Posts filed under “Competitions”
Dear FontStructors,
3-2-1 … FontStruct! It’s time for the latest FontStruct competition, supported this time around by our long-term sponsor GlyphsApp, the world-leading desktop font editor for the Mac.
We’re delighted to announce that type designer, digital punchcutter and communicator Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer from GlyphsApp will be joining us to help judge this competition. As well as his expert eyes, Rainer will bring with him a license for Glyphs 3 as a prize for the overall competition winner.
Scroll down beyond the image to see details of the competition brief, rules and prizes …
The Brief
We would like you to build one or more FontStructions which are somehow connected to our competition theme: “Numbers”.
As always, please do interpret the theme as loosely, literally or figuratively as you wish – it’s there only to inspire, not to confine, although we do expect all entries to contain glyphs representing the numerals 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9. Also note that the image above is only for decorative purposes. It doesn’t indicate expectations, or prescribe a direction.
Competition Time Period
Thursday, 18th April 2024 – Friday 10th May, 2024
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission must contain the digits 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 18th April 2024 and 10th May, 2024. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 10th May, 2024 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 18th May 2024 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “NumbersComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “NumbersComp” tag will be awarded a Staff Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “NumbersComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction. (but it needs to be downloadable!)
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by FontStruct staff between May 11th and May 18th.
Three prizewinners will be chosen.
One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite*.
One winner will be a ‘newcomer’ – i.e. someone who has never won a FontStruction competition prize in the past.
One winner will be chosen as an overall winner (this overall winner could be either the “FontStructor’s Favourite” or the “Newcomer”.)
Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Tuesday May 18th 2024.
Prizes
The overall winner will receive a full license for Glyphs 3.
The other two winners can choose to receive either a T-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice, or one year’s free “patron” status on FontStruct.
*FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the highest number of legitimate favourites (yes we check!) at 11pm PST on 10th May 2024 will be the FontStructor’s Favorite and one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
FontStruct on four.
Uno, due, tre, quattro …
FontStruct would like to heartily thank our principal sponsor Glyphs and our many FS Patrons for supporting FontStruct.
Dear FontStructors,
The “Heavy” competition has ended and, once again, the staff at FontStruct Towers were overwhelmed by your creativity. Sixty amazing entries! I hope that everyone had fun taking part, and took pleasure in designing and sharing your work. I’m only sorry that we will feature only a few FontStructions in this post.
With judging a more daunting prospect than ever, we sought and found the assistance of a genuine typographical heavyweight. As well as being the managing editor at Fonts in Use and founding partner of design agency Kaune & Hardwig, Florian Hardwig has been a FontStruct supporter since its earliest days. (Of our 2.1 million+ registrations, he is number 99!) He’s also used FontStruct as a tool in his teaching practice in the past, even smuggling FontStruct right into the Bauhaus Archive itself!
Without further ado, Florian’s favourites:
Winner #1 db HeavyLight by beate
Florian wrote:
I’m fond of FontStructions that embrace the limitations of the grid and explore an idea without dialing up the resolution endlessly. db HeavyLight is a great example. The square glyphs with their monospaced width and unconventional weight distribution seem to channel the lettering made by Chris Lebeau in the 1920s. In their playfulness, they also remind me of Ben Shahn’s work. The ingenious thing about db HeavyLight is that the lowercase holds alternate caps, shown white against black. By mixing positive and negative glyphs, one can unleash a fascinating play of figure and ground, of light and dark.
Winner #2 tm about a square by thalamic
Florian wrote:
Blocky typefaces of very heavy height tend to look clunky and boring. It helps to add a dash of white, to open up the black surface a little, and also to hint at counters and stem boundaries. One clever and minimalist way of doing so is to overlay the glyphs with fine lines. In True Cross Fire and Watzlcross, two film faces from the 1970s, this resembles cross hairs. In tm About a Square I see a more peaceful and pleasant analogy: each glyph looks like a gift, wrapped in paper and tied with a ribbon!
Winner #3 Metaal by four
Florian wrote:
I had a hard time deciding between Metaal and Zwaar, another compelling entry by the same contestant. In the end, Metaal’s fun and (seemingly) simple concept won me over. Basic letterforms defined by monolinear strokes for contours and counters, abutted against each other – just like we used to draw them on graph paper during lesson, while dreaming of the next festival weekend. What makes Metaal so cool is its steep angle. Together with the diagonal terminals that oscillate around the baseline and x-height, it yields a wicked look. This font is a machine for making instant band logos.
