gionby Mariko Takagi

gion

,

,

,

、

RegularRegular ItalicLightBold

HanziKanjiHiraganaKatakana

............................

a typeface design by Mariko TakagiReading, 2014

Latin, Japanese and Chinese in one font: Gion

Gion is a serif typeface for multi-lingual typesetting in Latin,

Japanese and Chinese*. As a contemporary interpretation

of Modern faces, Gion synthesises historical stylistic features

of Modern faces with characteristics and qualities that

enhance comfortable and continuous reading in longer text.

In other words, it connects elegance with functionality

– form and zweck. Gion has a gentle appearance, pays respect

to the content and leaves the graphic designer enough space

to create a visual tonality in their application.

*) simplified as well as traditional Chinese characters.

夢ゆメ

iki iki イキイキ Someone or something that is full of

energy and life.

iso iso イソイソ Can’t wait, based on joy or expectation.

Cheerful and excited.

uto uto ウトウト Feeling tired, dozing.

samu zamu サムザム Description of a cold, wintry and deso-

late atmosphere.

teku teku テクテク Walking a long distance at a steady

pace, step by step.

zuki zuki ズキズキ A throbbing pain, either physical or

emotional caused by a broken heart.

The name GionThe name Gion has its origin in the Japanese word ‘Giongo’*

for onomatopoeia, also described as mimetic words. Unlike

Western cultures, onomatopoeia in the Japanese context

are not restricted to comics or children’s speech. As well as

sounds made by humans, animals, nature, technological

devices (or any other ambient noise) and others, even percep-

tions of physical and emotional constitutions can be expressed

by ‘Giongo’. Therefore in Japanese, onomatopoeia are inherent

elements of the spoken and written language as they assign

subtle and transitory aspects a voice in the language. They are

phonetic transcriptions of emotions.

The first application of this typeface will be the second

volume of the book project »drawing with sounds«. This is a

bilingual (English–Japanese) artist’s book telling a story with

and through Japanese onomatopoeia representing the mood

and emotions – that is, the sound effects of the story.

*) »gi« means mimicking, »on« sound, noise and tone and »go«

stands for word/term.

Apple ... esprit ... tiger ... りんご ... ゴマシオ ... 女の人 ... tomato ... 時々 ...

Kinder ... Romantik ... Künstlerdorf ... formidable ... essential ...

Lokomotive ... Endlosdiskussionsstoff ... fox ... x-mas-cake ... えだまめ ...

Marcel ... loyality ... 雪女 ... なみだ ... daylight ... terminology

... 夢国 ... i-scream ... mono-linear ... regular ... regular italic ...

condensed ... drop ... period ... double ... レトロ ...

ロゴタイプ ... please ... exotic ... comma ... ambience ... 笑顔 . 顏 . 颜 ...

onomatopoeia ... Anika ... 愛 ... 今 ... 毬子 ... 小泉八雲 ... mono-

syllabic ... cliffhanger ... Roswit ... tonality ... Yasunobu ... utopia ...

acapella ... ascenderline ... エリンギ ... gimmick ... 気 . 氣 . 气 ...

� . 绮 . 綺麗 ... identity ... ゆらゆら ... Lafcadio ...

originality ... 夜 ... Rucola ... Lampedusa ... ありんこ ... 氷 ... りす ...

sufficient ... Typo graphie ... efficiency-oriented ... descenders

... semantic ... condensed ... diacritics ... systematic ...

contextualise ... elaborate ... 永 ... 息 ... 気の毒な若い男 ... コツコツ ...

つぎつぎ ... Giraffenhalsmassage ... empathy ... やれやれ ... reflective ...

elegance ... ending ... grazil ... luminescent ... 高木 ...

gion.

The familyThe typeface family provides three weights, and four styles

for Latin: a regular, a bold, a thin and a regular italic.

