To me that is beautiful : )

Texture, mystery, authority!

Michael

Now, truth be told, this style of writing is nearly undecipherable to most people, so practicality and applicability of this is rather limited to religious and historical contexts. But I just fell in love with the forms, and can't stop playing.
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Reminds me of the old joke, “in Soviet Russia, can of soup bar code’s you.”

Kind of like these, except, harder to read. Pretty anyway!

Why not adapt the idea to the Latin Script?

Nick: This is something I am still trying to decide, would a Latin version be of use to anyone, or just help propagate corny Russian-esque kitch.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Probably both. But if nothing else it's making me think. And I believe making people think is a good thing.

very lovely!

would a Latin version be of use to anyone, or just help propagate corny Russian-esque kitch.

Why not "try it and see". Anyone can have a clever idea (or kill it at the concept stage), but until you actually try and work out an idea you never know how it will turn out in reality, or what paths it will lead down. It's also my experience, having created a few oddball faces, that there's always someone somewhere who will find a use for whatever you throw down (and it will most likely be something you never anticipated); fonts are the perfect "Long Tail" product.

No, I can't, but it seems it should keep the snow from drifting onto the roads.

Cheers!

> Why not adapt the idea to the Latin Script?

It reminds me of a set of books René Knip designed for the BNO in 2002/2001.

That Vyaz style is absolutely mesmerizing!

The Barcode idea has been done before with the Latin script. But that's no reason something more decorative along the Vyaz lines couldn't also be worked out.

David -- You'd have to set it far enough back from the road to allow for the long tail, depending upon how strong the average winds are.

-- K.

Oh and I forgot to say, that stuff is completely awesome. :)

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Some additional ornaments:

BTW, let me know if any typophile wants to have their name set in this way (Cyrillified for now)
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael

Michael:

Oh... so awesome. Would it be o.k. to do a screen capture and then use it as tiling for my desktop. That o.k. with you Ivan? Or I will pay you for a tif.

If you do make a font I will buy it just to play around with it. Very cool !!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much.

Michael

How about an EPS?
Geve me your email, and I'll send it along :)
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

I've been looking around all day for a picture of the steel gate this reminds me of, but haven't found one yet. Tall iron bars and when you look very closely, they're actually letters.

I'm loving the look of this. Like Michael, I'd love to play around with it!
If you're worried about kitch: how about conceiving of a sort of mini-family that employs this same principle throughout, but whose stylistic language would range from these "traditional" shapes to a more modern aesthetic? I could see the same, exciting principle applied to non-traditional shapes.

BTW, if you don't mind, I would *love* to see my name like this!
I even have a Russian one, and a short one to boot. :-)

—Nina

Nina: I'll experiment with Latin letterforms, and see if something can be done.

Wow. This is awesome. Thank you so much, Ivan! :-)
I think this will be my new i-telephone wallpaper.

If you have time, I'd like to see how Чонсонъ (Jongseong in Russian) comes out in Vyaz' lettering. Maybe I can set your name in hangul lettering in return, though it will be difficult to approach the awesomeness of Vyaz'.

Jongseong: I'de love to see myself in hangul!

This is absolutely stunning. The texture. You get lost in it trying to decipher it.

Handpicked!

And I'd love to see Typegirl set in Vyaz. If you could. Please?

Definitely TDC material here!

Tiffany: I'll be happy to set one up, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow :)
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Thanks Ivan, that is magnificent! I like that it has a certain bit of symmetry. I'm out all day today, but I hope to have something designed by tomorrow with your name set in hangul.

Typegirl

Hi Ivan, I've put together the closest thing I could think of to Vyaz' in hangul: the stylized space-filling forms used for seals. The design below reads 이반 굴코프, or Ivan Gulkov. It's really inadequate, and as something thrown together quickly on a grid it's embarrassing to post next to your intricate designs (and now of course is when I get the idea that I should have done this on FontStruct). But hopefully you get a sense of what is possible in different writing systems.

Brian: This is really pretty, reminds me of square kufi style of Arabic calligraphy, but with a nice techno-asian spin.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Those name examples look fantastic. I absolutely positively can't read it, but it looks awesome. :)

Thank you

very much. Send your snail mail to my addie that you have and I will send you the original with both names.

Feeble in comparison : )

Michael

It's exhilarating Ivan. Beautiful.

pbc

Thanks again, Ivan. :^)

wow SO pretty, I'd really like to see a latin version, I'd definitely buy it.

- Scott

Great typeface. Great job Oprion (Ivan)!
I like them very much and I must confess that I have an interst for the Old Slavonic letters.
I'm involved in a personal project of recovering these kind of letter shapes and trying to bring them in present day typography.

I have 2 posts here on Typophile presented for critique.
If you would like to comment and help I would be delighted.
Arhaic Cali http://typophile.com/node/56778
Arhaic Geo http://typophile.com/node/56779

Thank you.