Colour Winner: KD Kalyn by architaraz
As it turned out, Florian’s choices were all monochromatic although he did admire the colour entries, picking out this one in particular. KD Kalyn by architaraz was also my favourite from among the polychromatics. It’s wonderful that it works, both as a plain single colour design, and as this chunky array of escheresque facets.
The People’s Choice
The People’s choice was Zwaar. So double well-done four!
Honorable Mentions
I seriously recommend that everyone takes a close look at each and every entry – ideally download them and try them out. But here are a few more which I particularily enjoyed:
G1 Defkhan by geneus1, cicmankaputAB4028ii by jirinvk, Moon Machine A by V. Sarela (Yautja), Tennessine Slab by Frodo7, corpus opulentia by tortoiseshell, Ailurophilia FS by Haley Wakamatsu.
Thank you!
Thanks again to everyone who took part.
Thanks to our generous sponsors Glyphs App, the world’s leading desktop font editor for OSX. Glyphs continues to quietly and kindly support FontStruct in 2022.
Last but not least, thanks to our guest judge Florian Hardwig, for gifting us his time and expertise.
Have an idea for our next competition theme? Please add it in the comments.
Happy FontStructing!
Dear FontStructors,
Finally! It’s time once more, to snatch up your finest bricklayer’s gauntlets. Prepare to grapple on the grid, and pit brick against brick, in friendly modular strife with your fellow FontStructors.
It’s time for the latest FontStruct Competition!
Brief:
We would like you to build one or more FontStructions which are somehow connected to our competition theme: “Heavy”
This theme has been suggested several times in the past, and FontStruct has always seemed to work well for all kinds of “heavy” fonts – whether in terms of simple weight, or metal.
Please do interpret the theme as loosely as you wish – it’s there only to inspire, not to confine. The image at the top of this post is there only for decoration. It does not indicate any expectations, or necessary direction.
If you’re struggling for ideas, you could have a browse through our curated set “Heavy”.
Competition Time Period
Thursday, 9th June 2022 – Friday 8th July, 2022
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 9th June 2022 and 8th July, 2022. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 8th July, 2022 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 22nd July 2022 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “HeavyComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “HeavyComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “HeavyComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction. (but it needs to be downloadable!)
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff between July 8th and July 18th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday July 18th 2022.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the highest number of legitimate favourites (yes we check) at 11pm PST on 10th July 2022 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
FontStructions in the image at the top, from left to right: Horse Power Nick by Wataru (Wataru Aiso), Vampire Nation by zephram, db cache-cache by beate, zinople eye/FS by elmoyenique and Znipped by graphicfever.
FontStruct would like to heartily thank our principal sponsor: Glyphs and our many FS Patrons for supporting FontStruct.
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.
From 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!
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.
From 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!
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.
Dear FontStructors,
It’s been a while, too long, since we last raised the gates to unleash FontStructor versus FontStructor in mortal combat.
It’s also been a while since we had a competition, so
Let the bricks be levied!
Let the grid be burnished bright and the curtains drawn!
It’s time to compete.
Competition Brief
We would like you to build one or more FontStructions which are somehow connected to our competition theme.
The theme for this competition is “Twenties” (thank you beate!). We chose it from among many great suggestions, firstly because it’s suggestive of an exciting era in typography, but also because it can be interpreted in a much broader and abstract fashion.
So please interpret the theme as loosely as you wish – it’s there only to inspire, not to confine.
– You might well be inspired by the Art Deco and modernist typography of the 1920s, but you might also choose to work on a 20×20 grid, or you could look to any aspect of our own peculiar decade for inspiration. You could turn your thoughts to the 1820s, the 1720s, or even the first XXs CE.
So, the image at the top of this post is there only for decoration. It does not indicate any expectations or a given direction. You won’t be judged on how “twenties-ish ” your design is.
If you’re really struggling for ideas, you could explore some of our curated Sets, such as “Bauhaus Inspired”, or “Art Deco”.
