Reflection on Practice

by Mariko Takagi

Submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for theMaster of Arts in Typeface Design,University of Reading, 2014

gion

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Content

3 ... 1. Introduction: The starting point

4 ... 2. Warming up: Trial and Error – spontaneous designing and alienation

3. Setting the context for the project; creating a framework5 ... 3.1 Practice: the ‘Dwiggins exercise’ or reducing letters

to single components 6 ... 3.2 The Brief – setting the framework 3.2.1 Design in context: phrasing design questions9 ... 3.3 Execution of the design idea 3.3.1 Regular 3.3.2 Bold 3.3.3 Light 3.3.4 Italic

4. Japanese: The choice for the non-Latin script15 ... 4.1 Finding a Japanese equivalent for the Latin 4.1.1 Looking at references17 ... 4.2 Design process: orientation with traditional models 4.2.1 Design process of Hiragana:

Searching for new directions 4.2.2 Learning from references:

writing and lettering manuals 4.2.3 Learning from references:

typefaces that have challenged the conventions 4.2.4 Application phase24 ... 4.3 Supplements: Trial of other Non-Latin scripts

26 ... 5. Conclusion

27 ... References

28 ... Appendix

– 3 –

1. Introduction: The starting point

In the following document, I will reflect on the last ten months of learning to look at typefaces, while shifting the perspective from someone who applied typefaces in graphic design to someone who designs a typeface. This shift was one of the biggest challenges, as this change of perspective also meant learning to look at details that I thought I already knew. And beyond that, I had to understand how and why things work, and even more difficult, I had to find out how to create and control them.

When I describe to people outside the typographic community why I want to learn typeface design and why it is a highly specific area that needs training, I draw the following comparison. As a typographer/book designer, I can compare myself with a choreographer. I use existing materials (typefaces or dancer) with certain characteristics and qualities and arrange/compose them according to my ideas. In learning typeface design, I am learning how to dance. This is not an easy exercise at all. Being used to well-designed and refined typefaces (or to dancers who trained and perfected their body and movement over years, if not decades), the expectation of my own practice was very high, even while I was not yet able to visualise what was in my mind.

This reflection on practice is structured according to the challenges I faced and does not always follow chronological order. It is written from my subjective point of view.

– 4 –

2. Warming up: Trial and Error – spontaneous designing and alienation

I came to Reading without having a clear design brief for a typeface. The only vague outline for the practice-based work was to design a text typeface for multi-lingual typesetting in Latin and Japanese.

The first two months can be best described as ‘spontaneous designing’. Dur-ing this time I was searching for shapes without knowing how. I spent October doing lettering, mainly the lower-case letters ‘a’, ‘n’ and ‘d’. The sketches show my search for shapes that I find interesting enough to develop further [Image 1]. During this time, I looked at typefaces that I chose for my own design applications in the past such as: FF Scala (Martin Majoor, 1991), FF Yoga (Xavier Dupre, 2009), NN Rekja (Anton Studer, 2010), Thesis (Lucas de Groot, 1994–99) and others.

At the end of October Gerard Unger conducted a workshop. The six lower cases ‘alnopv’ had to be lettered in five styles, reflecting the keywords ‘neutral’, ‘office’, ‘home’, ‘me’ and 'one of our choice'. This exercise helped me to try out differ-ent styles within a limited time, and the approach forced me to think about different directions for design ideas beyond drawing subtle variants of one style [Images 2a–2e].

After the workshop with Gerard Unger, I carried on with the lettering for the design ‘me’ in the hope that this could be the starting point of my typeface. Although the shape of the lower-case ‘e’ was described as interesting [Image 3a], doubts arose. Trying to follow advice from tutors, on 2013.11.15 I reached a ‘dead-end’. The shapes that I had achieved by that stage didn’t please me. The design was not ‘mine’. A note of November 15 says: ‘Go back to “zero” > find what I want. Will start to sketch again.’ [Image 3b]

This first phase of designing ‘out of the blue’ had shown me that I needed a clearer outline, a brief and even more historical and contemporary references. The idea of looking at typefaces that I personally favoured didn’t help me to develop my own design style. Just following the feedback without personal reflection led me to a feeling of ‘alienation’ with my own design.

[Image 1] sketches by 2013.10.26

[Image 2a–2e] Sketches from 2013.10.29–11.01. [2a] neutral, [2b] office, [2c] home, [2d] me and [2e] my personal choice (imagining my English Bulldog Carla). Original lettering in the x-height of 5cm.

[2a] [2d]

[2b] [2e]

[2c]

[Image 3a] Digital sketch with my notes on it,

2013.11.11.

[Image 3b] Commented by Gerry Leonidas,

2013.11.15.

– 5 –

3. Setting the context for the project; creating a framework

3.1 Practice: the ‘Dwiggins exercise’ or reducing letters to single components Discussing with Gerry Leonidas the problem of the above-mentioned ‘alienation’, he gave me the following assignment to start over again, by applying a method which William Addison Dwiggins described in 'WAD to RR: a letter about design-ing type’ to design Falcon Stencils. Instead of drawing letter shapes, main five elements/strokes of Latin letters had to be drawn and defined: a long stem and a short stem, the arm of a ‘n’, the bowl of a ‘b’ and the bowl of a ‘d’. [Image 4] This exercise helped me to concentrate on the main features, such as the contrast of strokes, shapes of top and bottom serifs, width of shapes, and proportions and axes of the counters and joins. The elements became ingredients for a composition that added different flavours into one design, but at the same time they had to harmo-nise. In a second step these basic elements were combined to letters such as n, m, h, i, l, d, q, b and p. [Image 6] While the single elements were abstract and initially separated from the concept of a letter, this method helped me to concentrate more on ideas of consistency and setting up rules.

