Brick by Brick, the FontStruct Blog

The FontStruct Blog

Twenties Competition Results

Competitions, News | | April 26th, 2021

Dear FontStructors,

Wow! That was amazing. I didn’t think it possible, but you have surpassed yourselves once again.

I’m sorry that it took an extra week to complete this blog post. One major difficulty was simply that there were so many competition entries worthy of recognition. Indeed, many entries merit a blog post all to themselves. I would encourage anyone reading this to browse all the entries directly because they simply cannot all be represented here.

Let’s have a look at a selection of the entries. You’ll find the prizewinners at the very end of the post, but everyone who entered is a champion. Well done!

From top to bottom: Codarte by V. Sarela (Yautja), db Mangold by beate, twentysomething by four, KD Dekorat by architaraz.

– We start with four wonderful, intelligent designs, all of which were a delight to work with as installed fonts. I love the dot details in Codarte.

db Mangold leaves me speechless. I’m guessing the inspiration is Bernhard Antique but this seems to be a completely original and mature design that goes far beyond what I thought was possible with FontStruct. Amazing.

twentysomething is a lovely, light and playful thing which ended up being the FontStructor’s favourite this time around.

KD Dekorat with its maze-like panelling is a beautiful example of how diverse Deco typography can be.

Twenties Comp Samples 2From top to bottom: G1 Decoreus by geneus1, KD Jermaine by architaraz, db Ventica by beate, KD Xxies by architaraz

I’m not sure what G1 Decoreus was inspired by, I’d love to know, but it certainly feels true to the architectural and decorative spirit of the 1920s. Stout and elegant at the same time. I love it.

KD Jermaine is an intricate and pretty multilined deco typeface, but note also the clever XX pun running right through the alphabet.

db Ventica: Um. What? How? ?? Another virtuoso re-FontStruction of an original ’20s typeface, this time, I believe, Fanfare. Amazing!

KD Xxies is yet another fine Deco typeface from architaraz. Note that although I have only used the caps here, there is also a lower case.

From top to bottom: bulbambulAF3630 by jirinvk, tm RenMac by minimum, Caligari by erictom333, Gilded Teatro and Gilded Teatro Double by Haley Wakamatsu (UkiyoMoji Fonts) (japanyoshi).

The inimitable jirinvk created an entire family of graphically strong bulbambuls for the competition, inspired by Gunta Stölzl (1897–1983), the Queen of Bauhaus. Note that the letters in the sample are rotated slightly from the original typeface.

TM RenMac, shown very much out of context here, cleverly takes the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glaswegian Designer and Architect, and reinterprets it on the FontStruct grid. Thanks for this one miminum!

Caligari is a lovely, messy cutout design which inspired the sample as a whole, while Gilded Teatro forms another little family: A perfect articulation of deco style in two pixel fonts, both a pleasure to work with.

From top to bottom: Noar2 by Galo (galoreporter), G1 Broadwaif by geneus1, ztefan eYe/FS by elmoyenique, Shooting Star by Echo Heo (bluemon).

Deco all the way in the above image.

Noar2 is a classic, condensed, deco typeface with a small-caps lower case, full of subtle and characterful details.

G1 Broadwaif is simply beautiful. There are alternate caps in the lower case.

ztefan eYe/FS will appear again later in this post so I’ll skip that one for now.

Shooting Star is that FontStruction rarity: a legible typeface which can work for copy at medium and smallish sizes. Well done Echo Heo!

 

Twenties Comp Samples

From top: KEM-base by nightpegasus, STRUCTURES by Oli Town (not a competition entry), briste by four, Moderto by V. Sarela (Yautja)

KEM Base is inspired by the work of designer Kem Weber. I enjoy the quirky asymmetry. For me the design is suggestive of early 20th century primitivism.

The beautiful leaf-like “briste” also has an organic character, belying the grid beneath, while right at the bottom you see the ambicase Moderto – a perfectly executed and very legible design inspired by Futura Display.

