Serifs – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com Typeface Works and Essays Wed, 05 May 2021 05:36:36 +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 Serifs – Fragments of Beauty https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com 32 32 Nota, A Didot Font For Vogue https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/nota-a-didot-font-for-vogue/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/nota-a-didot-font-for-vogue/#respond Sun, 25 Nov 2018 17:09:36 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?p=2707

Almost two decades ago, Luca and I developed this classicist beauty mixed with some futuristic elements. It contains asymmetric serif remnants which are exact clone parts of a reduced set of curve segments used to create the entire alphabet. Unlike as it may seem on a first glance we didn’t use any of the existing Didot or Bodoni digital fonts but built it from the scratch. Its basis were original historical letters cut for Firmin Didot in the eighteenth century. It had only capital letters and a set of futuristic numbers. It is a task that has fallen into oblivion now for a while as today we have seemingly so many typefaces at the hand to create expressive editorial layouts. Quite often, though, those efforts suffer from something that Luca Stoppini himself probably would have called looking “cheap”. I remember the fun it was to create many versions and ideas for a “futurizable” classicist font as this in itself is kind of a contradiction from both a stylistic and historical point of view. Thanks again, Luca, for the great possibilities you gave me to develop myself in the direction of experimental typeface design. Cheers! See also]]>

Almost two decades ago, Luca and I developed this classicist beauty mixed with some futuristic elements. It contains asymmetric serif remnants which are exact clone parts of a reduced set of curve segments used to create the entire alphabet. Unlike as it may seem on a first glance we didn’t use any of the existing Didot or Bodoni digital fonts but built it from the scratch. Its basis were original historical letters cut for Firmin Didot in the eighteenth century. It had only capital letters and a set of futuristic numbers. It is a task that has fallen into oblivion now for a while as today we have seemingly so many typefaces at the hand to create expressive editorial layouts. Quite often, though, those efforts suffer from something that Luca Stoppini himself probably would have called looking “cheap”. I remember the fun it was to create many versions and ideas for a “futurizable” classicist font as this in itself is kind of a contradiction from both a stylistic and historical point of view. Thanks again, Luca, for the great possibilities you gave me to develop myself in the direction of experimental typeface design. Cheers! See also]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/2018/11/nota-a-didot-font-for-vogue/feed/ 0 Arbeit an Kapitälchen https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/arbeit-an-kapitaelchen/ https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/arbeit-an-kapitaelchen/#respond Sun, 10 Jun 2018 09:25:42 +0000 http://www.seifertfragments.de/?post_type=nor-essays&p=2484 Bei der Zeichnung der Kapitälchen scheint es mir wichtig, dass die neuen kleinen Kapitalen nicht einfach nur verkleinerte Großbuchstaben sind.

Mehr als aber nur Proportionen und Stärkenverhältnisse der Linien, meine ich damit, dass man ihnen etwas auf den Weg geben muss, was sie zu eigenständigen neuen Buchstaben macht.

]]> https://frammenti.stefanseifert.com/essay/arbeit-an-kapitaelchen/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