Gion covers the two Japanese syllabic scripts Hiragana and

Katakana and also the Sino-Japanese Kanjis. Furthermore,

traditional and simplified shapes of Chinese characters

(Hanzi) are included. Currently the Japanese and Chinese

characters are in regular weight only.

The four styles in Latin share elemental features,

in the drop-shaped endings and the asymmetric bracketless

serifs and the axis*, that demonstrate the cohesion of the

family. These features are even applied to the Japanese

and Chinese character set in an appropriate way. The four

styles share the visual tonality of a subtle genteelness

and elegance.

At the same time, peculiarities of each style contribute

to the family and suggest an individual area of application

within the context of a graphic artwork.

*) In case of the Italic, it is sloped by 10 per cent.

Kanji

light Katakana

trad. Hanzi

simpl. Hanzi Hiragana

Bold

Regular

Regular Italic

» Man muß die Dinge so einfach wie möglich machen. Aber nicht einfacher.«

Gion is specifically designed for application as a text typeface.

Design details that contribute to the easily distinguishable

letter shapes in small sizes become visible features of the

design in bigger sizes.

The asymmetric serifs without brackets, along with

the long ascenders that go beyond the uppercase height

by setting a minimum for the leading, emphasise the horizon-

tal to support the reader in keeping the line easily. The

thin strokes (hair lines) are strong enough for setting text in

small sizes, even in 7 pt.

The subtle transition between thick and thin, com-

bined with a vertical stress in the strokes, creates an even text

colour. The drops are another feature of the typeface.

Gion Regular sets the tone for the typeface family.

By Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Q R

1

2 3

4

5

6

71. The drop is one key

feature, shown in: a, b, f,

j, r, s, y and J.

2. The outline of the

asymmetric serif shows

the movement of being

written in one continuous

line and creates a triangle

on the one side. (2.a)

3. The axes of the

counters are vertical.

4. The cut of the out-

stroke is 30 degrees.

5. Top serifs are flat

at the top and show a

triangular shape.

6. Straight endstroke,

with a bracket.

7. The horizontal stroke

shows a similar behaviour

to the bottom serifs. (2.a.)

8. The tail of the

upper-case Q is inspired

by Scotch Roman.

9. The R shows a

kicked-up endstroke.

2.a 8 9

The regular

There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity...

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Regular Italic

The regular italic is not simply a slanted version of the regular.

The letter shapes of both lower and upper cases differ from

the uprights.

The long and kicked-up out-strokes and the deep

joins of the of the thin and thick do not only visually connect

the letters and enhance the line formation of the text, but

introduce a sense of speed without haste to the appearance

of the text. Overall, the colour of the text is lighter than the

regular.

3 4

1 2

65

7

8

1. Deep joins.

2. Kicked-up outstrokes.

3. The tail of the lower-

case f visualises a fluent

movement.

4. Top serifs are trian-

gular at the top and

the lower side is parallel

to the baseline. This

shows a reversed stroke

behaviour to that of the

serifs of the Regular.

5. The right top serif is

turned inwards.

6. The cut of the out-

stroke is 30 degrees.

7. The drops vary in

shape and size to match

the dynamic of the letter

shape.

8. The angle of the

stems is 10 degrees, with

optical corrections.

9. The stems of the

lower cases don’t have

bottom serifs. The ending

of the stroke is slightly

angled.

10. The descender of

the lower-case p ends

with a serif that shows an

upward dynamic in

the angle of 10 degrees.

11. Upper cases are

designed individually.

p TEZSGQRX10 11

9

Through thick and thin.

The cold does not bother me any-more.

The Bold

The Light

The stroke contrast increases strongly in the bold face, while

the strength of the hair line from the regular is maintained.

The main stroke expands in both directions, outwards as well

as inwards, so that the counters of the round letters become

upright slim ovals and the outer shapes expand to be more

circular. The shapes become darker and heavier without get-

ting plump. The bold is designed for titling and/or for applica-

tion in bigger sizes.

