Own typeface
For this project I wanted to create a typography that is elegant and ancient. The typography would be used to add a creative personal touch to my DnD (dungeons and dragons) campaign. I play as a cleric. This is where the Celtic design can from. The fantasy and elegant part of the design came from the fact that I play as a high elf.
01
Brand background
Broad design to be used in headers
Themed
San- Serif
Words:
- fantasy
- ancient
- elegant
02
Progress & idea generation:
I started with working with flowers and ‘formal’. This was a brainstorming session.
With the fist design, I wanted to follow a san serif font and having the downstroke filled with floral patterns. The issue I found with this is that a lot of small details would get lost.
The idea with the butterfly was very aesthetic, but I soon discovered that I would have issues with kerning. As with the first idea, butterfly wings have small details that would get cluttered in smaller fonts.
With the outline lettering, it fits the theme of formal. The flowering patterns would have to be drawn for each letter and I could not find a way to incorporate it with a lower case.
Finally, the fantasy lettering really drew my attention to a darker gothic font. This is a main component later in the project.
All of these ideas did not really fit with the ancient element, nor that of fantasy, hence I moved to a new idea.
03
Progress & idea generation:
Following the idea of flowers, nature and ancient, I came across the idea of Celtic designs. This is a really fun design, but I could not seem to find a design that I could recreate. I feared that I went too deep in the issue of “stealing” a culture.
Going through more of the ancient and elegant designs, I came across architecture. These designs fit the formal theme, as well as that of the ancient. The flowery flowy part I felt very fantasy-like.
I was happy with the designs and went into illustrator.
04
Progress & idea generation:
Using a letter builder, I designed my letters. Here you can see a x-height letter, one with a descender and an ascender.
I was stuck between using pillars as the downstrokes compared to using a more organic flowery stroke. Here I compare the first few letters. I found the letters with the more flow looked more concise compared to the ridged pillars.
05
Progress & idea generation:
When I finished the alphabet I realized that the stroke was not consistent all over. So I wanted to adjust the upper case.
The issue I found with the lower case is that it would not be readable in a smaller case, so I also set out to fix that.
06
Progress & idea generation:
I started by redoing the rendering. I simplified the designs. I also filled the shapes. I changed the designs to a more flowery design as it looked neater. This helped to add to the elegant feel. Flowers are also more fantasy than the architecture feel.
07
Progress & idea generation:
Deciding on how much detail to add to the letters, it was a constant zooming proses.
The letters on the left is the final design. And the letters on the right has more detail.
The screenshot on the left is size 12, and the one in the right is 72.
This helped me decide when and where to add more details.
08
Progress & idea generation:
With that I finished the final upper case.
09
Progress & idea generation:
For the lower case I wanted to stay with the fantasy and ancient feel. I looked into versals and decided that, seeing as my upper case is super detailed, a more handwriting lower case would be suitable concise, readable.
I started by writing the alphabet a few times in different styles. In the end I decided to work with a gothic font. Mostly because it fits the ancient feel and links with my dnd feel.
10
Progress & idea generation:
From there I looked at the key points that make up a gothic font and drew them out. I drew these out and rendered them. The reason for this is to use the letter builder again, to keep with the letter sizing and consistency.
11
Progress & idea generation:
My letter building proses, showing a descender letter, x height, and ascender.
12
Progress & idea generation:
With that, my final lower case.
13
Progress & idea generation:
Finally my final font looks like the ancient writing you’d find in a fantasy book telling of monsters and adventures.