From Top: OshanDeco by Wataru (Wataru Aiso), ginevra’s typewriter by swash.buckler, (the third typeface in this sample sadly seems to have been deleted from FontStruct since I downloaded it. I think it’s great), strawberry by time.peace.

– A second breakfast decofest in the form of four diverse and perfectly-executed deco designs.

Twenties Comp SamplesFrom Top: Baardusan by Echo Heo (bluemon)ztefan eYe/FS, zergei eYe/FS and zandrine eYe/FS by elmoyenique. Pattern element from Brick Basket Rev2 by zephram (not part of competition).

Some extravagant deco geometry in Baardusan, and then three FontStructions from elmoyenique. I really enjoyed the rich back story to his entries, connecting three art and design movements which marked the 1920s – Bauhaus, Deco and Contstructivism – with their three European capitals, and with three mysterious figures appearing in a series of period photos. When the novel comes out, I will read it. With Zandrine, as with beate’s entries we’re going back into typographic history, perhaps well beyond the 1920s in this case, to Rubens perhaps?

From top: tm The XX by minimum, Russian AG by Frodo7, Twenty-tmchty by m_cm, TwenTwenty by BWM, Frunze Stencil by Frodo7

tm The XX caught the eye of our guest judge, Nick Sherman:

“I love type that pushes the boundaries of how type should work or how it even can be rendered with current digital rendering technology. This typeface does both of those things. In many typical typographic contexts of size and resolution, all the little details of the design turn to mush (the fact that there are specific instructions on how to zoom to see it properly on the FontStruct site is just one such example). But if you have the bravery to set it at gigantic sizes, you can really see how wonderfully bonkers it is. Between the underlying patterns and the variants of each letter, there is also all kinds of potential for cool effects with color and overlaid glyphs.”

Russian AG is an impeccable Rodchenko-inspired slab-serif with cyrillic support.
Twenty-tmchty is a highly conceptual interpretation of the theme – a twenty-by-twenty grid and only twenty unique glyphs covering 66(?) different symbols. So for example, one glyph is used to represent l,u,v,L,U and V. Fascinating!

Twenties Comp Samples

From top: G1 2020 Vision by geneus1, db Questura by beate, NX Chaos by Nyxo8803

Nick was impressed by G1 2020 Vision:

“This typeface occupies a spot among other halftone typefaces like Calypso, Tonal, and especially Process. I’ve always had a fondness for type that plays with halftones, and the fact that this one recreates the effect so effectively within the limitations of FontStruct is admirable. The play on the concept of 20/20 vision by creating a blurred effect is also a nice visual tie-in to the ‘twenties’ theme.”

He liked the “Mexico Olympics vibe” of db Questura and appreciated the full character set, and he also saw something special in NX Chaos:

“At first I was on the fence about including this typeface among the highlights of the ‘twenties’ competition. There were other designs that were executed with more skill, had more complete character support, etc. But I kept coming back to this one because it’s a rare embodiment of pure nihilism in the form of a typeface. It follows a style of glitchy digital graphics right to the brink of complete illegibility, as if to say: ‘Go to hell. I don’t even care if you can read this’. It’s like a font from a cyberpunk nightmare, and sometimes that’s the kind of energy you need when designing in the 2020s.”

Winners

The winners are G1 2020 Vision by geneus1, db Questura by beate and tm The XX by minimum, and, as the FontStructor’s choice, twentysomething by four. Congratulations! You will be contacted in the next few days about your prizes.

Thanks again to everyone who took part.

Happy FontStructing!

Thank You!

To our guest judge for this competition: Nick Sherman. Nick runs HEX a typographic company that makes fonts and websites. He’s a founder and designer of v-fonts.com and Fonts In Use, and art director of the Typographics design festival. Nick is a graduate of the Type@Cooper Extended Program in typeface design and has served on the Type Directors Club board of directors, the Adobe Typography Customer Advisory Board, and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum artistic board.

To our patrons – those FontStructors who support the ongoing development of the project and help make events like this competition possible.

To our generous sponsors Glyphs producers of the world’s leading desktop font editor for OSX.


