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HERMAPHRODITOS
Posted by Ryan Maelhorn in
18 Jun 2012 — 1:46pm
18 Jun 2012 — 1:46pm
Nick Shinn - "This concept, which I would call hermaphrodite (no doubt a better term exists), of treating the upper and lower halves of a typeface (necessarily all caps) differently, seems to have originated in the 1840s. Figgins showed several styles that have this feature, including the bizarre Zig-Zag, which I would put on a par with Italian Old Style. From Gray:"
How about, "geometrically effected"?
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18 Jun 2012 — 2:37pm
What about automorphicly-linearly transformed? ;-) Interesting, but what's the need to define such a specific and local term? In these cases I can only favor the use of metaphorical designations. They taste better.
18 Jun 2012 — 3:07pm
Since architectural terminology is used for descriptors such as a single-storey 'a' and a double-storey 'g', how about "split-level" ?
19 Jun 2012 — 7:23am
“Split-level”? Why not “split-personality” or, better yet, “schizophrenic”?
19 Jun 2012 — 7:49am
Dialectic.
19 Jun 2012 — 7:55am
I don't think that's "better yet" for a number of reasons, including: http://www.everydayhealth.com/schizophrenia/specialists/does-schizophren...
19 Jun 2012 — 8:57am
I'd call them 'roofed'.
19 Jun 2012 — 10:37pm
@oldnick: I would expect a man of your seniority to know that schizophrenia has nothing to do with split personality syndromes in human psychology. Other, less informed posters in these forums have in the past made the same error. Let's correct this here and now.
Fortunately Craig posted a relevant reference---
"Does Schizophrenia Mean Split Personality?"
No!
@Té: "roofed". You mean the vertex of a gable roof?
@HVB: No. Split level involves a jarred separation of level like a stair or staircase.
@LexLuengas: What about automorphicly-linearly transformed? ;-) Interesting, but what's the need to define such a specific and local term? In these cases I can only favor the use of metaphorical designations. They taste better.
What's the need to define this? Why the heck not? You ask why do something--why *not* do it? The world does not revolve around you. This is a discussion, and you're being uncool, and that sucks. So let it go.
If you can't help it then just---leave it alone. Yeah, just forget it. It's really easy to do
20 Jun 2012 — 1:00am
"geometrically effected" would be OK for the sample. But Nick Shinn's original and later suggestions rightly cover much broader styles. Something like this, for example:
20 Jun 2012 — 2:17am
Vertically bilateral?
20 Jun 2012 — 2:23am
or heterolateral, or ambilateral
20 Jun 2012 — 3:29am
Not “half and half” either:
20 Jun 2012 — 5:03am
@Mongo:
I wanted to trigger discussion. That's an ideal scenario for creative ideas! Some threads are interesting, but stay deserted. A provocative first comment can break the silence (but can also shake the beehive).
---
Stumbled across this article when thinking about the term vertically (a)symmetric. I know, that's typography's good old can of worms... Sorry.
I looked if somebody else had posted the link to the article (Horizontal and vertical asymmetry in visual spatial crowding effects, 2007) earlier in Typophile, but was unsuccessful. Perhaps somebody has better search skills?
20 Jun 2012 — 5:40am
Would you like that in a crystal goblet?
20 Jun 2012 — 6:56am
@Mongo—
Aren't you taking this whole discussion a little too seriously? Seriously…
22 Jun 2012 — 1:35pm
@Mongo – If you mean the ridge, then yes. That line of text looks to me like it was painted over a rooftop. Erm... 'Rooftop italic' is not gunna become a buzzword for this style, is it?
22 Jun 2012 — 3:41pm
> How about, "geometrically effected"?
Or for the sample you showed, "bent".
22 Jun 2012 — 4:13pm
Bent is nice.
22 Jun 2012 — 4:34pm
23 Jun 2012 — 6:57am
Skip the first and last pics, assume the font is already horizontally level.
The A needs to be changed so that the crossbar is at or above the exact vertical center of the glyph
Select each glyph from vertical center upwards
Skew selection to 20 degrees
Select each glyph from vertical center downwards
Skew selection to - 20 degrees
(Of course I would need to see what this does to the lowercase and figures to know if it is really this simple. I'll bet some more slight modifications like what was done on the A would be necessary.)
With the exception of raising the cross bar of the A and straightening its lower legs, this Geometric Effect could be done on any font. Really it would be easy to write a function in coreldraw that take a complete font, run this effect on each glyph, and presto. Can't really say that for the Circus example.
8 Jul 2012 — 9:44pm
Chevroned.
hhp
9 Jul 2012 — 6:53am
Well I agree Nick was originally referring to faces that are 2-in-1, for which I like the term Chimera.
However for this thread I think "geometrically effected" is a fairly useful term. There are of course a lot of different Geometric effects a font can have. I can think of the rotalics, for one. http://typophile.com/node/93061 Surely there are dozens of others.
To me this term would relate to a type design that is already complete, and then taken through a simple set of transformations. So, quite possible not part of the original design ideas.
9 Jul 2012 — 7:27am
Another dialectic concept (a theme of Roemarie Tissi’s work), that also managed to be a part of the Art Deco revival, c.1970:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/letraset/sinaloa/
9 Jul 2012 — 9:12am
Chevroned sounds better than any of mine, I gotta say. *grmbl...*
9 Jul 2012 — 10:22am
Denby Chevron, by Gill Pemberton, 1960s.
The chevron pattern is a roulette, applied during turning.