{"id":4808,"date":"2024-05-21T06:37:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T13:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/?p=4808"},"modified":"2025-01-18T04:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T11:28:32","slug":"the-numbers-competition-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/2024\/05\/21\/the-numbers-competition-results\/","title":{"rendered":"The Numbers Competition Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"fontstruct-numbers-competition-results\"<\/a>

From top to bottom: tm Strokes by thalamic, Ploeg by four, Fat LCD Font by Frodo7*<\/p><\/div>\n

Dear FontStructors,<\/p>\n

I thought we had you this time. I thought we\u2019d chosen a competition theme so fiendishly narrow, so intangible and niche, that you would surely struggle to deliver. How wrong, I was, how very wrong! With a record 82 entries<\/a> and an extraordinary display of collective creativity, you blew the judges away.<\/p>\n

As is always the case, there will be a large number of excellent typefaces \u2013 designs which might easily have won on another day \u2013 which will not be mentioned at all in this post. There are simply too many. Do not doubt that all of your efforts were admired. Congratulations to all participants!<\/p>\n

Before we review a sample of the entries and finally reveal the winners, a special thanks to our judges: type designer, communicator and digital punchcutter Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer<\/a> from our sponsors Glyphs App<\/a>, and type designer and educator Ben Mitchell<\/a> from the Fontpad<\/a>. Thank you Rainer and Ben!<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s look at some of the entries.<\/p>\n

Conceptual Approaches<\/h2>\n

Many designers came up with ingenious conceptual approaches to the \u201cnumbers\u201d theme. D3C0DR<\/a> by Gr4ftY (groan)<\/a> for example is a simple but attractive pixel serif which replaces certain alphabetical letters with numbers and symbols. It\u2019s a strong concept, rigorously pursued but not overdone:<\/p>\n

\"D3C0DR\"<\/a>

D3C0DR by Gr4ftY (groan)<\/p><\/div>\n

It took me a while to work out what was going on with Nonografia 6×6<\/a> by V. Sarela (Yautja)<\/a> I didn\u2019t know what nonograms<\/a> are, but then I installed the font and started trying to fill out the grid in my image editor (sorry I wasn\u2019t very precise with my yellow globs). Nonografia is an extremely clever take on the interface between FontStructing and puzzling, and great fun, almost like climbing inside the mind of a FontStructor at work. As thalamic<\/a> put it, \u201cThis might be the best interpretation of number competition. It only contains numbers yet it contains the letters. Brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nonografia\"<\/a>

Nonografia 6×6 by V. Sarela (Yautja)<\/p><\/div>\n

A number of entries focused on the standard numerical encoding of digital letters. As-kee r0<\/a> by riccard0<\/a> is an elegant monospaced font which includes, miraculously, an attractive microcosmic metafont showing the ascii codes for upper and lower case as decimals and binaries. Comfortably Numbers<\/a> by Peter Stanford (textgod)<\/a> has a similar flavour and a more reduced and extreme concept. All glyphs, aside from the digits, are represented by their decimal codes. Beautiful work.<\/p>\n

\"encodings\"<\/a>

As-kee r0 by riccard0 (top) Comfortably Numbers by Peter Stanford AKA textgod (last three lines)<\/p><\/div>\n

Only a few designers added numbers for non-latin scripts. Numerio<\/a> by Bryndan W. Meyerholt (BWM)<\/a> includes tamil, devanagari, some chinese numerals and many more.
\n11-Unbenummert<\/a> by Aeolien<\/a> meanwhile produced an interesting reverse take on the \u201cletters as numbers\u201d approach seen above, instead replacing her number glyphs with their full german names.<\/p>\n

\"numbersconcepts2\"<\/a>

Numerio by Bryndan W. Meyerholt AKA BWM (first line) 11-Unbenummert by Aeolien (bottom)<\/p><\/div>\n

Experimental Families<\/h2>\n

Two notable experimental families emerged from the competition: choruchor<\/a> by jirinvk<\/a>, and Stu<\/a> by faux_icing<\/a>. The dogged minimalist beauty of jiri\u2019s variations will be familiar to many from his previous work. Beneath the superficial repetition lie complex, thoughtful variations.<\/p>\n

Stu is an intriguing concept, documented in detail in this blog post<\/a> which I thoroughly recommend reading. The designer states \u201c[I wanted] to create a font family consisting of 3 styles: \u2018Hi\u2019 (all glyphs having only ascenders), \u2018Mid\u2019 (all glyphs to be strictly within x-height), and \u2018Lo\u2019 (all glyphs having only descenders)\u201d. Great work.<\/p>\n