Unlike the other styles in this typeface family, the light repre-

sents a monolinear face with the contradiction of keeping

the emphasised dark drops. The letters of the light are mainly

an adaptation of the skeleton of the regular with slight modi-

fications to the width; to balance the size of the counter,

the letters are slightly condensed. The construction of the

asymmetric serifs (one side triangular, the other flat) becomes

visible when the light is shown at a bigger scale.

The spotty dark drops (mainly featured in the lower

cases) cheer up the sharpness of the rather vertical and strict

structure of the light strokes and create a light-hearted text

impression. This style is suitable for display application, and it

works in both small and big font sizes.

_ Bold _

1. Top serifs of the bold

are flat at the top and

show a triangular shape,

like the serifs of the regu-

lar. However, the top left

anchor is slightly moved

to the right to reduce the

amount of black.

2. The cut of the

outstroke is 30 degrees.

3. The inner bottom

serif is shortened.

_ Light _

4. The construction

of the serifs becomes

especially visible in the

light weight. (4.a)

5. The cut of the

outstroke is 30 degrees.

6. The drops become

the eye-catching details in

the context of the mono-

linear strokes.

7. Lettershapes are

condensed.

4.a

6

7

1

fgz

3

2

QSR

4

6

5

She is alone.

She has been following them the whole day long, two men – one old, the other young – through their jour-ney across the Winter Wonderland.

During the whole day the old man kept talking animatedly. Sharing the story of his life. It was the story of a long fulfilled life with challenges, a lot of joy and something that he describes as ‘love’. The young man listened to the stories carefully.

Three of them arrived at a tavern on the dot of sunset. At this time, she noticed a shift in the eyes of the two men. While the eyes of the young man caught the fire of desire*, the eyes of the old man calmed down in satis-faction. She observed this change with great interest and curiosity from a safe distance. The old man only kept one last story in his mind.

めら*) めら

JapaneseA common contemporary Japanese text contains four different

scripts: Kanji (Sino-Japanese characters), the two Japanese

syllabic writings Hiragana and Katakana, and Latin letters. In

Japanese contemporary typefaces, Latin letters are part of the

basic character set. However, the embedded Latin faces are not

always designed with the same devotion or even skill as the

Japanese characters. The design quality often diverges widely

between the Japanese character set and the Latin within one

type family. It became almost a common practice among Japa-

nese graphic designers to choose a separate typeface to typeset

passages or words in Latin letters.

Gion forms a bridge between the different scripts,

which are not only different in complexity and shapes, but

also in what they visually express.

