A winning, small-matrix rendition of this super-elliptical monoline sans. If you’d like, please enjoy a private clone to tour the brand-spankin’ new interiors.

I embraced innovation at the expense of imperfection with faux-curve composite stacks. These custom bricks are used to resolve the most glaring proportion issues besetting version 1 (and 2’s) capitals. I risk intermittent aliasing as well as potential inconsistencies in both curvature and stroke contrast. Yet these composite-stack discontinuities (A,C,D,G,J,O,Q,S,U,V) marry unexpectedly well with the extensively used macaroni bricks and remain themselves smooth up to an impressive 72pt.

Manual kerning leaves a lot of room for improvement. The alternates are included mostly for curiosity’s sake. Another work in progress with samples to follow. Feedback is always very appreciated; thanks in advance for it! :)]]> http://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/517481/fs_rondeux Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:09:34 +0000

Please enjoy a private clone to see how I dealt with contrast, curves, bracketing, variable letter width and the difficult-to-achieve emboldening of the capitals’ vertical strokes within a minimal fontstruct matrix (and If you like what you see, please download for personal usage and vote kindly! :)

Intaglio’s amazing recent work makes similar strides (see the excellent rounds, for example), offering a solution before me to several of these long-standing impasses of the medium.

More characters to come... :)]]> http://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/452941/ohm_run_slab Sat, 09 Apr 2011 06:18:09 +0000
filters: 2x2
x-height: 2.5 bricks
cap height: 3.5 bricks
# of unique composites: 220+

The ultra-low resolution of this grid may be difficult to grasp without cloning. Fontstruct’s logo has a nominal x-height of 3 bricks, by comparison.

The level of detail, control, and finesse possible in a given fonstruction depended mostly on resolution prior to the recent advent of stackable composites. Did you want it better? Make it bigger!

Brute force, now meet Elegance.

Instead of building individual glyphs hundreds of bricks tall, stackable composites allow us to design rich modular schemata hundreds of bricks deep. Using curved bricks at their largest scale, linear and curvilinear elements dynamically harmonize and oppose. As well, screen fonts can be effectively hinted (aside from notable lack of kerning controls) without sacrificing the integrity of joins and intersections. And the trapping possibilities, Oh the sweet sweet trapping possibilities...

Please, vote kindly and stay tuned for more :)]]> http://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/433957/fs_kronos Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:46:26 +0000
When the new arc bricks were unleashed upon fontstructland, I attempted several different styles incorporating this new maximum curve. My first drafts revealed the direction I was heading. I wanted to create a flawless geometric, technical sans lowercase with a touch of calligraphic flair (there are some optical correction issues in the result, e.g. with the e). For the uppercase, I intended maximum style without sacrificing too much coherence – why lose any of the best bits?

Brush script, art deco, classic engraving, three genera of gothic (sans serif, blackletter, and ancient alphabet!), runic, hieroglyphic, and yet still some futuristic tendencies all informed me. But do they blend?

The handwritten quality of a broad-nibbed pen or skillfully wielded marker provides the binding agent. An emulsion of all these influences, it is at once all and none. Even the strict modularity begins to melt into the background. Yet so distinctly fontstruct...]]> http://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/365205/archly_gothic Sat, 09 Oct 2010 05:27:57 +0000
A burly wood type design kickin’ up some dust on the old trail. This is an all caps corral – however some unicase and rough & tumble alternates seem to have stowed away in the back of them there parts.]]> http://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/375708/stampede Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:52:08 +0000

While recreating/revising one of my very first fontstructions – April 2008’s Asgard (second to last one) – I realized it was going to take something more drastic still than switching to 2x2 filter settings to realize my dream of a harmonized U&lc set.

The original’s lowercase had several compelling and unique features (at the time), the uppercase worked well enough in all caps display settings...but they very rarely sat comfortably together. The answer couldn’t have been more simple: since the caps (which surprisingly came first...or does this just reveal my noobishness at the time?) are rather narrow, the lowercase itself needed to follow a more logically elongated model.

Here the flexibility of 2x2 filters kicks into high gear as the original design’s lc is tweaked by half a brick extra height to bring about a more righteously rockin’ family.

(Asgard 1.x plateaued at 829 characters, so – as always – more to come...)