I don't know how you did it, but it looks like a masterpiece quite out of this FS world. 10/10 Can you do Rorschach cards?

oh, yes. mighty magnificent. i can see how doing this would make you a little batty. i think would work well for a couple of Poe titles :) even more impressive using a relatively manageable grid and 1x1 filter. i cloned it to take a peek and have deleted clone. kind of you to share your technique, but i would put this on lock-down :) this is so outstanding and a great technical achievement, that even after seeing how you did it, i remain in awe.

Like fk, I just had to clone this and have a peek at the workings of this really fine bit of artistry.

An absolutely amazing job loboarches ... looking forward to seeing what else you come up with. Gets my 10 :)

Amazing work.

I agree with funk_king...lock this baby down!

:O

The gob is smacked.

I've made a clone too. But don't worry, I'm not going to copy it, or use it in any way to create some derivative work. I just wanted to learn more about your technique, that's all. I also agree with funk_king and others: it is so unique and of high quality, you'd better lock it down before it's too late. There are some vigilant folks registered on FS, but never made a font themselves, waiting for some juicy stuff they can clone and list under a different name on their websites.

Absolutely amazing achievement. I didn't know there were an ink tool in FS... And I'm so sad I'm coming to late to clone and see how did it. But my fellow fonstructors are right: you unfortunately need to protect your work these days.

Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Fear and Loathing” is now a Top Pick.

Wow. This is totally Gonzo. Ralph Steadman meets Fontstruct. Bravo.

Sorprendente!
Are you shure you are using the same FontStruct as I do? I'm going to refresh my cache just in case...

Personally love it!

Truly wonderful especially when you get up close and see the geometry of the ink. I can't believe you're in your first year.

Laurie, you are a legend. Good work that man!!

interesting description of your process. it would be nice to see pictures of the initial glyphs you created before doing them in FS. the outcome is great, but the back story is intriguing as well :)

The tracing-onto-graph-paper and digitizing-via-fontstruct steps must be killers – though they definitely speak to the intricate handcraft you are putting into all this! I have a suggestion for how you can dramatically speed things up (and avoid some more tremendous, soul-sucking tedium and save yourself some vital energy) while adding the lowercase.

kix first published this technique here, though to my knowledge I was the first to use it for my homage to Lichtenstein contribution to the first multi-user fontstruction – Bubble Lab. The basic idea: open up the fontstructor in a semi-transparent window with an image you desire to “trace” appearing directly beneath it. Really, it’s just a cunning extrapolation of a common technique used in any number of graphics programs to trace, embellish, or otherwise digitize images from an existing source – usually a scan or digital photograph. There are a number of ways to make your browser window transparent, depending on your OS. Contact me directly if you have any trouble figuring this part out. You will have to come up with a method for scaling your images to the grid, but I imagine you have already gotten used to this with your hand tracing approach.

If you look closely at my “finger pointing” glyph in Bubble Lab, you will see that I extended this technique to its logical extreme of detail. Rather than stick to the “smooth-edged” approach you and kix used – as you said limitating each line to only 4 given angles – I treated the fontstuct grid as a sort of pixel matrix where each partial brick (and all their brickstacked permutations) are considered as grayscale values. Since almost all bricks are available in four rotations, selecting the right bricks in a given position always allows for a “continuous” line – lines which will appear from a certain distance to hold to any given angle. Back in the category of tremendous labor and tedium, one can come up with limitless, even fractal-like textures which define the line quality of a gien work. Intaglio – another old-timey fontstructor – called my first use of the technique “crayoning outside the line”, for instance. :D

Your method has some very intentional and well-considered constraints, so please don’t get me wrong. They are especially apropos to the subject matter from my highly personal perspective. I too was enamored with Steadman’s lettering on the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas book jacket. So much so that I actually scavenged a cardboard box once containing movie poster for the same so that I could roughly tear out the title (which for some reason was on this cardboard box :) and pin it up as the center piece for the large and eclectic collage which adorned one of my teenage room’s walls. Whenever I see these letters, I can’t help but imagine them in this context – as thick black ink pooling erratically on the surface of rotting corrugated cardboard with the underlying, prison-bar like rib pattern still showing through as they characterize the surface flow. The four–angle grid yields a very similar quality.

How all this triggers such a poignant and timely memory for me! Thank you for sharing these elegantly trashy letters splashed as if on scraps of cardboard, a precise metaphor as any for the decline of the American Empire! 10/10 and I hope all this saves you some time!

Congratulations on the TP - well earned.

@will.i.ૐ: Thanks for the info about transparent windows - have d/l and installed Transparent Windows already ... now to play with it:)

laurie... you make me sick!!! this is so good... after seeing yours in the library in the early stages i decided to completely re think my entire project, its still not finished, but it's way better than it was... amazing stuff. i for one, feel seriously threatened ;) love it - Jo xx

wahouuua !! incredible thing that !
a big "BRAVO" for your work !
You student give some real inspiration for font creation on fs !

Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Bat Country” is now a current Featured FontStruction.

Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Bat Country” is now a current Featured FontStruction.

Are you do this with fontstruct ?

brilliant.
Any plans to do the numbers or more punctuation?
Please say "yes"..

Thats incredible!!!!!!
:O
It's a masterpiece. How did you do it? 10/10
You should make a living out of doing that!

