plau type workshop slides

Drawing letters for logos, lettering & fonts

Workshop goals

Learn/remember some type design fundamentals.

Improve the analysis of fonts/lettering and proportions

Best practices and time-saving tips when drawing digital letters.

This is my first attempt at drawing type circa 2002. Do not quit!

Content

1 Warm-up exercice

2 Key fundamentals

3 Planning

4 Drawing digital letters

5 Resources

1 Warm-up exercice

2 Key fundamentals

3 Planning

4 Drawing digital letters

5 Resources

Monogram (15-20 minutes).Draw 2-3 name initials in pencil or any kind of writing tool that suits your personality.Try different tools and see how the outcome differs.

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1 Warm-up exercice

2 Key fundamentals

3 Planning

4 Drawing digital letters

5 Resources

Fund

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2Shapes that have the same absolute height…

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2…need to be adjusted so they look the same height. Forget math for a minute, type design is all about your eyes!

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2The same effect on letters.

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2Math centering A vs. optic centering b. Move objects up a little so they look centered (and not falling).

A B

A B

Horizontal stems look bigger than vertical. Which of these 2 look balanced?

A B

B is visually adjusted for this optical illusion. Shorter horizontal stems, middle bar moved up a little so it looks balanced.

A B

Which of these “io” looks better?

Increase curved areas so that they match straights. B curves are the same width as the straights, which doesn’t look right.

a: geometric vs optical construction.

These visual compensations are what makes letter more legible and pleasing to the eye. On the right is Futura.

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2Bolder fonts will look smaller if they have the same x-height. Increase the x-height of bolder letters to compensate this effect.

finessefinesse

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2The heavier the letters, the smaller the counters which calls for…

finesse

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2… an adjustment in spacing so form and counterforms look balanced.

finesse

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2This looks clumsy.

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2The white spaces are just as important as the letters themselves.

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2Always smooth out the joins of straight to curved segments. Avoid the “bone effect”.

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2Do not fear the Bézier curve. Ever!

1 Warm-up exercice

2 Key fundamentals

3 Planning

4 Drawing digital letters

5 Resources

Some decisions to makeFinal useStyle/PersonalityFamily planning: weights, styles etc.ProportionsLegibility

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Final use

Wayfinding Sans: Ralf Herrmann. Signage.Bell Centennial: Mathew Carter. Type for newsprint.

Verdana: Mathew Carter. Optimized for screen display. Akceler Alt: Andrej Dieneš. For sports magazines.

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Personality/Family Planning

Primot

Guanabara Sans ‘13

Display Type (Primot/WIP) Lettering

Super family – multiple weights and styles.

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H VH V

Contrast and style.

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Ax Ax Ax

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3Altura de x

Guanabara Sans | Mrs. Eaves | Maple Black

AxPeles sernatur ad endis endae omnisti onemquatur?Atiatiis quodit, si sum re nus evel et quo temporeri dolessinvel molut exeraTur aut minus ulpa alitat.Voluptae senis ut laborem perumquibus.

AxPeles sernatur ad endis endae omnisti onemquatur?Atiatiis quodit, si sum re nus evel et quo temporeri dolessinvel molut exeraTur aut minus ulpa alitat.Voluptae senis ut laborem perumquibus. 

AxPeles sernatur ad endis endae omnisti onemquatur?Atiatiis quodit, si sum re nus evel et quo temporeri dolessinvel molut exeraTur aut minus ulpa alitat.Voluptae senis ut laborem perumquibus.

x-Height affects word count. Same for condesed/expanded fonts.

Guanabara Sans | Mrs. Eaves | Maple Black | 30/36pt

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Proportions – top is not as well proportioned as bottom. Study time tested fonts and train your eyes for good proportions.

HamburgefonsHamburgefons

Myriad: Robert Slimbach/Carol Twombly

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Calligraphic origin

Garamond

Didot

Scala Sans

Helvetica

eaea ea

ea

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Niels Shoe Meulman Tony DiSpigna

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3Calligraphic origin

milliliter milliliter

milliliter milliliter

Guanabara Sans lowercas l is adjusted to be more readable.