\"Experimental<\/a>

choruchorAC18 by jirinvk, and Mx Stu Lo by faux_icing<\/p><\/div>\n

Classical Finesse<\/h2>\n

There were a huge number of entries in the competition which were simply beautiful, balanced, inventive examples of FontStructive craft.
\nBelow you can enjoy some sumptious digits from Thiny<\/a> by Peter (Petruuccio)<\/a>, 2Minutes<\/a> by frongile<\/a> and fs dotout<\/a> by moontr3<\/a>. All three have larger character sets extending beyond these digits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With 80+ designs to look at, the judges cannot download, install and try out every font in a design, but in truth it\u2019s only when you do this that a font comes alive and you hope to understand it\u2019s true qualities and potential. So, since I do need to install quite a few of the entries in order to make the samples for this post, I\u2019m lucky. There\u2019s always a rich hidden seam to discover in Beate\u2019s fonts \u2013 alternate forms, original solutions to the conflict between the grid and the bricks and the challenges of a particular letterform \u2013 endless geometrical wit. Beate has 103 staff picks<\/a> and it\u2019s no wonder. Any one of her three entries (db Number Two<\/a>, db Number Three<\/a> or db Monuck<\/a>) might have won on a different day:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From top to bottom: db Number Two by beate, db Number Three by beate, db Monuck by beate<\/p><\/div>\n

fs numberceptionist<\/a> by moontr3<\/a> consists only of digits, but they are extremely beautiful ones, with their high contrast curves and ball terminals. Very ingenious technique!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Deco Geometries<\/h2>\n

Ok, I\u2019m not sure the first of these next two is really deco, but I\u2019m struggling to categorize given the diversity of the entries, so please forgive me! numerical ext<\/a> by AidenFont is a cute, chunky pixel design, with three grooves drawn up through the centre of each glyph. Beneath that you will find the wonderful hiero’s glyph<\/a> by caterpillar’s.kimono<\/a>, one of FontStruct\u2019s deco cracks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Future Display<\/h2>\n

More tenuous categorization ahead \u2026 Three extravagant, display fonts with some kind of sci-fi, retro-futuristic reference. zombriya eYe\/FS<\/a> by elmoyenique<\/a> probably doesn\u2019t really fit here, but it had to be included somewhere. As beate<\/a> put it in the comments, \u201cThis font has the ability to bring a big smile to anyone’s face\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beneath zombriya we find STF_MARTIAN AMBASSADOR<\/a> by Sed4tives<\/a>, one of his three, exceptionally strong entries to the competition. I\u2019m not entirely sure what kind of worlds are being conjured up by this typeface, but I think I\u2019d like to visit them, or at least see the movie.<\/p>\n

Last of the three is winder<\/a> by Dmitriy Sychiov (Sychoff)<\/a> A wide, futuristic, technoid typeface with some innovative dynamic, digit designs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Color Entries<\/h2>\n

The intricate design of Solace in Geometry<\/a> is the result of Frodo7<\/a>\u2019s lifelong fascination with aperiodic tiling patterns. The genesis of the design is described in detail here<\/a> (multiple comments). This font reimagines the grid entirely. A brilliant tour de force<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Winners<\/h2>\n

Overall winner, your FontStructor\u2019s favourite, and also a first-time winner is tortoiseshell<\/a> for skhematique<\/a>. Skhematique is a unique Nouveau-tinged serif with a blueprint underlay and annotations in a characterful microcosmic font. I really can\u2019t imagine how this was done with FontStruct. Each of the 99 glyphs is a distinct work of art, but the whole is nevertheless coherent. Congratulations tortoiseshell. You have a won a free license for Glyphs 3<\/a> worth 299\u20ac!<\/p>\n

\"Skhematique\"<\/a>

skhematique by tortoiseshell<\/p><\/div>\n

Our second winner chosen by the judges is Outnumbered<\/a> by four<\/a>. Our jury said:<\/p>\n

\u2026 we were impressed by the well-balanced use of the decorative element without compromising on the shape structures. A nicely executed blend of two concepts that must have been difficult to achieve \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"outnumbered\"<\/a>

Outnumbered by four<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, our third winner is zrebmun eYe\/FS<\/a> by elmoyenique<\/a>. Our jury said:<\/p>\n

the designer managed to juxtapose the stroboscopic psychedelia with a reduced geometric aesthetic. Clever diagonal interventions in a vertical stroke order replace the usual foreground-background structure of typographic shapes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"zrebmun-eye-fs\"<\/a>

zrebmun eYe\/FS by elmoyenique<\/p><\/div>\n

Thank you!<\/h3>\n

Thanks again to everyone who took part. Thanks to whoever it was who categorized all the entries!<\/p>\n

Thanks to our generous sponsors Glyphs App<\/a>, the world\u2019s leading desktop font editor for OSX. Glyphs continues to quietly and kindly support FontStruct in 2024.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, thanks to our guest judges Rainer<\/a> and Ben<\/a>, for gifting us their time and expertise.<\/p>\n

Have an idea for our next competition theme? Please add it in the comments.<\/p>\n

Happy FontStructing!<\/p>\n

*I added the image at the top of this post as an afterthought, having forgotten that it might be a good idea to start with an image. I wondered whether I could still find three top-notch designs among those not already mentioned in this blog post. It wasn\u2019t hard at all \u2013 there was so much quality among the entries. The three designs with links:\u00a0 tm Strokes<\/a> by thalamic<\/a>, Ploeg<\/a> by four<\/a> and Fat LCD Font<\/a> by Frodo7<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear FontStructors, I thought we had you this time. I thought we\u2019d chosen a competition theme so fiendishly narrow, so intangible and niche, that you would surely struggle to deliver. How wrong, I was, how very wrong! With a record 82 entries and an extraordinary display of collective creativity, you blew the judges away. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-competition-results","category-competitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4808"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4859,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808\/revisions\/4859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}