On bringing the single elements together to form letter shapes, the process of defining the design direction and writing the brief became possible. Around the same time (2013.11.26–29), my digital sketches started to show the first hints of the later typeface design of ‘Gion’. [Image 7]

In the following weeks I kept on refining shapes to find a common tone. Slowly shapes became more calm and even. Up to the start of the second semester, I focused only on lower cases and on defining and refining the Latin; only after this could I start applying my ideas to other styles, weights and scripts.

[Image 4] Dwiggins 1940: 4. [Image 5] First sketches with different tools on different paper for the Dwiggins exercise (2013.11.16).

[Image 5a] One of the sketches. A trial to intro-duce details of Japanese/Chinese elements to Latin letters. A strange combination.

[Image 5b] This attempt shows serifs without brackets, and the contrast between thick and thin, rounded triangular top serifs with a flat lower outline parallel to the baseline.

[Image 6] A print of a digital sketch that is based on assembling the single elements [Image 5b] of the Dwiggins exercise to form letter shapes. The look and feel of this direction was too tradi-tional (Old style) to me. 2013.11.24.

[Image 7] A digital version in 36 pt, from 2013.11.28.

abdeshio

– 6 –

3.2 The Brief – setting the framework (shortened version)

Positioning of the type design project/the context:The stylistic reference for my font design is the Modern faces (also called Didone or Klassizistische Antiqua). Typical characteristics of this typeface category, which emerged in the 18th century, are the light serifs (most of them with missing brack-ets), the vertical stress, the extreme contrast between thin and thick strokes (inspired by writing with a pointed nib) and the rational approach of the shapes as they were constructed by ruler, compass and grid. The visual appearance of Modern faces is often associated with elegance, consistency and rationalism. Based on the described characteristics, Modern faces are not immediately suitable for an undisturbed and continuous reading of body text. They need special typographic treatments in order to be applied as a serving typeface.

Stylistic considerations of the typeface design:The aspiration for my typeface design project is to find a solution to connect the elegance of shapes (created by high stroke contrast and special details) with a better readability, by reducing the contrast between thick and thin and introducing more variety (individual features) into the letter shapes. In this sense the typeface show some parallels to Scotch Roman or even slab serif faces with characteristics of Humanist Antiqua. This will lead to a rather hybrid style.

The typeface provides, besides the Latin alphabet, Japanese characters (the two phonetic syllabaries Hiragana and Katakana, and a selection of the Sino-Japa-nese Kanji) and Chinese Hanzi (in both versions: traditional and simplified). The choice of Modern as a stylistic reference makes sense for the selection of Japanese and Chinese as the non-Latin fonts, as there are comparable categories in the Japa-nese (Mincho- style) and the Chinese (Songti) typeface classification.

Intended field of application of the typeface:The typeface is designed to match the demands of a text typeface. The main focus of the typeface is to support and serve the content/text and provide readability. The regular, especially, provides enough space for a graphic designer to develop her/his own design. Therefore the regular intentionally does not have a too strong or out-spoken visual impact.

– 7 –

[Image 8] Stiletto by Stéphane Elbaz, 2008. This typeface in the style of Modern faces was designed as a display font for the applica-tion in world of fashion (Levée 2012: 48–51).

[Image 10] Each Hiragana and Katakana is shown in 120 font variants on one double-page spread. The image shows the Hiragana ぬ. (Idea Editorial Department 2012: 51–52).

[Image 11] The history of the Shiseido font began in 1916 with lettering. This display font challenges conventions in Japanese type design (http://bm.anddna.net/shiseido-font/ (2014.07.05)).

[Image 9] Ian Party designed this Modern face ‘L'Officiel’ in 2011. It is designed for the fashion magazine ‘L'Officiel’ (Levée 2012: 86–88).

[Image 12] William Miller's New Pica Roman No. 2, as shown in 1813. William Miller, A specimen of printing types. Edinburgh, 1822 (Source: Mosley 2007).

[Image 14] Karloff by Peter Biľak in 2010. Is Karloff a font family? This conceptual type design project by Biľak approaches the idea of a family in a different way, by creating two opposing styles as a mental bracket: the Positive (also Beauty, a Modern face very close to Bodoni), the Negative (Ugliness, inspired by Five-Line-Pica Italian) and in between, the Neutral (https://www.typo-theque.com/blog/beauty_and_ugliness (2014.07.07)).

[Image 13] Miller designed by Matthew Carter is said to be a revival of the Scotch Roman. (http://blog.webtype.com/?p=4300 (2014.07.07))

– 8 –

3.2.1 Design in context: phrasing design questionsFraming the outline of this project raised general questions regarding the position-ing of this design within the context of existing typefaces. What will be the contri-bution of this design? ‘To reinvent the wheel’ in typeface design was not an option, and the diversity of existing Latin fonts would suggest that any purely stylistic experiments had been done most probably by some one else already [Image 8–11].