Hey Ivan, I'd love to have Chiba Chiba set in that way! :)

To me it resembles this brasilian style of straight tag Nick Sherman mentioned at the MyFonts blog a while ago:

http://blog.myfonts.com/872

Very nice!, though it will can serve as decoration only (verrrrry hard to decipher), it's a mesmerising decoration option.

Szabolcs

@Frederico

though difficult to read, this is absolutely stunning!
i think if you have the time and the will you can push it further by putting it to use.
i believe this along with other design collateral will really suit a traditional russian cuisine restaurant.

great work!

also, are you getting the references from the web, or somewhere else? I'd love to find a good online portal with lots of traditional russian vjaz, gzhel and hohloma.

Thank you very much Ivan! I luv it! :)

Victor, vyaz’ (вязь) is an ancient Cyrillic calligraphy style. There was an earlier discussion of vyaz’ on typophile.com, in view of the advanced typographic features of the OpenType technology (contextual glyph substitution on the fly).

As to Gzhel’ and Khokhlomà, those are traditional folk techniques of pottery-making and decorating, and painting wooden tableware, named after the villages they originated in.

Great work! I would like to encourage you to make it a OT font, as opposed to vector art. The technology is out there. Perhaps you can sell the design to a type foundry that would take care of the technical part?

This is such a beautiful typeface.

Would it be possible for you set 'Amanda Lynn' or just 'Amanda' in this type? I am thinking it might make a nice tattoo!

that is so seriously off the hizzle it's ridiculous. Has to be one of the most beautiful typefaces ever.

@Amanda

There we go!
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

FWIW, I got the opportunity today to take a couple of (bad) pictures of the gate that I said this reminds me of:

[Larger, on Flickr]
 
That said, Ivan, I think yours are not only more beautiful, but also more legible!

can you do my hangul name into Vyaz??
i would like to have a tattoo of it...

존 루이

@jolo09

Sorry, this only works in Cyrillic :)
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
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tnx..
can you do it then on my name?

john louie?

Certainly!

This is great stuff.

hhp

thanx so much..
youll see this on my skin nxt week..
i love it..
i'll send you a pic of this once its on my skin..
hehehe
thanks again..

@John

Ouch! Guess this isn't the good time to confess I made a typo...

Kidding.
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

haha..
thats ok with me!!
they wouldnt notice it by the way..
hehehe..
thnx again...

a latin version would familiar to a historian. some earls diplomatic charters got a similiar script, e.g.

a font could look like that:

Henricvs quintus sacrae trinitatis graria rex romanorum

Is it to late to ask for one of these? Pretty please… :)

Patrick

It's never too late to ask :)

Thanks a ton!

Patrick

I love looking at this style. It's making me blind, but I love it. I say work up latin.

Check out the Arabic at the bottom of this image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27783075@N07/4110455018
(Although frankly it's very hard to read.)

hhp

Can you, WILL you do me - Dina Lydia? THANKS!

Brilliant.

@ Dina

Catch!
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
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The above reads ‘DINALINDA’ (ДИНАЛИНДА) to me…

@Maxim

Oops, I misread the name
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
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@Dina

Fixed.
Sorry about the mess-up, I was in a bit of a hurry and misread your name.

Oh my! These are truly wonderful. I've been trying to get my hands on Russian calligraphy books for a while to learn about this kind of type but they seem hard to find (the research assistant at my university doubts their existence ...).

In the meantime, could you do my name? Thanks!

Тимофей Мотт

Books on Russian Calligraphy:
Note: this is my own attempt at translating names and titles, they might be classed under different guises in catalogs and such.

Modern Typface, Villu Toots (Современный шрифт, Виллу Тоотс) 1966
http://www.callig.ru/node/27/

The Art of Type. Selected works of Moscow book artists in 1959-1974. By our own Maxim Zhukov (Искусство шрифта. Работы московских художников книги. 1959-1974, Максим Жуков) 1977
http://www.callig.ru/node/67/

Calligraphy for all, Propenko L.I. (Каллиграфия для всех, Проненко Л.И.) 1999
http://www.callig.ru/node/4/

Basics of type graphics, Semchenko P.A. (Основы шрифтовой графики, Семченко П.А.) 1977
http://www.callig.ru/node/14/

Book hands in XVII century Russia, Kostukhina L.M. (Книжное письмо в России XVII в., Костюхина Л. М.) 1974
http://www.callig.ru/node/153/

UPD: Forgot the attachment.

Thank you!

I chose my name, in part, because it sounded like it COULD be Russian...or Greek...or almost anything.

Wonderful! Это страшно хорошо! And thank you very much for the links also.

Tim

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksherman/4146757720

hhp

Thanks to you, Ivan, I was inspired by this new (to me) form of writing, so I took out my calligraphy pen a few weeks ago to write a card to friend. Let me pass it on to everyone here: с новым годом !

(Happy New Year!)

С новым счастьем, всех благ!
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Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Here's the other russian calligraphy...

http://www.designer-daily.com/russian-calligraphy-1565

i don't know how to write essay in this fonts...