Competition Time Period
Thursday, 25th March 2021 – Friday 9th April, 2021
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 25th March 2021 and 9th April, 2021. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 9th April, 2021 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 17th April 2021 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “TwentiesComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “TwentiesComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “TwentiesComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction. (but it needs to be downloadable!)
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff and a guest judge* between April 10th and April 17th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday April 19th 2021.
*UPDATE: We’re delighted to confirm Nick Sherman as our guest judge for this competition. 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.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the highest number of legitimate favourites (yes we check) at 11pm PST on 16th April 2021 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
FontStructions in the image at the top, from innermost to outermost: Cabaret by blu., Half Deco by Wataru Aiso, fs When We Were Young by thalamic and Folletto AllaModa by blu.
FontStruct would like to heartily thank our principal sponsor: Glyphs and our many FS Patrons for supporting FontStruct.
Dear FontStructors,
Are you tired of looking to the past for inspiration? Feeling jaded by the present state of the world?
Perhaps it is time for something different; time to slip over into that unexplored and limitless country which borders happily on all of our heres and nows: The Future!
Let the bricks be levied …
Let the grid be burnished bright and the curtains drawn …
It is time for a new FontStruct competition.
Competition Brief
The theme of our competition is “Future”.
As always, feel free to interpret the term in any way you choose – literally, metaphorically, as tenuously as you dare … You could go sci-fi, sci-fact, techno, steam-punk, apocalyptic, retro-futuristic or utopian. Who knows what the future will bring?
If you’re struggling for ideas, you could try a FontStruct search, explore the Futuristic or Future Tags, or perhaps look at some of the curated Sets, such as “Techno”, or “Retro Computer”.
Competition Time Period
Friday, 10th April 2020 – Friday 1st May, 2020
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 10th April 2020 and 1st May, 2020. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 1st May, 2020 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 8th May 2020 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “FutureComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “FutureComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “FutureComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction.
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff and guest judges between May 2nd and May 8th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday May 11th.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the greatest number of legitimate favourites at 11pm PST on 1st May 201820 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
Fontstructions used in the image above, from top to bottom: Cosmotron by V.Sarela, STF_NEW_ENDEAVOUR by Sed4tives, Comfutur by V.Sarela and Madrona by Zephram.
Background image by Sergei Tokmakov from Pixabay.
Text from what some have called the first science-fiction novel – Lucian’s “True History”
FontStruct would like to heartily thank our principal sponsor: Glyphs .
Please remember that you can get 10% off the Glyphs desktop font editing software (OSX only) if you buy it from the FontStruct website. This is an exclusive offer and by taking it up, you will also help support the free FontStruct service.
Dear FontStructors,
Who says referendums are a threat to true democracy? In the perfect world of FontStruct, they work beautifully. Before we’ve even started, we have a winner!
The results of our recent Twitter poll:
Counter it is …
Competition Brief
Our theme is Counter: “the area of a letter that is entirely or partially enclosed by a letter form or a symbol (the counter-space/the hole of)” as wikipedia describes it.
What goes on within those little pools of nothingness inside your letters? Are they empty, or filled? Does their surface swallow all light, or shimmer or glow?
Of course you can choose any other sense of “Counter“ (arithmetical, political, military etc) if you wish. – You don’t have to pursue the typographic angle.
Potential sources of inspiration could be our sets: “Filled Counter”, or “Pattern Fill”.
Competition Time Period
Wednesday, 8th May 2018 – Saturday 1st June, 2018
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 8th May 2018 and 1st June, 2018. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 1st June, 2018 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 10th June 2018 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “CounterComp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “CounterComp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “CounterComp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction.
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff and guest judges between June 2nd and June 9th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday June 11th.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the greatest number of legitimate favourites at 11pm PST on 8th June 2018 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
Fontstructions used in the image above, from left to right: zyrup eYe/FS by elmoyenique, the pattern exchange by four, Masthead Black by oliviajohnson, tm Bulba by thalamic, Dizz by geneus1, Sleepless by four, and soundwave by escaphandro.
FontStruct would like to thank our current principal sponsor: Google Fonts
Oh FontStructors,
Will you ever disappoint? This time you were faced with what seemed, at first glance, a relatively staid and technical theme: “serif”. Nevertheless you rose to the challenge, with your inimitable imagination and energy – endlessly riffing, playing and transmogrifying to produce a magnificently rich and diverse array of 58 entries – a record haul for a FontStruct competition. Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who entered.