Nevertheless, one of my aspirations was to design a Latin that visually refers to the Modern faces but escapes from a sole application as a display font. This font should connect form and function – the elegance of a Modern face with legibility/readability. To find the balance became one of the main tasks.1

Another consideration was the definition of the font family. I planned to design different weights and styles. Besides the regular, I intended to design an italic, a light and a bold. This raised the question of whether the italic and the two weights should be positioned as variants of the regular or whether they could contribute different ‘tonalities’ to the design.2

Where I still saw a niche was in the consideration of the relationship between my design for the Latin and the Japanese within the context of a typeface family. While the Mincho style is regarded as an equivalent to the Latin Modern faces, I had started to question this comparison in the case of the design conventions for Hiraga-na. Unlike Kanji and Katakana, which are classified as Modern, Hiragana characters still reflect the dynamic of handwriting [Image 15–16]. This issue became one area of experimentation in my design.

1 Through the assignment of writing a research paper about a type revival, I became aware of Scotch Roman faces in general and in particular of Miller Text (first published in 1995), a Scotch revival by Matthew Carter. Scotch Roman faces have their origin in the Modern faces, but show a progres-sion of details in a slightly lower stroke contrast and bracketed serifs to meet the requirements of enhanced readability [Images 12 and 13]. The common application area is in newspaper design. The study of Scotch Roman helped me in the late stage of the design for the Latin when reviewing my design decisions and refining details.

2 The approach by Biľak for Karloff was interesting to me, but for my project, I needed a more subtle differentiation between the styles and weights [Image 14].

[Image 15] The double-page spread shows Hiragana (left page), Katakana (top right) and some Kanji set in the corporate font (a Mincho face) of the daily newspaper Asahi Shinbun (Kuwayama 1969: 70–71).

[Image 16] The double-page spread shows sample texts in different commonly used Mincho styles. The examples show that the design of Hiragana sets the main tonality for a typeface. The differences between the Kanjis are rather subtle (Saikusa 2009: 14–15).

– 9 –

3.3 Execution of the design ideaAfter making the decision to design a typeface of the Modern classification, a few parameters were set, such as: the vertical axis of counters, the requirement of a clear contrast between thin and thick strokes, the perpendicular stress of strokes and a rather static style. But beyond this set of general design decisions, certain elements, shapes and stroke behaviour had to be defined to give the typeface an identity. The images above [Images 17a–d] visualise the trial of different versions for the featuring elements.

The shape of the drop (dot or circular terminal), the transition of the stroke to connect to the drop, the shape of the bottom and top serifs, and the ear and loop of the lower-case g became the core topics for experiments [Images 17a–d].

[Image 17a] 2013.11.26–29. Sketches on tracing paper, covering the current state of the design to correct details. Considerations on the shape of drops and serifs. In this early design the shape of the drops was associated with ‘tear-drops’.

[Image 17b] 2014.01.28. Sketches made, while studying Bodoni Old Face and Baskerville Book. Trying to understand, how to connect the drop with the rest of the letter.

[Image 17b] In the open loop of the lower-case g, there was a possibility of repeating the drop.

[Image 17d] 2014.01.30. The shape of the dot and the joining stroke became a recurrent topic for a while.

– 10 –

adfershion

adfershiong

adfershiong

adfershiong

3.3.1 RegularEven after developing a main idea for the design of the regular, the intensive search for appropriate design details went on. The shape of the drops and how to join them with the stroke was a topic for many months, and almost until shortly before the submission more or less subtle refinements went on. Image 18 shows the changes in a timeline. In the latest version, the lower curve of the drop is flattened and the part facing the counter of the letter is straight and parallel to the stem. The serifs are not bracketed and have on the one side a triangular and on the other side a straight (slightly lighter) outline to add a subtle horizontal dynamic. The joins of the curve to the stem are light and deep.

DGQRET

DGQRSETZ

[Image 18] The five examples show different stages of the design, where design decisions for charac teristic details were made. The magenta circles indicate the main changes in the different versions. From top to bottom: 2013.12.03, more than one month later: 01.20, 01.30, 02.19 and the submitted version from 06.23. (36 pt)

[Image 19] The design of the upper cases started at the end of Janu-ary. The most challenging letters were the Q, S and Z. The research about Miller Text by Matthew Carter, which I started at the begin-ning of April, helped me to find a suitable tail for the Q. From top to bottom: 2014.01.28, 02.24 and the submitted version from 06.23.

adfershiong DGQRSETZ

Falsches Üben von Xylophonmusik quält jeden größeren Zwerg.

FalSchES ÜbEn von XylophonmuSik QuälT jEDEn GRöSSEREn ZwERG.

[Image 20] Pangrams set in regular, 24 pt. 2014.06.23.

– 11 –

3.3.2 BoldI started the design of the bold towards the end of January after spending almost four months exclusively on the regular. As the main direction for the design was set by this time through the regular, the design of this weight was easier. While the first versions of January show the problem of the condensed counters, as I added weight, mainly by reducing the counter space, the weight distribution became more even and balanced after May. To find the correct size and shape for the drops was an important task. Like the regular, the top serifs of the bold have a triangular shape with a flat top. However, the top left anchor of the serif is slightly moved to the right to reduce the amount and the impact of the black and to add a little sharpness.

[Image 21] 2014.01.20. One of the first prints of the bold version. Again, the drop shows a shape variation.

[Image 22] The evolution of the bold. From top to bottom: 2014.01.28; almost one month later: 02.24; 05.25 and the submitted version from 06.23.