Helvetica: l can be confused for an uppercase i.

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2Legibility Erik Spiekermann

Ok, nice.

But where to begin?

1 Warm-up exercice2 Key fundamentals3 Planning4 Drawing digital letters

TipsMethod 1: ModularMethod 2: From ScansMethod 3: StrokesMethod 4: Straight upMasters

5 Resources

Sketch and define things early on.

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HamburgefonsAdhesiontext

First words

Will help define the personality and features of the other glyphs.

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Points at extrema

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4Points at extrema

HO no

Kickstart your font start with one straight and one rounded letter.

You can define many letters from these basic shapes, and it will give you a good starting point for spacing.

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HOHOHOhohoho

Spacing

Para decidir o espaçejamento entre as letras, comece pelas duplas HO maiúscula e minúscula. Assim você já tem muitos

espaçamentos resolvidos (lados circulares e retos).

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HDFELOQCD

MN WYX ZS

Groups of shapes (construction)4

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oec pdbq fjg nmu il kzs vwyz

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ABC0123

For text fonts, numerals are a little shorter than Capital Height so as not to overpower them in text.

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Minion Pro

0123456789001234567890

01234567890

Some types of numerals4

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Copy paste?

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No sir (ma’am)!

n n»nu

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Start to love the blend tool (Interpolation)

AAALight BlackBook

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Use interpolation to test letter variations.

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MODULAR

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4Modular

Wim Crouwel

SCAN

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4Scan

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4Vectorizing the scan

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4Refining the scan

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4Final result

Clube de roupas infantisbabycub

STROKES

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4Width tool (Illustrator – Shift + W)

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4Width Tool

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4Width Tool

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4Width Tool

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4From strokes, you can also start simple monoline letters like this S for example. But remember, it will need lots of tweaking for you to call it a letter.

STRAIGHT UP…JUST GO FOR IT😈

MASTERS

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Hoefler & Frere Jones

House Industries

Adrian Frutiger

Doyald Young

Herb Lubalin

Alex Trochut

Louise Fili

1 Warm-up exercice

2 Key fundamentals

3 Planning

4 Drawing digital letters

5 Resources

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5Learn more!Briem.net: http://briem.net

Hoefler & Frere-Jones: http://www.typography.com/

Letritas: http://letritas.blogspot.com

Type Drawers: http://typedrawers.com

Typophile: http://typophile.com

Typotheque: https://www.typotheque.com/articles

Unos Tipos Duros: http://www.unostiposduros.com/

Type Workshop (Underware): http://www.typeworkshop.com/

BooksLogo, Font & Lettering Bible. http://goo.gl/4djGZt

The stroke, Theory of Writing. http://goo.gl/Xr9rR

Counterpunch. http://goo.gl/hcQVDo

Letterletter. http://goo.gl/PcGyjF

Designing Type. http://goo.gl/HZ7TL

Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age. http://goo.gl/qCqyb

Elementos do estilo tipográfico. http://goo.gl/sAAxZ

Stop Stealing Sheep. http://goo.gl/8YKUK1

Metro Letters. http://goo.gl/5CWs5e

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THANK YOU! email rodrigo@plau.co link plau.co behance behance.net/plau twitter PlauStudio facebook facebook.com/plaudesigna big thanks to: Vanessa Padua, Cristiano Junqueira, Betina Cupello and everybody at Saravah, Cida, Eddy e Martha, Gu, Nina, Família Padua, Mark Mullin, Eduardo Varela, Lucas Azevedo, Daniel Campos, Matheus Fragoso, all the designers and coders from Niramekko and Plau and everyone who inspired and taught me so much!

fonts: Guanabara Sans, SS Social, Futura, Myriad, Minion Pro, Motiva Sans, Bordonia, Primot.