Help with uppercase forms 😩

[fungidube]

Hi everyone,

I have been tweaking and iterating on the uppercase characters following the feedback I have received. Though I feel I have figured out my diagonal characters — I had tried out straight diagonals and it did not look quite right. It dawned on me that I have to be able to see the square counters so this was something positive and I implemented this instead and you can see it more clearly in the R.

However, I am incredibly stuck as the general forms of my uppercase characters has a ripple on the lowercase characters and my figures.

I have attached some notes to specific letters I am struggling with inside my Glyphs. These namely would be D, K, S, X, Y, Z (and these have annotations as mentioned). Other than this, kindly do furnish me with feedback on the entire set and how you feel about the personality of it. I think that I also have weight distribution issues.

Looking forward to your notes.

I have also attached a PDF with the set for quick view as well. The "X" is beyond ugly. The other failed iterations are in my Glyphs file.

Fungi Dube | Vhudzi Proof V02.pdf

[davelab6]

Some ideas :)

[n8willis]

Great to see the expansion of the set! I have a couple of suggestions in reply. The first couple are things I was trying to verbally describe on our video call, so at least these rough sketches may be better than that:

• S: I was suggesting the you find a way to put emphasis on the central curve; what I was drawing here was slicing off an end from the top stroke and from the bottom stroke, to provide room for the curve to connect. Both of those cut-outs could preserve the square internal-space shape used in the other letters.
• C: I was suggesting that you could use a slightly angled internal-vertical line in the open counter (also on E and G). What I drew here is only barely slanted, but perhaps enough to make a difference.

An alternate idea on the D, after seeing Dave's image, might be just to slice off the left hand side (unlike the other drawings, here the green is "removed"...). It wouldn't be symmetrical, but that's already true of other letterforms that still look harmonious, and a straight left-side profile is a common reading cue for D.

On the X, I think this relates to the difficulty in finding S — you really have to find some way to incorporate a diagonal stroke and make it look relatable. An all-right-angles design system will eventually hit a wall. If not now, then in the lowercase or the numerals or something. What I attempted to sketch here attempts to relate to the other horizontal and vertical constructions by by keeping vertical interior sides, but it still allows some curve to connect the top to the bottom.

Minor thought on the leg of the R; I think it is a bit close to A, and putting some more curvature in (somewhere) is necessary to distinguish them. More minor on the P; it looks a bit too light overall; lowering the crossbar (or making it heavier) would make a difference.

Food for thought anyway! I definitely believe that the S is improved from the previous (page 1) construction. Nice!

[tphinney]

Is it safe to assume the typeface will never be extended to support Greek—or that if it is, the N can be changed at that time?

The only concern I have that has not already been raised is, I have some difficulty with the V. I mean, if I see it next to the “U,” I can tell it is a V. But by itself I wouldn’t be so sure. Maybe the outer sides can slope inwards a little bit more, keeping the top ~ the same, but narrowing the outside part of the bottom vertex?

Aside from that, I would love to see the next version after you take Dave and Nate’s feedback.

[fungidube]

Thank you all so much for your feedback! I am working through it and will show you updated versions 🌻

I will also think of ways in which I can redesign the "N".

[davelab6]

I'm not too worried about legibility in this face. The context of a word with a v will be sufficient IMHO

The El Meson logo "s" might be interesting in the central stroke

[tphinney]

@davelab6 can we ignore the possibility of Greek or Cyrillic in the future (or deal with it later, if and when it happens) as regards N/Π and И/П confusability?