[Image 23] Pangrams set in the bold weight in 24 pt. 2014.06.23

adhelion

adhesion

adhesion

adhesion

The quick brown fox jumps over The lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

– 12 –

3.3.3 LightThe idea for the light was born when I started to plan the design of the Japanese characters. The plan was to draw the skeleton first and add the weight of the strokes digitally. Rather out of curiosity, I tested this idea with the Latin, drawing the imag-inative skeleton on tracing paper that covered a print of the Regular. I added not only the heavy dots into the sketches but also some ink spots, imagining the some-times uncontrolled ink-flows of ball pens. Instantly, I liked the result of this playful experiment and decided to add a light monolinear weight with characteristic dark dots (as an accent and contrast to the thin lines) to it. To exaggerate the effect of lightness, I kept the letter shapes condensed. Surprisingly, the light works not only as a display face in bigger font sizes, but it is easily readable in 10 point and smaller.

The construction of the asymmetric serifs (one side triangular, the other flat and written in one continuous movement, while the triangular fold is made by the overlap of the strokes that change the direction) becomes visible when the light is shown at a bigger scale.

[Image 24] 2014.02.03. First rough pencil sketches of the idea for a ‘spotty light’.

agnes rockt

agnes rockt

agnes rockt

agnes rockt[Image 25] The evolution of the light. From top to bottom: 2014.02.21; almost one month later: 03.17; 05.27 and the submitted version from 06.23. (36 pt)

The heavy boxer performs quick walTzes and jogs.

The heavy boxer performs quick waltzes and jogs.[Image 26] Pangrams set in light, in 24 pt. 2014.06.23.

– 13 –

[Image 27] 2014.02.13. An early pencil sketch on tracing paper, covering and correcting a test print. The aim was to design an italic with a distinctive style and not just a slanted regular.

zapf geskixony

zapf geskixony

zapf geskixony

zapf geskixony

[Image 28] The five examples show different stages of the design, between February and June. Some letter shapes like the z and the y kept on changing back and forth. From top to bottom: 2014.02.13; more than one month later: 02.21; 03.19, 05.25 and the submitted version from 06.23. (36 pt)

zapf geskixony

pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.[Image 29] Pangrams set in italic, in 24 pt. 2014.06.23.

– 14 –

ATEM QREW

ATEM QREW

ATEM QREW

[Image 31] The four examples show different stages of the design, between May and June. Some experiment went to far, as the A and M in the first example and the Q in the second. From top to bottom: 2014.05.14, 06.10., 06.18. and the submitted version from 06.23.

atem qrew

3.3.4 ItalicFor the italics it was my intention to design lower cases as well as upper cases that were not just slanted versions of the upright. The italic had to be individual enough to visually stand out within the context of a text set in regular, and this differentia-tion had to be achieved not only by the slope angle or colour of text, but by different methods as well. The long and kicked-up outstrokes visually connect to the follow-ing letters and add a certain dynamic to the lines set in italic. The joinings were set lower. For most of the lower cases I removed the bottom serif (e.g. of the n, m and h) to add dynamic to the shapes. But most importantly, I defined individual shapes for the letters.

The top serifs follow the same principle as those of the regular, but just with a reversed stroke behaviour: the top serifs are triangular at the top and the lower side is parallel to the baseline.

[Image 30] 2014.05.09. Pencil sketches of italic uppercase variations, while studying a reference: Pica hairline Italic.

– 15 –

4. Japanese: The choice for the non-Latin script

The challenge for a typeface for multilingual typesetting lies in the alignment of the style between the different scripts while at the same time paying respect to the individual identity of each. The Latin letters and Japanese/Chinese characters needed to share the same tonality but still represent visually their own linguistic and structural principles. No Latinisation of the Japanese/Chinese font was intended, nor an orientalisation of the Latin font. The design concept needed to concentrate on harmonising the different scripts by keeping their uniqueness, without compet-ing with or destroying the other. Referring to Jo De Baerdemaeker’s talk at Typera-dio on 30. 01. 2011, to preserve the authenticity of a script and transfer it to a typeface can be regarded as an aspiration. ‘Each script should maintain its own identity’.

The matching of the Japanese/Chinese with the Latin was not my only challenge; one of my key considerations was the visual coherence between Hiraga-na, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana show a circular outline compared with the rather angular Kanji and Katakana. The big counters and the loops of Hiragana represent a unique structure. To match the skeleton and stroke behaviour with the other three scripts (Kanji, Katakana, Latin letters) a careful design decision needed to be defined.

4.1 Finding a Japanese equivalent for the Latin

My approach for designing Japanese began with the process by selecting and study-ing different references of typefaces. As my Latin has a proximity to Modern faces, I started the investigation by looking at Mincho typefaces.3 Mincho – or in Chinese, Songti – faces are commonly associated with the Modern style based on a static skeleton, a vertical stress, a clear contrast between thin and thick strokes (while the vertical stroke carries the weight) and triangular serifs at the right end of horizontal strokes (called uroko (fish scale) in Japanese). In a Mincho design, elements repeat and show a clear design concept that has characteristics of constructed shapes rather than of the dynamic of handwriting.

The Japanese writing system consists of mainly three different scripts4: the Sino-Japanese Kanjis (semantic characters), the Japanese syllabaries Hiragana (for native Japanese words, grammatical particles and suffixes, among others) and Katakana (for non-Chinese loanwords). Designing a Japanese font is not only a chal-lenge because of the extensive character set, but also because of the four different scripts which differ in complexity, the general principle of shape, their historical and geographical origin, and their spatial extension (Latin lower cases with ascenders and descenders, and Kanji and Kana5 are set in a square).

3 The Japanese development in typeface design for metal letters was started around 1869 by Shouzo Motogi (1824–1875) and was based on the cooperation with William Gamble (1830–1886) from the Shanghai Mission Press. Motogi developed typefaces based on Mincho faces cut at the Mission Press. Since then Mincho style has become the most commonly used style for text typefaces (Komiyama 2007: 49–124).