12 Comments

  1. BWM

    I have had fun building my entries, and congratulations to the prize winners. I liked minimum’s tm The XX most as it was very detailed, especially the pattern that is on Í cause that looks very nice and that it kinda reminds me of flowers. I also agree with Nick Sherman’s statement on tm The XX…

    BWM — April 26, 2021 #

  2. minimum

    Well, this is a surprise. I didn’t even expect to be mentioned, let alone be declared a winner, what with so many incredible entries. What an honor! Thank you Mr. Sherman, Mr. Meek and fontstruct.com.

    minimum — April 26, 2021 #

  3. elmoyenique

    Congratulations to my dear geneus1, beate, minimum and four for the very honorable victory achieved! Congratulations also to all the others mentioned and participants. Last but not least, congratulations to the jury and Rob Meek for his dedication and for allowing us this luxurious competition. Once again it has been an exciting experience to participate! Waiting for the next Comp, yesss.

    elmoyenique — April 27, 2021 #

  4. Yautja

    Another wonderful competition, love to see the many fonts used in the samples. Congratulations everyone!

    Yautja — April 27, 2021 #

  5. Frodo7

    Congratulations to the winners and to all participants. Each year the competition is getting tougher and tougher. Even participating is a great achievement.

    A big THANK YOU to our host, Rob Meek, and our esteemed guest judge, Nick Sherman for reviewing our works.

    @geneus1: G1 2020 Vision would have been my pick because of the seamless and delicate pattern you’ve created (only visible at higher magnification). Congratulations.

    @beate: db Questura shows your effortless elegance in design. Congratulations. I really like your other two entries too. I thought db Mangold could win this competition for its technical merits. (Or db Pontus…)

    @minimum: As a dark horse in this competition, your work truly deserved recognition. I’m very happy about your success.

    Frodo7 — April 27, 2021 #

  6. time.peace

    Cheers to the well deserving victors!

    Far and away my favorite competition thus far

    time.peace — April 27, 2021 #

  7. erictom333

    I feel flattered having my half-rushed (if I had more time and dedication I would have added lowercase letters) font ranked among masterpieces.

    erictom333 — April 27, 2021 #

  8. beate

    @Rob and Nick Sherman, many thanks for the nice summary and the lovely and elaborate presentation of the results. This was another great competition! I am also totally thrilled. There are so many fascinating, impressive and fancy entries here that I just want to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone who participated. Brilliant stuff!
    @Elmo, I’m right there with you, because I’m also already looking forward to the next competition. 

    @Frodo Thank you very much, but I didn’t finish db Pontus in time ; )

    beate — April 27, 2021 #

  9. architaraz

    Thank you for organizing this, it’s always an experience to remember ;)

    Congrats to all participants and winners!

    architaraz — April 27, 2021 #

  10. blu.

    *congrats* to the winners! and *bravissimo* to all these creative fonts! there were some really beautiful ones among them.

    blu. — April 27, 2021 #

  11. geneus1

    Thank you @Rob and Nick Sherman for enabling us with another opportunity to create and share in a competitively fun environment. At this point, I enter these competitions in order to stretch myself to produce three different fonts related to the theme to ultimately compete with myself. There’s little thought of winning, but more of serving the theme conceptually, constructively, and visually. I’m glad to see the acknowledgement of the more conceptual and constructive aspects of the font designs in this competition. Great production overall from every competitor. It’s always an honor to be among this talent.

    @Nick   Thanks for your typographical incitefulness. Thanks for citing old school halftone fonts. I won the very first FS competition with my own version of Tonal.

    @minimum  Thanks for putting the extra “mental” in experimental. 
    @beate  Thanks again for the 20’s concept and your stellar renditions.
    @four  It’s like watching magic as you create big impressions in small grid spaces.

    @all  You’re all winners in my book. 

    geneus1 — April 27, 2021 #

  12. four

    Congratulations @minimum, @beate and @geneus1, your work is wonderful!

    Thanks Rob Meek and Nick Sherman, it must be getting more and more difficult to judge these competitions. Looking at the beautiful samples above, there could have been many other worthy winners.

    four — April 28, 2021 #