ドン。彼は顔に夕立のように雪がかかるので眼がさめ

た。小屋の戸は無理押しに開かれていた。そして雪明か

りで、部屋のうちに女、――全く白装束の女、――を

見た。その女は茂作の上に屈んで、彼に彼女の息をふき

かけていた、――そして彼女の息はあかるい白い煙のよ

うであった。ヒュウ。ほとんど同時に巳之吉の方へ振り

向いて、彼の上に屈んだ。彼は叫ぼうとしたが何の音も

発する事ができなかった。白衣の女は、彼の上に段々

低く屈んで、しまいに彼女の顔はほとんど彼にふれる

ようになった、そして彼は――彼女の眼は恐ろしかっ

たが――彼女が大層綺麗である事を見た。 ‘The snow

woman.’ しばらく彼女は彼を見続けていた、――それ

から彼女は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私は今

ひとりの人のように、あなたをしようかと思った。しか

し、あなたを気の毒だと思わずにはいられない、――あ

なたは若いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之吉さ

ん、もう私はあなたを害しはしません。しかし、もし

あなたが今夜見た事を誰かに――あなたの母さんにで

も――云ったら、私に分ります、そして私、あなたを殺

します。……覚えていらっしゃい、私の云う事を』そう

云って、向き直って、彼女は戸口から出て行った。その

時、彼は自分の動ける事を知って、飛び起きて、外を

見た。しかし、女はどこにも見えなかった。そして、雪

は小屋の中へ烈しく吹きつけていた。サラサラ。巳之吉

は戸をしめて、それに木の棒をいくつか立てかけてそれ

を支えた。彼は風が戸を吹きとばしたのかと思ってみ

た、――彼はただ夢を見ていたかもしれないと思った。

それで入口の雪あかりの閃きを、白い女の形と思い違い

したのかもしれないと思った。しかもそれもたしかでは

なかった。彼は茂作を呼んでみた。そして、老人が返事

をしなかったので驚いた。彼は暗がりへ手をやって茂作

の顔にさわってみた。そして、それが氷である事が分っ

た。茂作は固くなって死んでいた。

�綺麗绮

�绮綺麗

Kanji and Hanzi

As well as the Sino-Japanese characters (Kanji), Gion also

provides traditional and simplified Chinese characters (Hanzi)

to allow typesetting in Chinese.

The design of Kanji and Hanzi is a complex task. As

well as the coverage of a huge character set (for typefaces in

common use, a minimum of 10,000 characters), the variation

of stroke numbers within one character (between 1 and 64

strokes) is a key aspect that needs to be taken into account

while designing the characters.

The Kanji/Hanzi of Gion stylistically refer to the

classification Mincho (in Chinese Sonti). At the same time,

stroke contrast, fundamental shapes of top-serifs and the

presence of the drops, as some features of the Latin design, are

conveyed to match the tonality between the scripts within

one family.

The three characters

aligned at the left

(one on top of the other),

show the same character

in the three scripts:

traditional Hanzi,

Sino-Japanese Kanji and

simplified Hanzi (from top

to bottom). The second

character on the right

stays the same in all three

scripts.

1. The long dot, as one

recurring element in

Kanji/Hanzi. The position,

the complexity of the

entire character and the

surrounding strokes, and

the size, shape, propor-

tion and direction will

change depending on the

element it represents. The

consistent characteristic

throughout the variants is

the straight cut of the thin

instroke and the flattened

outline (similar to the

drop in the Latin) of the

thick.

2. Triangular serifs at

the right end of horizontal

strokes.

3. The shape of the stem

ending shows a similar

behaviour to the detail in

the Latin italic.

4. Overlaps of strokes

occur wherever the space

distribution requires it.

Sometimes the overlap

is applied to connect the

different radicals to one

character.

5. The strength of thick

and thin strokes (vertical

and horizontal) is adjust-

ed to optical alignment. In

complex characters, the

stroke weight is reduced.

1 2

3 54

ないしょだよ

ひみつだよ

すこしだけ

ぼくは

くるって

いるよ。

Hiragana

The Japanese syllabary Hiragana is used for native Japanese

words, grammatical particles and suffixes, among others.

The significant characteristics of Hiragana are their round

shapes and the limited number of strokes of maximum four

per character. In common Mincho typefaces (often classified

as an equivalent to the Latin Didone style), Hiragana is still

represented with a strong coherence to hand writing and

calligraphic shapes. Unlike this, the Hiragana characters of

Gion demonstrate a visual affinity to the rather geometric

skeleton of the Latin Modern faces. The outlines and strokes

of the Hiragana are clarified and adjusted to a vertical stress.

Stroke strength and modulation are linked to the lower cases

of the Latin regular.

1. The long dot, as one

recurring element in the

Japanese character set,

refers to the shape of the

drop in the Latin.

2. The loop is another

very relevant detail of

Hiragana. The shape

of the counter refers to

the counter shapes in the

Latin regular.

3. Instrokes of the

stems refer to the shapes

of the terminals in the

Latin regular.

4. The cut of the

outstroke is 30 degrees

5. The hook stays close

to the stem.

6. The curved stroke

shows a similar weight

distribution to the equiva-

lent in the Latin regular.