4 Nowadays the Latin (in Japanese Romaji) is counted as the fourth component of the writing system.

5 Kana describes both syllabic writings – Hiragana and Katakana.

– 16 –

4.1.1 Looking at referencesWhile the aforementioned features of the Mincho style apply to Kanji and Katakana (the character shapes originate in the radicals of Kanji), the design of Hiragana often stands out visually. [Image 32a-c] Compared to the rather systematised strokes and shapes of Kanji and Katakana, Hiragana characters in Mincho style still reflect the dynamic of handwriting.6

The references of the text set in 10 point also show that although there are only 46 characters of Hiragana7, they affect the appearance of a text tremendously. Hiragana represent approximately 50 per cent of the amount of characters within a regular text.8

6 Until the late 19th Century, when Motogi investigated introducing the letterpress to Japan and cutting Japanese typefaces, the printing industry relied on wood cutting. Text was set in vertical lines and Hiragana was a joining script. [Image in the appendix 3, p. 30] The clearly defined round outlines of Hiragana are courtesy of Motogi and Ikehara Kawaka (池原香穉), who not only set standards for the typeface design of Hiragana, but defined the shapes of Hiragana as printed type. Hermann Zapf compares Hiragana with a cursively written brush-stroke (‘kursiv geschriebene Pinselform’, Zapf, 1989: 134–138).

7 Compared to at least 2,500 characters of Kanji. With 2,500 characters 99.8% of an average text can be typeset. (Kozuka, 2013: 158)

8 The number is given by Kozuka (2013: 89). The editors of ‘Specimen for characters. Defining fonts by Kana’ assign even 60 to 70 per cent to Kana (Hiragana and Katakana together) within a set text. (Idea Editors, 2012:Introduction.)

永東国今愛　あいきはす　アイウ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。

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。

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。

永東国今愛　あいきはす　アイウ

永東国今愛　あいきはす　アイウ

[Image 32a] Hiragino Mincho Pro, W3, 36 pt/10 pt

[Image 32b] A-OTF A1 Mincho Std, 36 pt/10 pt

[Image 32c] A-OTF Futo Min A101 Pro, 36 pt/10 pt

– 17 –

4.2 Design process: orientation with traditional modelsTo find the correct colour for Kanji and Kana to match the Latin was one elemental aspiration. At the same time I started to develop some main design features – the shape of the ending of the stem, the foundation of the drop (or dot) shape, the behaviour of in-stroke (as well as terminal) and out-stroke and the outline of the triangular serif (uroko). Rough idea sketches from 2014.02.23 show these elements of strokes for Kanji, which can be also applied to Katakana [Image 33].

In the first lettering of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana, at the end of February, the reference to common and traditional typefaces was still strongly visible. Espe-cially regarding the interpretation of Hiragana, I saw a contradiction with my design brief and the style I wanted to achieve [Image 34]. Should I follow the Japanese ‘tradition’ and design dynamic Hiragana to come with my rather static Latin, Kanji and Katakana, or should I experiment and search for an alternative way? By quick writing of Hiragana using different tools, I tried to liberate myself from traditional and/or common restrictions [Image 35].

[Image 34] Lettering in pencil of few Kanji and two Kanas (complete set was seven

Kanji). Used later to trace the first shapes in Glyphs. 2014.02.24.

[Image 35] Quick writing of Hiragana to understand the dynamic and proportions

by early March.

[Image 33] Pencil sketches for the main elements of

Kanji. 2014.02.23.

– 18 –

永東国�今三愛 アサシス

あいうえおき . すせて .

あいうえおきはすせてめ

あいうえおきはすせてめ

あいうえおきはすせてめ

あいうえおきはすせてめ

[Image 36a] First digital sketches of Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. The style of Hiragana is still following traditional conventions. 2014.03.19.

[Image 36c] The process of adding weight to the strokes and straightening the hairlines and making them perpendicular. 2014.04.17.

[Image 36b] During the process of redrawing the shapes. Most of the characters are monolinear at this stage, as I started by drawing the skeleton. 2014.04.14.

[Image 36d] Adjusting and matching the single characters with regard to the set. 2014.04.30.

[Image 36e] In some cases, like the せ, the simplification got too strong. The shape looks almost as if it is a geometric style. 2014.05.14.

4.2.1 Design process of Hiragana: Searching for new directionsIt was mid April when I started to experiment with the skeleton of Hiragana by making them static and reducing the influence of handwriting. I started by drawing monolinear skeletons of Hiragana and adding weight to them in Glyphs to adjust and justify the weight contribution of a stroke. I have defined the characteristics for Hiragana that would meet the requirements of a Modern style (and in particular my typeface) in the following way:– straight and perpendicular strokes– position of the swelling of the round strokes is adjusted to the Latin– align the weight of the strokes with those of the Latin– reduce details of characters, unless they are crucial for legibility and readability– match the shape of terminals and serifs.

Although the foundation of the design direction of Hiragana was defined, it took more than one month to find the right shapes for the characters. It was a balancing act. The right amount of simplicity in shapes and a certain flow in the strokes had to be maintained. To keep a certain portion of stroke behaviour that originated in the movement of the writing hand was crucial to harmonising with the Latin, as the style I wanted to achieve was either geometric or display.

To find this niche, new references were needed.

