fs mostly harmless

Share:
by thalamic
See also GoGG101 by Sixozzzz, Juarez FM by cassianodj.

Download disabled

The designer of this FontStruction has chosen not to make it available for download from this website by choosing an “All Rights Reserved" license.

Please respect their decision and desist from requesting license changes in the comments.

If you would like to use the FontStruction for a specific project, you may be able to contact the designer directly about obtaining a license.

I filled it, kix. :)
-----
It appears as a clone because that's where it started but every character is built from scratch. kix' brilliant original is an understatement of perfection, using the least amount of bricks for such a grand effect. However, it left not much space inside for any kind of meaningful rendering. Had to quadruple each glyph in order to get enough brick space inside to get some effect going. In the process I came to appreciate the true brilliance of the design and the awesomeness of certain characters. G, for instance.
    I have scaled everything up, but have not taken any liberties with the shapes—they are true to the original. If a certain glyph is off, it is due to my ineffective eye and not borne out of a desire to change the original. (Point it out, and I'll correct it). Hope you like it.
-----
I live in the third-world; it is summer (well, it is here). Consequently, unannounced power outages 2, 5, 8 times a day are standard operating procedure. While/when we have power, my ISP may not. Consequently, unannounced internet outages 3, 4, 7 times a day are standard operating procedure. Out of 24 hours, I get 3, 4 hours of internet access on a good day. Everything everywhere is UPS'd up the wazoo. Still, UPSes need power to recharge. I never know when the computer might shut down or lose the internet connection. Consequently, I have become a master S-pusher. Sorry for the server load, admins. :-)

25 Comments

Please do not request download access or license changes in the comments.You will lose future commenting priveleges, and risk having your FontStruct account deleted, if you do so. Read more.

Add Sample … Submit
this is a masterful achievement. your technical abilities as demonstrated in render the original 4Xs is a feat unto itself. then to add such a detailed fill - incredible. another high note :)

sorry to hear about your technical difficulties. in the best of circumstances creativity is a delicate act, but when challenged, results can be...amazing :) i think among all fonstructers, you definitely foster a since of community and strong support and encouragement of other designers. when you post all is well, when you don't i wonder what's up. now i understand by you sharing your plight.
now i can see when fs was experiencing a "few" migration bugs that this only added to your...um, frustration :) but i know that these things only fuel the fire, especially when one is determined to see the end result. thanks again for sharing and great job here. continue :)
Comment by funk_king 26th may 2009
Thanks, font_king.

This font was a challenge to do, for sure. First it was a matter of figuring out what to paint the insides with. For some reason I wanted it to be an argyle or a tartan pattern but they just didn't look...er...smooth. Then I tried other patterns, none looking nice, until I relented to a chrome-like effect. Once that got decided, it turned out that almost every shape used the shallow angled bricks, the smaller of which left plenty of space per brick that the dot of the pattern it overlay would still be visible. Brick stacks.

I love that brick stacking is possible but it is a chore to use. So many mouse moves and clicks just to get one stack. Then because of the undulating wave pattern, determining which dot to stack at any given point was a test of my patience. Towards the end, I figured out a way to make the stacks easier by copying multiple patterns and multiple letter shapes on the same stage and stacking a whole line of bricks in one go. Frustrating, yet somehow it spurned me on.

As if that was not enough, this FontStruction kept doing something weird. At random, the bricks would swap themselves, leaving, as you can imagine, a mess of the design. I asked Rob Meek to rescue it once but when it happened again (at lower case x), I just gave up. Nearly gave up. I sat about carefully reassigning each brick to another completely different shape brick and then swapping the original brick back in. Testing the patience, oh yes. Before the font was complete, I had to do the brick swap thing four times. You have no idea how glad I was to get this font done. :)

On top of it, someone, very considerately, dropped a 1 rating on this almost right away. Brought me down from my lofty thoughts. But your comment makes up for that and many other 1 ratings. Thanks.
Comment by thalamic 27th may 2009
@thalamic

I know what you mean about the down-voters. I have a "fan" that instantly gives me a 1 on almost every single font I release. I'm assuming it's the same person...maybe I'm just insecure, and I have a whole bunch of haters. :)

Regardless of the votes, this font is a great work and your patience paid off.
Comment by aphoria 27th may 2009
wow, this was quite an accomplishment before your narrative, which after reading qualifies this as a magnificent achievement no less. i could share with you some of my war stories with fs, but somehow, sometimes it adds to the creation. it seems like magic that in spite of the difficulties and challenges, we can create these wonderful little fonts - which aren't really real, are they :)

ugh, now get me started about these font trolls for which i decided a font, of which i'm surprised of it's popularity. i don't know if i'm getting the last laugh or them :) i would agree with both of you - i would assess that it's the same people who demonstrate that behavior. which is too bad, i readily accept suggestions and criticisms, but these trolls just seem to delight in demeaning others work. sad. they don't realize their negative energy will only continue to deplete whatever remaining minuscule amount of creativity they have left. i think fs would be well served by someday introducing a more advanced voting widget - one that would allow voting on individual components of a design such as originality, execution/technique, usability, etc. until then, i try not to get emotionally charged when i get down-voted, but i suppose you can't help but react when something you've put your heart into gets mistreated.

i'm sure the admins could run some queries to identify fs users who down-vote on a consistent basis, but i'm not sure what good it would do. they could always register and vote under a new name. i really think if more downloaders in general would just vote that in itself would offset a lot of the bs. i don't know what the average is but maybe 1 in 4 vote who dl and that's probably a high %.