Judging was more difficult than ever, but, thanks to the excellent input of our guest judge beate, we finally reached consensus.
First up, and in no particular order, the four winning entrants:
G1 Radia was a unanimous choice of the judges. With it’s high-contrast strokes, ball-terminals and discreet little serifs this FontStruction genuinely radiates a curvesome beauty, although on closer inspection one also sees intriguing traces of its cruder, modular roots.
All four winners actually made multiple high-quality entries, some of which we couldn’t resist including in the samples, so below G1 Radia you can also marvel at the monumental G1 Valora – one of the serifiest serifs this side of the Pecos.
2. Hoek by four (shown in red)
Hoek was elected by the FontStruct community as the “people’s favorite” . It obviously stems from a clear and precise concept for a bevelled slab, thoughtfully executed in every perfect detail.
In fact, the judges were even more excited by the highly-inventive “elza” (the second design featured above) in which wiry strokes terminate in a questioning hook-shape rather than a traditional serif or terminal. Planetarium, also shown above, was another strong and popular slab entry.
The judges were enchanted by Cembrel B: a subtle, attractive, and eminently-usable, high-contrast serif, part of a developing new family. Nouveaumbre was another really excellent entry from yautja.
And last but not least …
A classifier’s nightmare: a slab serif concealed inside a sans! – what an innovative interpretation of the theme. Beyond the high concept, architaraz also succeeds in delivering a coherent and attractive typeface. Beneath AT Bals you can see the elegant inline ”AT Migdalia” with it’s hairline serifs.
Many, many congratulations to our four prizewinners.
Some Honorable Mentions:
– A classic serif with an unusual calligraphic twist, created on a pin-board matrix.
– A convivial, super-chunky slab-serif, given added character by the idiosyncratic snips in certain letter-tops.
– Actually I’m not sure whether this is (at least in any sense known to me) a serif, but a strong, clear design nevertheless.
– One of three strong entries from the master of the dotted font. Some really charming glyphs in this one.
– Ultra-high-contrast strokes and serifs in a stencil-flavoured entry.
– Calculated, cutout crudity. Shamelessly modular and yet also wonderfully imperfect.
This brutal disfiguration of an existing design by Sychoff came very close to a prize. Although tagged as punk, there’s also something quite primitive and ancient going on here. I can see these glyphs scratched into the base of an amphora, or perhaps arranged in the border of a mosaic. Compare the Jekyll to this Hyde.
Congratulations again to all winners, who will be contacted about their prizes in the next few days; thanks to our judges; and, most of all, thanks to everyone who took part. I look forward to our next competition.
Happy FontStructing!
Rob
FontStruct would like to thank our sponsor: Creative Fabrica – your number #1 source for premium design elements.
Dear FontStructors,
It’s time for our second competition of the year, this time on the theme of “serif”.
Competition Brief
Our theme is the serif: “a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol” as wikipedia describes it – so your designs should focus on these strokes in some way or form. Serifs come in various shapes – Old-style, Didone, Slab and others. You can use any type(s) of serif you wish in your competition entries. Perhaps you could even devise a new serif form of your own.
FontStructors specialize in extravagant and experimental display fonts, so feel free to place your serifs in the foreground – they don’t have to be small as wikipedia suggests.
For typographic inspiration, please take a look at our Serif and Slab Serif category pages.
Competition Time Period
Wednesday, 8th November 2017 – Saturday 2nd December, 2017
Competition Rules
- You must be a registered FontStruct user.
- Your submission(s) must be posted and made “public” between 8th November 2017 and 2nd December, 2017. Although you are encouraged to share your submission(s) at any time between these dates, your FontStruction submission(s) must be public (marked “share with everyone”) no later than 2nd December, 2017 at 11pm PST. Additionally, your submission(s) must remain public at least until 9th December 2017 in order to give the judges enough time to review all qualifying entries.
- Your submission(s) must be tagged with a “Serifcomp” tag. (For fairness, during the competition time period, no FontStruction with the “Serifcomp” tag will be awarded a Top Pick.)
- Your submission(s) must be downloadable. If your FontStruction cannot be downloaded, the submission will not be including in the judging.
- Your submission must be a newly published FontStruction. Simply adding the “Serifcomp” tag to an already published font is not allowed.