3

21

4

5

6

スキナコトヲ、

スキナトキニ。

Katakana

The second syllabary of the Japanese writing system is Kataka-

na, which is assigned to non-Chinese loanwords. As Katakana

characters were originally radicals of Chinese characters,

they share the same elements and stroke behaviour with Kanji

(Hanzi), with the only difference being the reduced complexity

– fewer than four strokes create one character.

In Gion, the simplicity of the stroke and the vertical

stress of the modulation support the coherence between the

shapes of Japanese Katakana and the upper cases of the Latin,

without latinising the Japanese script or ‘japonising’ the Latin

letters. Parallel to the Latin, the Katakana characters convey

an open, clear and gentle impression.

21

1. Triangular serif

aligned to the serifs of

Kanji.

2. Instrokes of the

stems refer to the shapes

of the terminals in the

Latin regular.

3. The shape of the stem

ending shows a similar

behaviour to the detail in

the Latin italic.

4. The ending of the

downstroke to the left is

cut vertically.

5. The cut of the out -

stroke is 30 degrees.

6. Characters with

shapes similar to ‘he’ and

‘ri’ in Hiragana (6.a)

and Katakana (6.b) are

visually distinguished.

6.a

6.b

へりヘリ

4

5

3

Die Weisse Frau beugte sich tiefer

über ihn, imer tiefer, bis ihr Gesicht

ihn fast berührte. Da sah er, dass sie

wunderschön war, obwohl ihre Augen

ihm angst machten. Ein Weilchen

betrachtete sie ihn, dann lächelte sie

und flüsterte: „Ich hatte im Sinn, mit

dir wie mit dem anderen Mann zu

verfahren, aber ich habe Mitleid mit

dir, weil du so jung bist. Du bist ein

hübscher Bursche, Minokichi, und ich

werde dir nichts zuleide tun. Erzählst

du aber irgend jemandem, und wär’s

auch deine Mutter, was du heute

nacht gesehen hast, dann werde ich es

erfahren und dich umbringen! Vergiss

das ja nicht!“

その女は茂作の上に屈んで、彼に彼女の息

をふきかけていた、――そして彼女の息

はあかるい白い煙のようであった。ほとん

ど同時に巳之吉の方へ振り向いて、彼の上

に屈んだ。彼は叫ぼうとしたが何の音も発

する事ができなかった。白衣の女は、彼の

上に段々低く屈んで、しまいに彼女の顔は

ほとんど彼にふれるようになった、そして

彼は――彼女の眼は恐ろしかったが――彼

女が大層綺麗である事を見た。しばらく彼

女は彼を見続けていた、――それから彼女

は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私

は今ひとりの人のように、あなたをしよう

かと思った。しかし、あなたを気の毒だと

思わずにはいられない、――あなたは若

いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之

吉さん、もう私はあなたを害しはしませ

Lafcadio Hearn:The Snow Woman. A pact as cold as ice and a love that leads to loneliness.

The act of balancing between the two:“lonelyness” vs. “being on one’s own”.

}

{雪女}An ancient Japanese ghost story that does not lose its fascination.

mingle-mangle language versions 38 39

あいうえおかきくけこさしすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふへほまみむめもやゆよらりるれろわんをゐゑ

が ぎぐげござじずぜぞば びぶべぼだぢづでど ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ ぁぃぅぇぉっゃゅょ {Hiragana}

アイウエオカキクケコサシスセソタチツテトナニヌネノハヒフヘホマミムメモヤユヨラリルレロワンヲ

ガギグゲゴザジズゼゾ バビブベボ ダヂヅデドパ ピ プ ペ ポァィゥェォッャュョ

{Katakana}

三上中之事云人今低何作入全八出分力動口叫吉同向吹呼固国夕外夜夢大女子害小少屈屋層巳年形彼微思恐息愛戸手押振支方日明時暗書木束東棒死段殺母毒毬気氷永泉烈無煙理男発白直眼知私立笑続綺美老自若茂行衣袋装見覚語誰警起返違部酬開雪雲音顔風飛驚高麗�々

