics) and replaced by the newer result of the computer’s clipboard. Then, back and forth via keyboard and so on. Probably this may seem quite funny for someone who uses a second monitor but it is the way of working I always preferred, I don’t know why. Maybe because it does not force my head to move from left to right. And, of course, it is not always an ideal means as I quite often tend to spoil the Béziers construct harmony too quickly by elongating too much curve tangents or neglecting the fact that while moving points also their handlers have to be shortened, elongated etc. (which I would probably not, watching the oversized construct in full resolution so to say) I just guess this is on the reasons that I never have chosen the path to really become a professional type designer. As I am just doing things quite in my own way, more for the feeling of it: less calculated, more by intuition. Or, to put it in an other way, to keep some of the mystery that for my very personal of view type designing always had and will probably still have in the future.  
  *We would have to exclude here pantographic methods as preferred by Frederic Goudy and others which, in fact, was a solution to draw the letter in a drastically enlarged stencil and reduce it then mechanically via the pantographic machine which engraved the matrices for the final alphabet’s size.]]>

I guess every (type) designer has his own methods allowing him to work more instinctively, those little tricks he uses to solve inconveniences that maybe only he himself sees in the regular process of work. What personally always struck me in particular while creating typefaces is the balancing act between what is supposed to be so tiny and on what we work while it is so big. To understand that maybe it is interesting to take a look back in the history of printing typefaces and how they have done it centuries before us. The so called punchcutters whom of the last we remember a genius as Charles Malin (which my personal history, strongly connected to the work of Giovanni Mardersteig’s Officina Bodoni, brought me near) used to engrave the final forms of an alphabet in the exact size that it was meant for. Of course, as it was a technical process that didn’t allow enlargement, zoom or reducing an intermediate shape to design*. It was “simply” (and these quotation marks should be typeset in 24 points, at least) chiseling the final letter form into a piece of steel from which the letter’s matrix was derived.
What he worked on was the final size, so he took perfect control over proportions as they are meant to be seen by the eye when reading.
What we do today, instead, is working on gigantic glyphs on an extra large monitor (or even 2 of them). Which is necessary to really have control of the Bézier curves, their points’ placements and tangent handlers’ adjustment. What we still need, though, is to have, at least, the same control over the final small letter image. So what I do in FontLab is combining to different windows while drawing. The expected Glyphs window, of course, showing me the Béziers construct and the Metrics window that is meant for defining the font’s letter spaces. And I do it in a quite strange way which sometimes slightly reminds me (I admit in terms rather philosophically) of the window sills that old Renaissance painters often put in their paintings to serve as kind of a leveling means to balance their composition by adding a horizontal bases to it at the bottom of the canvas. I keep the Metrics open in the way that they fill the whole monitor and place different letter pairings on it which I think could be helpful to compare similar letter forms or simply serve me as an inspiration. The small window sill, however, that is on the bottom of my screen is the glyphs window of the character which I am focusing on. So, with on click of the mouse I can jump from one to another. I choose and activate points or curve zones in the glyph, drag its window to the bottom (make it almost disappear) and then use the arrows on keyboard to correct points position or curve rounding (by activating the curve middle part) inside the glyphs window in the pushed aside but still active foreground. While doing so I do not watch the construct itself but the image on the Metrics window (background). A more drastic way to compare the results is to copy the whole modified glyph’s Bézier construct via keyboard and then revert the font to the latest saved state. The former glyph can then be deleted (still only looking on the Metrics) and replaced by the newer result of the computer’s clipboard. Then, back and forth via keyboard and so on. Probably this may seem quite funny for someone who uses a second monitor but it is the way of working I always preferred, I don’t know why. Maybe because it does not force my head to move from left to right. And, of course, it is not always an ideal means as I quite often tend to spoil the Béziers construct harmony too quickly by elongating too much curve tangents or neglecting the fact that while moving points also their handlers have to be shortened, elongated etc. (which I would probably not, watching the oversized construct in full resolution so to say) I just guess this is on the reasons that I never have chosen the path to really become a professional type designer. As I am just doing things quite in my own way, more for the feeling of it: less calculated, more by intuition. Or, to put it in an other way, to keep some of the mystery that for my very personal of view type designing always had and will probably still have in the future.  
  *We would have to exclude here pantographic methods as preferred by Frederic Goudy and others which, in fact, was a solution to draw the letter in a drastically enlarged stencil and reduce it then mechanically via the pantographic machine which engraved the matrices for the final alphabet’s size.]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/why-it-is-sometimes-silly-to-work-in-metrics-window/feed/ 0 The Paths of Inspiration https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/06/the-paths-of-inspiration/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/06/the-paths-of-inspiration/#respond Fri, 08 Jun 2018 16:54:54 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2470

