optical illusion type

fatbob
27.Nov.2008 1.23am
fatbob's picture

Hi there,

I've been designing a font for a while and it seems to be an on/off project. Mainly because I find more and more (wacky) ways of writing it, use it as a graphic element, etc. I'm a fan of optical illusions so I tried to get this font working as a hommage to Reutersvärd and Escher. Well, I managed to get quite a bit of impossible figures into it (it's most obvious in the B), though not in all of them. My focus was the outline of the characters, I tried to still make them legible even when not filled with the 'shading'.
I'm happy with it now and actually a bit proud to have managed to squeeze a font in the most restricting three dimensional grid possible.
Enjoy!

fatbob
27.Nov.2008 2.02am
fatbob's picture

Here's an image of the font 'in action'. I've already used in on a couple of designs and got some good feedback from publishers. There's just a wee bit of a technical issues to solve (won't work in fontographer).


frode frank
27.Nov.2008 5.50am
frode frank's picture

This is amazing. Is it available for licensing?


fatbob
29.Nov.2008 10.18pm
fatbob's picture

Thanks!
So far it's not (yet) available for licensing. As I mentioned, I already have some very keen publishers, but couldn't get my head around the writing angle of 30 degrees. (They want me to sort it out...) To my knowledge, all fontdesign programs are adding the characters on a horizontal line. This font was initially made to write from top to bottom but playing with it, I found more and more interesting ways of displaying it.
I thought about writing a webapplication for it, but lack in skills. I would appreciate any ideas and/or technical hints that would help making the font available to the public.


Mark Simonson
30.Nov.2008 9.46am
Mark Simonson's picture

The easiest way to make this work as a font is to rotate everything 30 degrees clockwise so that it can work on a horizontal baseline. When using the font, rotate the text box 30 degrees counterclockwise to get the proper effect.


hrant
1.Dec.2008 2.02pm
hrant's picture

Very cool. In fact, I love it.

BTW, are you familiar with the work of Takenobu Igarashi?

hhp


fatbob
1.Dec.2008 8.03pm
fatbob's picture

Yes, I've seen some of his work, although I'm not too familiar with it (Love the Univers Revolved!).
Currently I'm planning a couple of lasercutting and -etches, but due to the optical illusions I guess it will never see the third dimension ; )
Mark, your suggestion was actually the first I stumbled upon and while you've got a point, some of the characters make the kerning too difficult. It needs to be done on a case-by case basis to make it legible. Another point is that any charakter is underneath the overlapping part of its predecessor. I don't know if fontdesign programs support layers (and are smart enough for the kerning).
At the end of the day: Is it worth to go through all this pain? I guess noone would ever use it as copytext...

It's still good to design some mastheads or other products with it. Here are some skis I designed recently:
http://www.kingswoodskis.com/home/skis-designs-klaus

P.S.: will post a picture later


fatbob
1.Dec.2008 8.14pm
fatbob's picture

The solution to the picture is:

Be soft in your practice
think of the method as a
fine silvery stream, not
a raging waterfall.
follow the stream, have
faith in its course. it
will go its own way,
meandering here,
trickling there.
it will find the grooves,
the cracks, the crevices.
just follow it.
never let it out of your sight.
it will take you.

- (quote by Sheng-yen)


fatbob
2.Dec.2008 12.51am
fatbob's picture

Here's a picture of the skis:
(sorry for the multiple posts – couldn't find how to edit an existing one.)


hrant
2.Dec.2008 6.43am
hrant's picture

Wow.
I'm starting to think that you need to bring this (I mean the font but
also stuff with the font on it) to market ASAP before somebody copies it.

BTW, you might have sorted this out already, but in terms of layering
shaded parts you should look at FF Primary as a good precedent:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/ff-primary/

hhp


Frambwaze
30.Jul.2009 8.42am
Frambwaze's picture

Reminds me of Catherine Zask's Alfabetempo
http://www.catherinezask.com/#alfabetempo/alfabetempo


fatbob
26.Aug.2009 7.24pm
fatbob's picture

Thanks for the comments.
There are some news regarding the font. The ski have been produced and the font had some exposure already. It has been published in Los Logos 4 by Die Gestalten/Berlin.
If you are keen to get your hands on a pair of the skis go to Kingswoodskis.com

The font and the ski also won one of the BeST awards 09, so I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far.

Regarding the licensing of the font: It is on Primetype's and Die Gestalten's desk so it may be up and running soon.

Cheers, Klaus


d0mino
22.Feb.2010 4.17pm
d0mino's picture

nevermind, realised this was posted in 2008!