- For each submission, you must post at least one sample image in the comments of the FontStruction.
- No letters in each submission can be MORE THAN 48 grid squares high.
- FontStruct cloning is permitted but the judges will be looking for original work.
- You may enter up to three FontStructions to the competition.
- This is a friendly competition. Cheering, favoriting and fun banter is encouraged but cruel and uncivil behavior will not be tolerated.
- No rules regarding licensing. You may choose any license you like for your FontStruction.
Judging and announcing the winners
All qualifying FontStructions will by judged by the FontStruct staff and guest judges between December 2nd and December 9th. Three prizewinners will be chosen. One of these will be the FontStructors’ Favourite. Winners will be announced in a FontStruct Blog post on Monday December 11th.
Prizes
Each winner can choose a t-shirt printed with a FontStruction glyph of their choice.
FontStructors’ Favourite
The valid entry with the greatest number of legitimate favourites at 11pm PST on 9th December 2017 will be one of the three prizewinners.
Questions?
If you have questions just add them as comments to this post.
May the best FontStruction win.
FontStructions in header image are clockwise from the top left: db Boxer Slab by beate, Manuale Neue Bold by laynecom, one-horse town by four, zeamróg-eYe/FS by elmoyenique, Unknownim by architaraz and RM Victoriana by p2pnut.
FontStruct would like to thank our sponsor: Creative Fabrica – your number #1 source for premium design elements.
What a wonderful competition.
Yet again the FontStruct community has demonstrated its unbounded creativity in interpreting a difficult theme in diverse and original ways. I would encourage everyone to have a close look at each of the entries, many of which really only reveal their conceptual secrets and precious details upon closer examination.
While the winners are doubtlessly worthy ones, there could easily have been many, many more, so don’t be too downhearted if you didn’t win, and please pity the judges their impossible task.
Before we announce the winners,
Some Honorable Mentions:
A number of designers decided to explore reversal in the sense of symmetry. ben17’s reflection for example (above), which despite the high concept manages to be legible and strikingly attractive, or architaraz’s similarly practical and well-formed AT Imago Reversed which is also an ingenious mirroring stencil:
Also playing with symmetry and continuing a distinctive FontStruct tradition of esoteric, decorative glyph sets is “Charm Spells” by Aeolien: Every glyph a mystery, like ancient lines scratched in the desert:
“tm up dn” by thalamic is an ingenious attempt to build a usable letter set by rotating or flipping other glyphs – both a crazy catalogue of intentional mistakes, and a clever way to explore new forms:
geneus1 gave us, as so often before, several strong and original entries, including the intricately woven G1 Trushae. Chainmail? alien circuitry? noodles? I’m not sure which it reminds me of more, but everyone is invited to lose themselves in the artistry:
With “SbB Codebreaker”, Sketchbook B demonstrates that it’s possible to execute an original concept using only the simplest of materials – the pixel brick. It’s a strange and very technical FontStruction but as the designer himself notes, it has a pleasing and distinctive texture:
There were so many other great entries, equally deserving of mention, but at some point we must move on to …
The Winners
The FontStructor’s Favourite was AT Esrever by architaraz. A clear and clever concept, perfectly executed and the favourite of our community:
A favourite of both judges was the cleverly named counter culture by four which opens an intriguing orthographic window on negative space. The dot-screen shading is a lovely detail.
zelbod eYe/FS by elmoyenique is a good example of a FontStruction which doesn’t reveal its full quality at the standard sizes used to display it in the Gallery and elsewhere on FontStruct.
zelbod has to be seen at a large point size in order for the unique folding concept and fine shading pattern to reveal their beauty:
Finally, I forgot, again, to invite beate to join the judging panel for this competition, and so, with three more spectacular entries, a prize is once more heading in her direction. We chose the elegantly carved db Jojo as our favourite:
Congratulations to each of the prizewinners; you will be contacted regarding your prizes shortly.
Congratulations also to EVERYONE who participated. It’s truly a great pleasure to see all your work appearing and growing on the site.
Special Thanks
To our guest judge, Stephen Coles of LetterForm Archive, Fonts In Use, Typographica, and on fortunate occasions such as this, FontStruct.
Now it’s time to wipe off our trowels and return to our hods. There are bricks to be laid.
Happy FontStructing!