I want to bumb this font, have you ever watchd Helvetica!?

loboarches, I was about to put my ideas on hold, perceiving the allotment of shapes as limiting, but what you have shown me is no less than inspiring, and I love tedium so graph paper will be my way too. But I do like the Idea of transparency givin by will.i.ૐ, I just have to figure out how to do that.

Pros : Artsy

Cons : Such fine structure of lines disturb the clarity of characters (i, w, m etc). Also there are no numbers or punctuation included in your font so it fills in with default font (which is then cut in half) This is okay for artwork but isn't good for applied use. 5/10

Bat Country has slipped from No.1 to No7 in the last two days after it accrued three troll votes (see the picture). These votes are not about evaluation, we all know that. These votes are guided by sinister intentions to manipulate the TP list. I don't want to
consider the inferential perpetrator(s), it seems unimportant at this point. Needless to say, I'm always angry, regardless of who the victim is, when I see such deliberate attempt to make our positive ratings a nullity.

Loboarches came to FS recently (along with many talented artists from University of the West of England, Bristol). They infused fresh new ideas, and shared many outstanding works here on FS, raising the standards to new heights, so I think, we ought to
appreciate that. Bat Country was instantly recognised as an exceptional work by many, and within a few weeks it has climbed up on the TP chart to be the No.1. I appeal to you, all who have opinion, but did not vote for this particular fontstruction, to help to restore its position. We could ask FS staff to delete those troll votes, of course. Easy. But I think, it is a good opportunity for members to show their qualities.

I have no more stars left for this work. It is upon you to show your esteem, respect and admiration in numbers at the voting boot.

I fully endorse Frodo7's appeal. Sadly, I only had the one 10 to offer ... wish I could give more. So, c'mon anyone who hasn't voted and slap you 10 on here.

Wonderful! Considering the tools that you have to work with, you were able to create something so organic on a strict grid system. Kudos!

My word... I though I put too much effort into my work, but this font shows me just how wrong I am!
I can hardly believe... In Fontstruct... That much detail?!
This is the best font I have seen at FontStruct thus far, and I sincerely doubt I will be able to find a better one (unless it comes from you, that is)!

Outstanding! The product of a creative and troubled mind. I like that. Keep 'em coming...

This is such a great font! If only it had an apostrophe I'd be using it right now :(

Love it! Looks creepy but very artistic :)

wow. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, amazing... I love it.

Hey Laurie. I am totally digging and relating to this particular brand of insanity. I find it both maddening and inspirational at the same time. I also feel impelled to remark on the creative work of your fellow classmates and the bold experimental work that has been produced. Please keep the crazy coming. =)

Impressive...
I would say, that this is one of the best projects on FS.

I don't know how long you've been working on this, but creating something like this from scans in serious program, not only would be faster, but would give much, much better effect.

...so it's impressive in kinda' sad way, really...


Chears.

Nice imagination and creativity. Well done.

wow, very nice =]

very awesome!

just amazing!!!

That could be compared to "Chiller", but its better, very inspiring stuff, keep it up!

did you use font-struct to mske this?

Very impressive! :)

°∆° How?... How??? Looks now modular but whhaaaa???

°∆° How?... How??? Looks now modular but whhaaaa???

I just joined FontStuct just to compliment you on this work. Wonderfully done.

szndm: Although most of us might agree that using a vector-based drawing program and a scanner would be the intuitive approach for realizing a display face like this, the fact that the designer followed her own process in creating this is notable and commendable. As she stated, this seemed to be a required restriction, which to me, is what FS is all about...testing the boundaries and seeing what FS can do. I think that the faceted nature of Bat Country at large sizes is what makes it so intriguing, giving it a particular character that it might not otherwise have. Lastly, I must disagree with your inference that FS isn't a “serious” program. Sure, there are plenty of other professional tools out there, and we all have a wish-list of what FS COULD do (no offense to 2.0), but what it DOES do, it does extremely well... and it's FREE! I've been able to use FS to quickly create display fonts for professional projects… fonts that I would have never otherwise taken the time to make. I've always thought that part of what makes FS so exciting IS the limitations. I think most professional designers would tell you that some of their best work is a result of limited parameters, materials, etc. So... thanks again to Laurie for sharing with us all an avenue of exploration we may not have considered. (… steps off soapbox, loses balance, laughs nervously, wipes brow.)

amazing work! very impressive

amazing work! very impressive

--------
forex

Oh crap. Sorry for the gender-confusion! And for the record, I was fawning over your work, not you personally. :)

apik

this is soooo awesome! I downloaded it. How did you make that? That is soooo cool!!!!!

I like this!!!How u did it???Oh My God!!!

It is a very interesting-looking font and I'm downloading it now - I'm thinking that it will work great when I want to use interesting-looking fonts in some of my artwork!

I was now produced my "communicating with words" first year module on the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course at UWE Bristol, England too~but i dun noe how to make such a nice curves~

really thanks for your advise~I will try my best~

As if it hasn't been said enough, I'm going to say it it again: this is incredible!! Awesome work!

how can you do it
you dont get all the bricks you want

great job, what a fabulous font!!!

As I look to the right, I see a shirt with this A on it. Congratz!

Could we see some screenshots of the font in action?

i'm feeling so.. childish! the perfection made fontstruction! 174599/10

@meek: The comment above appears to be just an excuse to spam the link (see also the comment on 'TFa SquareSans' also today) The author 'loopslike' only opened the account today and has already placed two spam links to unconnected businesses.