but let us not fret. in the end, it is we who create the work that drives both the good and bad of fs - its great when you get a dl and a good vote. you never know what someone is doing with your stuff, but that's the fun and mystery of it (although i wish more people would post the use of fonts the dl). maybe we need a forum and gallery here, although i guess that's what we have, we just need to utilize it as such. so let's continue to celebrate the joy of fs and pray for those lost trolls whose only joy comes not from creating and celebrating, but from trying to destroy and despising others work.
Comment by funk_king 30th may 2009
Nothing in life is without pain, is it? I was thinking non-anonymous voting so you know who to dislike, but where there is known dislike, there are fights. I srsly would like to get rid of those who downvote out of jealously or dislike for the designer rather than the design. That is not to say no font should ever get a 1 vote, some should, but only if it deserves it and the person voting it below 5 should have the decency to state in a comment why it was voted low.

I don't do it here, but I am highly critical in life away from fontstruct, for one reason only: While criticism is difficult to accept at the onset, only constructive criticism has the potential to lead to something better. Praise is temporary; criticism can have lasting benefits. I don't expect everyone to like everything I do, so I invite people to give me their 1 votes, so long as they can substantiate them.
Comment by thalamic 30th may 2009
wise words.
makes me even feel more honoured, if such a wise person likes my work.
Very good idea to blow it up.
And indeed super nice fill-ins :)

I should have constructed "mostly" that big, right from the start. i had issues with the letterspace controls, because of some half bricks i used...

Thank you for that
*blush
Comment by kix 1st june 2009
like a old typo for videogames !
Comment by dasmuse 1st july 2009
A great rend-ition :) It's beautiful, right up to the maximum size.

I discovered the art of batch brick-stacking whilst working on my 'Alphabox Shadow' - and have also managed to get 3 bricks in one stack, which occasionally comes in useful.

Hope my 10 helps to undo the spoiling tactics of whoever gave you a 1.
Comment by p2pnut 16th july 2009
Really a genius. The name doesn't suit, though.
Comment by Gazek 10th october 2009
Both outstrokes and pattern are great. Congrats.
Comment by igorrossi 10th october 2009
This is genius. This is a creation of utterly mind-boggling creativity. Beauty in pixel form (not really pixels, but you know what I mean).
Comment by Logan Thomason (xenophilius) 20th november 2010
ABSOLUTELY GENIUS!!!
Comment by Logan Thomason (xenophilius) 22nd december 2010
Say... how did you clone this? There's no clone button or nothing on Mostly...
Comment by Logan Thomason (xenophilius) 27th april 2011
Comment by thalamic 6th september 2011
I can't believe I never posted a demo picture for this font. This was a early days manual brick-stack labor of love. I still love it.

Also, sorry for posting so much stuff lately. I'm just on a semester break and this is the only time I have to play. I'll be much quieter soon.
Comment by thalamic 6th september 2011
All your contributions are well appreciated, Ata. No need for remorse! It is when life calls you away and you are silent that we miss you (and that is our problem ;)

BTW, did you use a gradient map to color the seamless sample? No, the upper and lower “waves” use the same grayscale values. You must’ve done some fancy masking to achieve these classic “chrome” reflections. There’s love in that, and for a highly lovable fs!
Comment by William Leverette (will.i.ૐ) 6th september 2011
Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “fs mostly harmless” is now a Top Pick.
Comment by Rob Meek (meek) 7th september 2011
Thank you so much for this honor, Rob. Truly appreciate it.

No remorse; only joy. :-)
Comment by thalamic 7th september 2011
It took that long for this to become a TP?! Meek, where've you been?!

I still can't get over how epic this font is. Kudos to Kix, of course, for making the letters, and major kudos to you for doing such amazing things to the letters. If I could fave this again, I would.
Comment by Logan Thomason (xenophilius) 11th september 2011
Thanks, xenophilius. :-)
Comment by thalamic 11th september 2011
Amazing talent with a virtual pen always results in an amazing piece of virtual art. Fontstruct has been blessed with the thalamic's great skill. May I ask, did you get this font's characteristics from Graffiti Block by Font Wizard? They look quite similar.
Comment by EagleSoar97 1st april 2012
This is absoloutly amazing. I love to pieces. It is really cool and it must have taken you sooooooo long to make it because it is sooooo amazingly good.
Comment by hopps12 6th april 2012
This is cool But can I use it?(I will give credit)
Comment by Dark Delta 11th april 2012
Crikey! I really like this

(also, points for Hitchhiker's reference!)
Comment by kingrandom 13th june 2012
Wow! Nice work! Definitely going to favorites!

-Mairi
Comment by Mairi 18th december 2012

Please do not request download access or license changes in the comments.You will lose future commenting priveleges, and risk having your FontStruct account deleted, if you do so. Read more.

Add Sample … Submit

Also of Interest

GlyphsApp

Get the world’s leading font editor for OSX.

More from the Gallery

tm TURN IT OFFby thalamic
fs Reboot [Hard]by thalamic
tm ¬CMYKby thalamic
tm ПРОСТОby thalamic
Dawn Chorusby four
STF_DOBINI BALWAUMby Sed4tives
STF_VOLLE BUISJESby Sed4tives
W Stripes the Fontby will.i.ૐ

From the Blog

News

Gridfolk: Interview with Zephram

News

Heavy Competition Results

News

Heavy Competition

News

Gridfolk: Interview with Jiri Novak