FRUNTSTOCT — FontStruct logotype reinterpretation
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For all ya failed attempts at re-creating the FontStruct logo typeface.
Many have tried their take on it, most without convincing succes, and often looking downright horrible.
Two of the most commonly made mistakes are.. 1) The introduction of a uppercase alphabet 2) Having a tendency for including far too many stuff in terms of extended language and typographic support, aiming for large multi-lingual character-sets with as many glyphs possible.
The lettering for the FS-logotype has this very distinctive modular geometric stencil concept. The underlying glyph structure consists of 5 horizontal rectangular segments, that together with a custom set of simple geometric blocks form a modular system that can be easily re-modeled or re-arranged to form the different letters and required parts that help to distinguish each individual letter from one another.
The modular system itself is highly simplified and easily accessible to implement additional changes. But typically speaking a simplified modular system comes at a price. And the further a system was simplified, the greater the amount of limitations will be. Which literally translates to a reduction in overall design depth and freedom to implement a more diverse complexity.
—TECHNICAL SPECS:
[Dimensions] Segments
X-Height — 3
Cap-Height — 4
Ascender — 1
Descender — 1
[Filters] Value
Horizontal Brick Size — 2
Vertical Brick Size — 1.8
Horizontal Grid Scale — 0.9
Vertical Grid Scale — 1
In case of this FS-logotype concept, there are a number of key components that put in place this very strict window of parameter-locked propperties, that exclude all but a few remaining options which could still be exploited, and therefor fully dictate whatever is, or is not possible.
Having only 5 segments, limited geometric components and highly restrictive rearrangeable capabilities towards implementing variation all adding up to the difficulty-level for extrapolating some of its more complex and- / or denser forms, symbols accents and puntuation marks.
To cramp excessive amounts of complexity into a very narrow band of realestate would have a certain negative wear on its aesthetic qualities. And is likely to result in a combination of messy glyph composites and queer-looking letter-inventions, contrapped in a mish-mash of irregular and gawky looking, at times even disfiguring geometry that sit at the heart of this problem.
This is exactly where those bad choices can either make or break your font. The modular system for FS's lettering clearly isn't the most suitable of fonts for uppercase forms and complex geometry.
This doesn't mean that it is impossible, as was demonstrated by a small number of re-interpretations that actually do include fairly decent uppercase inventions. One of such that have successfully pulled off the inclusion of a uppercase set for his rework of the logo typeface was Zhalgas Kassymkulov—previously known as architaraz.
His attempt is a beautiful display of craftmanship and clever simplicity.
Here is a list of attempts that I think are successful re-interpretations of the original FontStruct logo:
Structurosa Italic — by four
AT Archistruct Outline — by kassymkulov
Structurosa— by pauldhunt
FS Logotype — by WeDoFonts
pixelstructia — by gamesgames
fs Colophon — by user-juli
fs sanstruct — by ETHproductions
Realised — by thezenmaster1000
Structurosa Bold — by pauldhunt
FontStrukt 2 Soft — by Jamie Place (FontBlast)
Structurosa Bold Too — by pauldhunt
— WHUTZINSIDE THIS FRUNTSTOCTION?
Now, a extensive explanation for the decision to not include uppercase forms to the font, as well as for the constraint on total character amount had been broadly covered above. I think that small caps numeral figures make a much more sleek looking glyph, and tying the overall character set much more together as a whole.
Another, and I say, rather more unique feature found in my version of the lettering is only a subtle one in fact. One that mostly works invisibly, that without the awareness of the reader, is easily missed. And can only truly visually materialize and appreciated seen up close. This is the implementation of several slight deviations and custom sculpting of certain curvatures and round features. Introducing an ever so slightly more diverse dynamic, but also taps deeper into some of that shape contrast propperties.
In addition to that I've also included several glyph alternative forms and small number of ligatures to play around with.
among these glyph alternates there is also this continuous string of 13 rather experimental looking glyph variations for the lowercase letter 's'.
These aren't actually meant to be usable characters, but instead is a collage of different configurations that make various curved geometry, and are simply stored in a glyph-style fashion that provides an actual physical estimation on their appearence and for me to test their functional values in a text format.
So far so good,
I am happy with how the font turned out to be, it is fairly consistent looking and still remains quite usable as a font.
That's all for now folks...
Cheers.
Inspired bt the works of great Wim Crouwel and striped sports jerseys. Also a study in 45 degrees diagonals, happily provided by fontstructor and master Goatmeal. Basic latin support and a few ligatures. **UPDATE 19.11.2014 I worked out a few unbalanced characters and added ligatures. Hope you like it!
**UPDATE 2016: please check the new version under the name of Wim V2.
Here is a (somewhat refined) departure/sequel to the example design I created to help inspire their projects. :)
Alternates are included in the lowercase. Just letters for now...
Bump the zoom up a few notches in the preview widget to get proper hairline spacing. Enjoy!
This is a cloneNEXT SKYCITY - A decorative future-retro art deco style display typeface.
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This is a remastered and extended sequel to an pre-existing older design I did.
Now, the reason for this was due to the fact that there was a lot going on in the older version I simply just wasn't satisfied with.
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This new and extended version includes an overall more streamlined and consistent design. Much improved and more balanced looking numerals.
Also have I corrected and added numerous punctuation marks, and, last but not least.. What truly changed this previously more of a lettering idea type design into a relative usable full font is, the introdiction of a simple and legible geometric lowercase string. Make the font far more suitable for body text.
The uppercase and numeral strings are a random mix of both normal open stroke-based geometric letterforms and stylistic filled letter-contours, that, when arranged like this making the uppercase character set look playful and slightly future-ish retro at first, yet a somewhat strangely ellegant sophistication that is ever so gently present. This could be used in isolation for a strong and convincing decorative headline text, or in conbination with the lowercase for a surprisingly readable an clean looking body text that has the occasional occurance of a decorative capital letter.
I hope you like it so far...
This is a cloneSTANDAARD PROFIELEN ― Digital revival/extrapolation of a logotype originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer"
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Jurriaan's original work is a logotype style lettering for a corporate identity brochure, that he designed for one of his clients, a Dutch timber trading company called: "Houthandel Rote - Westzaan N.V."
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Schrofer's original work featured the plain black text "standaard profielen" and was written in all lowercase letters. (source image bellow)
As far as I know this were the only characters he designed for this specific project.
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It's a very simple grid based modular brick type lettering. Only two bricks were used to create each individual letterform. So they have a profound and inevitably dictating resonance to the visual appearance of the letterforms, a visual presence that I could not stray away from too far.
This stylistical design parameter made it somewhat extra tricky for the successfully faithful extrapolation of the remaining missing glyphs, turning it into a complete glyph-set and basic usable font. The source also remains pretty unclear on how Jurriaan would've designed characters with crossing strokes, such as Kk / Xx.
The original corner brick works well with just this small character set in the source, but the rectangular outside part of this brick fills a substantial surface area, (over 3/4th of a brick in total), resulting in bleeding-like contrast issues. So, having mostly undesirable effects in brick-congested areas or with intersecting strokes.
An additional beveled corner brick was added to address most of this issue.
All 'n all, for this reason I just captured its basic lowercase letterforms, numerals and only the bare essential punctuation marks for making it functional are included for now, no accents !
Cheers!
See more:
https://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1677460/garry-3
https://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1633313/detour-3
https://www.fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/1742956/transom-hoog-1
https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/853542/at_liena