As I am not drawing my typefaces first with a pencil on paper instead doing them directly on monitor I learned to follow my instincts or let’s call it the paths of Inspiration. This letter form Reflection Small Caps happens to end up with strange asymmetric serifs because something seemed to tell me to do so. When I saw the result it reminded me spontaneously of some of the Renaissance paintings by Leonardo which have as a particular detail a background horizon line that differs in height on the left and right side of the portrayed central figure. Even if we might not agree with some of the mystic theories that have been spun around that curious issue it still seems to be a fact that our brain tends to differently weigh two sides of a same composition. In typeface design subtle details like these can help our letters to get into a natural flow chaining them together for the eyes and following reading direction. But things like these shouldn’t be the result of a thinking process, I believe. They should crystallize out of working process and most of all in those very moments when we tend to forgot our rational intents but blindly follow her path. Read also [German language]]]>

As I am not drawing my typefaces first with a pencil on paper instead doing them directly on monitor I learned to follow my instincts or let’s call it the paths of Inspiration. This letter form Reflection Small Caps happens to end up with strange asymmetric serifs because something seemed to tell me to do so. When I saw the result it reminded me spontaneously of some of the Renaissance paintings by Leonardo which have as a particular detail a background horizon line that differs in height on the left and right side of the portrayed central figure. Even if we might not agree with some of the mystic theories that have been spun around that curious issue it still seems to be a fact that our brain tends to differently weigh two sides of a same composition. In typeface design subtle details like these can help our letters to get into a natural flow chaining them together for the eyes and following reading direction. But things like these shouldn’t be the result of a thinking process, I believe. They should crystallize out of working process and most of all in those very moments when we tend to forgot our rational intents but blindly follow her path. Read also [German language]]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/06/the-paths-of-inspiration/feed/ 0 Drapery in Letters https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/drapery-in-letters/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/drapery-in-letters/#respond Sun, 10 Dec 2017 07:49:24 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2360

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 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]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2017/12/drapery-in-letters/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 Urbino for Trussardi https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2016/12/urbino-for-trussardi/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2016/12/urbino-for-trussardi/#respond Sat, 24 Dec 2016 08:07:26 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=1488

Some screenshots of a development of a Trussardi lettering suggestion. During my collaboration for Trussardi’s stationery I did just for fun some experiments using Urbino typeface for a fine Renaissance orientated brand lettering that could renounce the application of the classic houses’ greyhound symbol. You may note that Bézier curves on the outer lines are kept slanted avoiding to re-construct them in the usual maximal point way. This keeps the letters more dynamic and sober. Bowls were constructed by copying different letters’ parts into glyph window during the drawing. A special focus was on the letter ‘S’ as it is doubled in the logo and attracts the attention first. (As by the way the doubled letters always play an important role in Italian language.) But also other letters as the ‘D’ have particular curve treatment to keep the sign more compact and add a specific italic character to it. During the design of those obviously important letters I also insert many others that have a certain importance for the appearance and over all feeling of a typeface. Spaces are evaluated also in dependence on combinations that may not appear in a lettering, at all.
In a way my way of working is to do a lettering when I am doing a typeface, and doing a typeface when I make a lettering.
 ]]>

Some screenshots of a development of a Trussardi lettering suggestion. During my collaboration for Trussardi’s stationery I did just for fun some experiments using Urbino typeface for a fine Renaissance orientated brand lettering that could renounce the application of the classic houses’ greyhound symbol. You may note that Bézier curves on the outer lines are kept slanted avoiding to re-construct them in the usual maximal point way. This keeps the letters more dynamic and sober. Bowls were constructed by copying different letters’ parts into glyph window during the drawing. A special focus was on the letter ‘S’ as it is doubled in the logo and attracts the attention first. (As by the way the doubled letters always play an important role in Italian language.) But also other letters as the ‘D’ have particular curve treatment to keep the sign more compact and add a specific italic character to it. During the design of those obviously important letters I also insert many others that have a certain importance for the appearance and over all feeling of a typeface. Spaces are evaluated also in dependence on combinations that may not appear in a lettering, at all.
In a way my way of working is to do a lettering when I am doing a typeface, and doing a typeface when I make a lettering.
 ]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2016/12/urbino-for-trussardi/feed/ 0 Riferimento https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/riferimento/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/riferimento/#respond Sun, 02 Oct 2016 14:39:19 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?post_type=nor-essays&p=1287 Es ist wohl unwahrscheinlich, anzunehmen, dass auch in der Kunst der Buchstaben, irgendeine Art von Behandlung einer Linie, des Raumes oder der Tiefe, bis hin zur nur scheinbar reduzierten Farbgebung auf das Schwarze und das Weisse entstehen könne, die nicht bereits ihrer Charakteristik nach in den bildnerischen Werken der Renaissance, in der dort unterschiedlichen Behandlung dieser Elemente durch die verschiedenen Meister, auf eine besondere und sogar explizite Weise behandelt wurde.