– 19 –

4.2.2 Learning from references: writing and lettering manualsWhile existing digital type was one source of reference (mainly for Kanji), to further develop the skeleton and the stroke modulation of Hiragana and Katakana, I started to study manuals for writing [Images 37 and 38] and lettering [Images 39a /39b]. These materials show on the one hand order, directions and proportions (as fundamental principles) of the strokes and give explanations for them. Furthermore, the writing manuals show different calligraphic styles next to typographic characters [Image 38]. Reading these manuals, I evaluated the restrictions and the freedom for experi-ments. In other words, I found some answers to the question of the balancing act: which 'rules' I had to follow and which 'conventions' I could challenge.

[Image 37] This Japanese dictionary does not only explain the meaning of characters, but also their construction and historical and calligraphic interpretations. Miyazawa 2014: 135–136.

[Image 38] This Japanese dictionary is comparable to Image 37 but as it only concentrates on Kana, it goes into even more detail. Abo 2012: 33–34.

[Image 39a (left)/39b] This book approaches the topic of character shapes from a typographic perspective. It analyses proportions, details and alignment according to a Mincho and a Gothic (Sans Serif ) typeface. Kuwayama 1969: 32–33 and 46–47.

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4.2.3 Learning from references: typefaces that have challenged the conventions To have an idea what has been done before in a comparable style, I searched and found three examples that I will introduce in the following.

Typos The typeface Typos was designed by an alliance of four young graphic designers9 and was first published in 1962. Typos marked the cutting edge of the transforma-tion from metal letter to photo-type-setting in Japan.10 The typeface Typos was until 2008 limited to Hiragana and Katakana and could be combined with Kanji of other existing typefaces in the style Mincho or Gothic11. In Typos, the horizontal and ver-tical strokes are almost perpendicular, the counters of Hiragana look wide and the overall impression is geometric and constructed.

Typos was an important reference to understand the amount of freedom that existed for designing Hiragana and Katakana. As Typos can be classified as a geometric sans serif with high stroke contrast, it represents a different style to my project.9 Four young graphic designers formed the design group Typo: Ito Katsuichi (伊藤勝一), Kuwayama

Yasaburo (桑山弥三郎), Hayashi Takao (林隆男) and Osada Katsumi (長田克巳). Kuwayama describes a typeface in between Mincho style and Gothic (Kuwayama 1969: 108).

10 Photo-typesetting symbolises the liberation from a system that was first and foremost designed for Latin letters (with its low complexity of single letter shapes, as well as regarding the character set). In 1924 Mokiichi Ishii (1887–1963) and Nobuo Morisawa (1901–2000) took out a patent for a filmsetting machine. During the 1920s photo-type-setting was mainly applied to advertisement design. After 1957, photo-type-setting (distributed by Morisawa and Shaken) was established and became popular in Japan (Hermann Zapf 1989: 134–138). The new technology did not only change the speed of typeface design, but it also opened this very specific area to the layman (in typeface design). Graphic designers started to challenge themselves by contributing new and fresh ideas to the genre of type design. The launch of Typos in 1969 inspired other graphic designers to contrib-ute their designs. The four designers of Typos became role models proving that typeface design did not exclusively have to be done by foundries. The success of Typos encouraged the establish-ment of the Ishiisho typeface design competition (石井賞創作タイプフェイスコンテスト) in 1970. The first award went to Nakamura Yukihiro (中村征宏) for Nahru (ナール), a light rounded sans serif typeface. This encouraged even more designers to step into this area (Komiyama 2007: 121).

11 This was and still is a relatively common practice in Japanese typeface design, as it is a manageable effort to design Hiragana and Katakana, compared to Kanji. In 2008 Kanji was added to Typos and was released by Typebank in 5 weights (Saikusa 2009: 126–27).

[Image 41] Typos, containing Kanjis and Latin. Published by Typebank in 2008. (http://www.typebank.co.jp/fonts/kanjitypos/ (2014.07.06.))

[Image 40] Typos 411 (the heavier weight) presented in Kuwayama 1969: 110/111 as a ‘new style/display font’.

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SeimuThe typeface designer Yoshikazu Imada (今田欣一), who is a specialist in the design of Kana, released the typeface Seimu around the year 2000. In his design, Imada introduces typical design features of Kanji in the style of Mincho to his Hiragana. These include the triangular serifs at the right end of horizontal strokes, the shapes of defined terminals and the vertical stress. The shapes of the characters are strongly simplified and almost geometric. Seimu means ‘stardust’ in Japanese and reflects a popular style of type design in the 1950s–1960s.

As a reference, Seimu has shown me that it is acceptable to move the terminal at the top of a Hiragana stroke to the right. In comparison to Typos, it keeps more references to the movement of writing by joining some strokes, as in ふ. At the same time, owing to the high contrast between thin and thick, it looks very sparkling. The serifs at the right end of the hairlines appeared to me unnatural, as features of Kanji that had been implemented by force. (See p. 24/25 of this document.)

いろはにほへとちりぬるをわかよたれそ

つねならむうゐのおくやまけふこえて

あさきゆめみしゑひもせす

イロハニホヘトチリヌルヲワカヨタレソ ツネナラムウノオクヤマケフコエテ アサキユメミシヒモセス

[Image 42] The typeface Seimu (SDSeimu-W5/semi bold) set in 24 pt showing Hiragana and Katakana.

– 22 –

Shiseido FontFor almost 100 years (1916) Shiseido has been using a corporate style of lettering that all in-house designers have to master. It contains Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Latin. It is a display font that is mainly designed for applications in packaging and advertisement.