{Kanji, Sino-Japanese}

三上中之事雲人低何作入八出分力動口吉同向吹呼固�夕夜夢大女子小少屈屋�巳年形彼微思息愛手押振支方日明時暗書木束東棒死段殺母毬氣冰永泉烈無理男發白眼知私笑�美老自若茂行袋装見覺���酬閃開顏風飛驚*

{Hanzi, traditional Chinese}

三上中之事云人何作入全八出分力口吉同向吹呼固国夕夜大女子小少屈屋层巳年形彼微思恐息手押振支日明木束棒死段母毬气冰永烈理男发白眼知私笑绮美老自若茂行衣袋装觉语谁�起酬雪颜风飞惊丽鹰 {Hanzi, simplified Chinese}

*) The grey indicates those characters which are identical in the Japanese character set.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ���������� . ���������� !¡?¿”’,./:;`[\](){}‹›«»_-–—―‘’‚“”„•…�*� @#%& ɞƪⱨƣƫʈꝓʐ ÀàÁáÂâÃãÄäÅåĂăĆćČčÇçĎÈèÉéÊêËëĖėĚěÌÍÎÏÑñŃńŇ

ňÒòÓóÔôÕõÖöŐőŔŕŘřŚśŞşŠšŢţŤŮůŰűÙùÚúÛûÜüŴŵẀẁẂẃẄẅŶŷŸÿÝýỲỳŹźŻżŽž

{Regular}

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Regular Italic}

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Bold}

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Light}

Characterset and Languages

The weights, styles and set of characters, listed below represent the

current status at this time, July 2014. It is intended to continue this design

project by extending the character set of Latin, Hanzi and Kanji on the

one hand and introducing more styles (stencil, black display, light and

bold italic) to the Latin in the near future.

。.

.

.

.Acknowledgements

Thanks to Gerry Leonidas, Fiona Ross, Gerard Unger, Michael Twyman,

James Mosley, and all the visiting lecturers and the staff of the department.

Special thanks to Yoshihide Okazawa, Sammy Or and Akira Kobayashi,

who gave me very valuable feedback during the design process of the Japanese

and Chinese characters.

My deep gratitude goes to Marcel, Anika, Roswit and Yasunobu Takagi.

This specimen was submitted as partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Typeface

Design, The University of Reading, 2014.

All rights reserved by Mariko Takagi, 2014.

www.mikan.de

Credits

Illustration of the ‘snow woman’: Anika Takagi, Cologne, Germany

Photograph of the ‘man at the window’: Dirk Vogel, Dortmund, Germany

Sample text for...

Hiragana

song lyrics from UA, かなしみ Johnny

Japanese

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000258/files/50326_35772.html,

2014. 05. 14 (Japanese)

Application sample, article

Hearn, Lafcadio (1973) Yuki-Onna. In: Kwaidan – und andere Geschichten

und Bilder aus Japan. Elisabeth Schnack (translation from English),

Manesse Verlag, Zurich. Pp 80–87 (German)

Application sample, visual novel

text by Mariko Takagi

Mariko Takagi acts as an intermediary between the Western

and Japanese cultures in general – and between Latin letters

and Japanese/Chinese characters in particular. Typography is

her tool and at the same time her form of expression.

Having lived and worked as a half-Japanese and half- German

in Germany and Hong Kong, she started to write, design

and publish books about Japanese culture. As an author and

designer, she provides her readers with an insight into this

‘strange’ and foreign culture to overcome stereotypic ideas.

Gion is Mariko’s first excursion into the field of typeface de-

sign. With this initial project, she is exploring the possibilities

of joining the fundamentally different writing systems in one

font design.

美な