Nello stesso modo come il contorno di una bocca giovanile* dal disegno acuto e quasi cisellato non potrebbe non apparire ispirato a quelle linee d’un maestro dell’oreficeria come lo era un Sandro Botticelli1; o dall’altro canto la superficie che si amalga tra le tinte e le sue sfumature evolvendosi dallo scuro verso il chiaro d’una carnagione non derivasse d’un’invenzione del Tiziano, ecc. Questi che si potrebbe chiamare altresì «casi tipici» non sono che lati di un disegno più grande, elementi di un corpo solo al che l’uomo stesso sembri di potersi solo avvicinare in strati di concentrazione diversi, sicché ci erano necessarie tante di loro personalità – ognuno col suo stile (in quanto esso solo un frantume d’un intero) a farci dare l’idea di una «qualche cosa» più grande per cui poter vivere, in cui poter sperare.

 

*Wobei die Augen auf ein in ihm liegendes, fast eigenartiges Zucken gelenkt wurden, dessen Ziel es schien diese Linien immer wieder neu zu formen, ihr scharfes (und doch zartes) Licht- und Schattenspiel in einen neuen Zusammenhang zu versetzen.

Dort wo sich durch seine leichte Öffnung ab und zu das Relief ihrer Zähne zeigte, riefen sie ein Gefühl des Unstetigen hervor, einer zugleich schüchternen Jugendlichkeit, um sich gleich wieder von neuem dem interessanten, ,sich selbst vergessenden‘ Bogenspiel hinzugeben.

 

1 – Tatsächlich, weniger was die Beschaffenheit einer Linie angeht, kann uns Botticelli Lehrmeister sein, als für deren Rhythmik untereinander: Il «ritmo del particolare».

]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/riferimento/feed/ 0 Certe Mani https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/certe-mani/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/certe-mani/#respond Sun, 02 Oct 2016 13:44:59 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?post_type=nor-essays&p=1285 Altre invece ne coprono i difetti come una pelle rossastra come proviene da una circolazione irregolare, con uno smalto rosso denso che ci impressiona in quanto si trova su unghie ben poste su delle dita lunghe e molto affilate, i cui movimenti graziosi corrispondono ai suoi piedi fini ma lunghi (per cui, nel suo caso, con molto gusto ne aveva trovati i stivali di pelle scura marone, e il che interponeva nella mia mente l’immagine d’una certa «agilità», a causa d’un altra donna della mia vita: simile a quella, ad esempio, che a certe fanciulle che portano dei pantaloni neri larghi di seta, eleganti, conferisce a loro un’età avanzata impropriata, per via della donna matura che conoscevamo in passato e che li usava portare per motivi di lavoro) leggermente piegati verso l’interno, sembrante accennare ad un certo atteggiamento docile il che aumentava il suo fascino: sostando in bilico tra un’allegra elasticità di donna slanciata vestita alla moda e una certa cupa ma sincera tenerezza da madre. Faceva pensare alla libertà cui deliberatamente doveva aver rinunciata e per cui malinconicamente vedeva perduti certi versi del suo carattere.

Ma forse avevo mal interpretate quelle linee slanciate, inflesse, malinconicamente raccolte, in quanto, come intorno a un punto di centrifuga in un tondo rinascimentale, intendevano solo ad assorbire quelle della bambina rivolta a lei, in un’orbita tutta sua.

O forse questo semplicemente lasciava trapelare i due lati di lei, essere bambina e madre nello stesso tempo. In quanto nell’amore per una donna, in un modo o l’altro, vi rimane sempre un’allegamento allo stato primordiale della vita: l’uomo giovane che nella donna ama sempre in parte una madre, come l’uomo diventato più vecchio vi vorrebbe amare sua propria figlia. Finché si rassegnerà un giorno ad amarla per la vicinanza alla sua morte.

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