The typeface is an interesting mixture of different design voices. While the Latin shows a tendency to a geometric sans serif with high contrast in stroke modu-lation (and reminds me of Optima), the Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana show more or fewer hints of serifs. While the Kanji are slightly condensed, the Kana characters look big and wide. Kanji and Kana show an interesting mixture (contrasting voices) of geometry and flowing strokes. Although this typeface clearly addresses a differ-ent application than mine, it shows how to break with conventions. The Shiseido Font recently gained a considerable accolade with the TDC Tokyo Award.

[Image 43b] The set of Hiragana appears flowing and minimalistic at the same time. (http://keiosei.shuukatsu-matome.info/news/ have-you-seen-shiseidos-original-font/ (2014.07.06.))

[Image 43c] In case of the Latin (designed by Adrian Frutiger), the style can be described as a geometric sans serif with stroke modulation. (http://e-daylight.jp/design/logo/beauty/shiseido.html (2014.07.06.))

[Image 43a] An overview of Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. The Kanji in particular show a playful and decorative approach. (http://jaydechang.com/?p=310 (2014.07.06.))

– 23 –

[Image 44a] Towards the end of May when the design of Hira-gana had reached a certain level, I started to work on Katakana and Kanji again. 2014.05.25.

[Image 44b] Working on the consistency of shapes, propor-tions and details. 2014.06.12.

[Image 44c] One of the final adjustments: the change of the directions of the terminals in Hiragana to the right side to align it with Katakana and Kanji. 2014.06.27.

あいうえおきはすせてめアイウエサシスセホタト永東風母笑今国息続愛人

あいうえおきはすせてめアイウエサシスセホタト永東風母笑今国息続愛人

あいうえおきはすせてめアイウエサシスセホタト永東風母笑今国息続愛人

4.2.4 Application phaseAfter concentrating for more than one month on defining and refining the shapes of Hiragana, the characters reached a certain point where the identity and the direction became clearly visible. It was around the end of May when I started to refine the Katakana according to the parameters I had set by the design of Hiragana, and to extend the character set of Kanji. At the turn of the month I sent the Kana and Kanji to my external reviewers Yoshihide Okazawa, Sammy Or and Akira Kobayashi and kept on refining the characters until the submission of the font.

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[Image 46a] Design process of Greek letters, set in 30pt. 2014.05.02

[Image 46b] Design process of Greek letters, set in 30pt. 2014.06.20

[Image 46c] Design process of Greek letters, set in 30pt. 2014.06.23

[Image 45] Writing, lettering and 2014.05.02

4.3 Supplements: Trial of other Non-Latin scriptsDuring the 10 months of study, I have got insights into the design of several Non-Lat-in typefaces, such as; Arabic, Indian Scripts, Hebrew, Cyrillic and Greek. The insights were of different depths and although I worked for a while on the design of Greek lowercases for my typeface family, it stayed an experiment. One of the reason is, that more research would be necessary to deepen my understanding of the script, beyond looking at it from a solely aesthetic position. Without an investigation into theory, history, surveys of existing fonts (historical as well as contemporary), the relation of technology and shapes, conventions and application examples, the design would stay at a superficial level. This awareness itself, is already an impor-tant finding on its own.

αδορσυωφβθ ες ηιμ γνχλ ζξ κ πτ ψφ

αδορσυωφβθ ες ηιμ γνχλ ζξ κ πτ ψφ

αδορσυωφβθ ες ηιμ γνχλ ζξ κ πτ ψφ

حبو

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Nevertheless, the excursions to Non-Latin scripts that were unfamilier to me, provided me with some perceptions that helped me in looking at references, making decisions and finding reasoning for the Japanese font design. Here are some examples.

In a lecture Gerry Leonidas explained that the Greek lowercase letters tradi-tionally don't have the concept of serifs and therefore to add them can be regarded as a Latinisationof the script by design. This perception helped me to resist the temtation of adding triangular serifs (uroko), as they are part of Kanji in the style of Mincho, to the horizontal strokes of Hiragana.12

Not only one lecture on Non-Latin typeface design has raised the question of conventions in typeface design. This taught me to be critical about decisions that were made in the past and became a model for following typeface designs. Decisions that affect the practice of typeface design since decades (0r even centuries) can be based in technical restrictions of the time of origin of a design, in a misinterpreta-tions or even in an historical coincident, there are not inevitably related to issues of readability or best practice.13 To be critical about references and to cross-check these is an important practice in reasearch.

To design an unfamiliar Non-Latin is possible, but the unability of speaking the language or reading the writing fluently shall not confused with an ignorance against obtaining knowledge about the history, conventions and practice of the script. A research is inevitable for enhancing the design quality and not repeating unintendedly the mistakes of referred previous designs.

12 Compare to the design of Hiragana by Imada for Seimu.13 The Mincho-style (or Songti in China), today the most common group of classification for text

type in Japan, was originally a choice by the Western missionaries at the Shanghain Mission press and was introduced to Japan in 1869. At the same time in China, the Kaisho style was the more popular printing type category.

– 26 –

5. Conclusion

First at all, the whole exercise of designing a font was devoted to the process of learning. It was not about proving the abilities I had already, but about doing things for the first time and finding my personal approach to the design of typefaces. As such, I probably made more than one detour. But the experience by ‘trial and error’ helped me, by the end, to find my personal attitude towards my design questions (see p. 8).

During the process of design, I made different decisions that led to the design as it is today. One important aim was to connect form and function (an impression of Modern faces and a high readability even in small text sizes) for the regular weight. I found a balance of keeping and changing elements of the Modern charac-teristics. Treating three different weights (regular, bold and light) individually with care and adding features to distinguish them within the context of a font family, so that they became more than just a different weight, was another fundamental decision. Regular, regular italic, bold and light have elements in common and other details are unique for each style. Not applying interpolation to extend the family was related to the idea of treating the weights individually.

One of the biggest challenges was the question about the design of the Japanese character set as part of my typeface. In regard of matching a Non-Latin script to the design of a Latin typeface, Fiona Ross said once: ‘To appear to be the same it has to be different.’ (Fiona Ross, 2014.05. 27) I interpret this citation in the way, that we can't apply elements of style from one script to another without knowing the equivalent. Matching the style shall not be confused with assimilating one design of a script to another. The direction I have chosen for the design of the Hiragana is an area that I would like to explore further by practice and research. The comparison of Hiragana and Latin lower cases is a topic of interest to me, as they have similarities in their evolution and they both have a major impact on the appearance of a text. This topic will be more thoroughly examined in following research projects, where I may involve design practice as one research method.

The investigation of the Japanese references for the design of my Hiragana made me aware of a movement in the 1960s/70s in Japanese typography (see p. 20–22). The advancement of technology in photo-typesetting encouraged not only the group Typo (who designed Typos), but also other graphic designers to experiment in the area of typeface design. (Footnote 10) This provides a link to my dissertation topic, which is on the design of Kocho, the only typeface designed by Ikko Tanaka. It will be of great interest to analyse the impact of the contribution by graphic designers in the 1960s and 70s to the development of Japanese type design in particular and to typography in general.

This is not the end, but just another beginning.

– 27 –

References

Abo Naohiko, Aikawa Masayuki, Kondo Taiho (2012) How to write Hiragana. Mokuji-sha, Tokyo (阿保直彦、相川政行、近藤大鳳「ひらがなの書き方」).

Dwiggins, William Addison (1940) WAD to RR: a letter about designing type. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard College Library.

Idea Editorial Department (2012) Specimen for characters. Defining fonts by Kana. Seibundo-Shinko-sha, Tokyo (アイデア編集部「もじのみほん、仮名で見分ける フォントガイド」).

Komiyama Hiroshi: The technic of lettering: optical adjustment. (小宮山博史 「レタリングの技法ー錯視の調整」) In: Gotou Yoshirou, Komiyama Hiroshi, Yamaguchi Nobuhiro (2007) Lettering. Typography. Musabi, Tokyo. Pp. 49 – 124

Kozuka Masahiko (2013) The stories about typefaces I made. Graphic-sha, Tokyo. (小塚昌彦「ぼくのつくった書体の話」)

Kuwayama Yasaburo (1969) Lettering an Design. Graphic-sha, Tokyo.

Levée, Jean-Baptiste (2012) Lettres Type. The state of bespoke typeface design in France today. Bibliotheque Typographique, Paris.

Miyazawa Masamiya (2014) Commonly used Kanji. Dictionary for writing instruction. Nigen-sha, Tokyo. (宮澤正明「常用漢字　書きかた字典」)

Mosley, James (2007) Scotch Roman. On: http://typefoundry.blogspot.hk/2007/02/scotch-roman.html (accessed 2014.04.09)

Saikusa Yasushi (2009) Reading fonts. Type specimen book for designers. Socym, Tokyo. (七草泰史「書体を読む、デザイナーのための「文字」の参考書」)

Takagi, Mariko (2014) Hanzi Graphy – A typographic translation between Latin letters and Chinese characters. MCCM Creations, Hong Kong.

Zapf, Hermann (1989) Atlas zur Geschichte der Schrift Band 3. Ausgewählte Schrift-beispiele des 20. Jahrhunderts. Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.

Kinichi Imada: http://www.kinkido.net (2014.07.05)

Shiseido Font: http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2139684841131825401

– 28 –

Appendix 1: the character set

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.

[Regular]

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

óÔôÕõööŐőŔŕŘřŚśŞşŠšŢţŤŮůŰűÙùÚúÛûÜüŴŵẀẁẂẃẄẅŶŷŸÿÝýỲỳŹźŻżŽž

[Regular Italic]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

[Bold]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

[Light]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

[Hiragana]

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

[Katakana]

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

– 29 –

[Kanji, Sino-Japanese]

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

[Hanzi, traditional Chinese]

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, simplified 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

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

Appendix 2: Gion – a name for the typeface

The name Gion has its origin in the Japanese word ‘Giongo’1 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 perceptions 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.

1 »gi« means mimicking, »on« sound, noise and tone and »go« stands for word/term.

– 30 –

Appendix 3: Japanese printed text before and after the start of the typographic era

The two images show the same story printed once in woodblock printing during the Edo period (1616–1868) and the other typeset with metal type in the Meiji period (1868–1912).

Reference:

Kabayama Koichi: The adjustment of the Japanese script to the hot metal type. In: Kabayama Koichi (2003) Nihon no kindai katsuji – Motogi Shouzo and his contemporary. Kindai Insatsu Katsuji Bunka Hozonkai, Nagasaki. P. 442. (樺山紘一: 日本の近代活字・本木昌造とその周辺.)

Zoom of the joning characters cut in wood by the style of hand-writing. (Scale: 100% of the reference material)

The wood block print from the Edo period shows vertical line setting with joining Hiragana and few Kanji. (Scale: 55% of the reference material)

Same double-page spread set by metal type. The shapes of the characters (Hiragana and Kanji) are isolated and unified. (Scale: 125% of the reference material)