Typeface Workshop & Task - Classification of Type - Bell MT

Bell (sometimes known as John Bell) is a Scotch Roman typeface designed in 1788 by Richard Austin. After a short initial period of popularity, the face fell until disuse until it was revived in the 1930s, after which it enjoyed an enduring acceptance as a text face.

Characteristics of this typeface are:

lower case:  double storey a and g

upper case: dropped horizontal element on A, Tail on Q

other: tear drop terminal, softened edge, closed tail,



History


Bell wanted a sharply serifed face, like Didot in its contrast of thick and thin strokes, but more like Baskerville in its use of bracketed, less rectilinear, serifs. The result was the first Scotch Roman face, later described by Stanley Morrison as the first English modern typeface. After Bell's foundry was closed, the matrices came into the possession of Stephenson Blake.

The initial success of the face was short lived however, as the introduction of lithography at the beginning of the nineteenth century caused taste in typefaces to change dramatically. Thus, while Bell's type was seldom seen after 1800 in England, it went on to be come a favorite in the United States. When the Boston publisher Henry Houghton went to Europe to purchace type for his Riverside Press he selected Bell. Back in Boston the face was called copperplate.

The face should not be confused with the sans-serif typefaces Bell Gothic and Bell Contennial developed for AT&T, which are not related.

Here, I have compared the typeface to Times New Roman to see the subtle differences in characteristics. The Times New Roman is in grey and Bell is overlaid in the pink colour.




Key Characteristics

When looking at the lower case 'a', we can see that both typefaces again like the 'g' are double storey. Both typefaces have a softed tear drop terminal at the top but at the the bottom, Bell has more of a unrefined 

When looking at the lower case 'a' and 'g' you can see that both Bell Mt and Times New Roman are double storey with a closed tail. As you can see the Terminal at the top of the 'g' on Bell is more of a softened tear drop lobe where as Times is blunt and straight across.  This is the same at the baseline terminal of the 'a'. 

When looking at the Terminals of Bell MT, you can see that they are tapered serifs, which is the same as Times but in Bell's case, they appear unrefined as appose to the sharp, more refined serif's of Times. The crossbar also looks less refined than that of Times and has also been dropped slightly. 

This is the most distinctive letter in the typeface. The ‘Q’ breaks the conventions of the traditional straight tail in a serif, as you can see, compared to Times New Roman above. There are no breaks in the elements of the ‘Q’ and the difference between the thickest and thinnest strokes is high.

Double Page Spread

I then went out to lay out my DPS. I wanted to keep it simple, but contain the references and comparisons of Bell Mt and Times New Roman. I also wanted to emphasise the 'Q' in particular because this was the most distinctive letter in the typeface. I kept the information gathered neatly at the bottom of the page whilst keeping a straight layout across both pages. I experimented with a couple of variations but found that this simple layout worked the best in the end. 

I was restricted to black and white, so used the 30% grey to represent the comparisons of the Bell MT typeface with Times New Roman. 

Final DPS

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research - Si Scott

Love Si Scott's work. When i seen my work in progress it sort of reminded me of some of his work, even though his is also very different. I like the way he uses intricate lines, swirls and patterns to create these beautiful typefaces and images. He also mostly works black on white, which works the best for this style.

Source // Si Scott Studio

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Group Crit Feedback

The main thing i wanted to find out from my group crit was if i was taking the right route. Which style of font should i go for? which works best? which best describes josh as a person as well as just his hair?

Everyone in my group liked the more realistic style the best. Some things that people liked about the font was...

- The gaps left that had been created by the hair

- The seductiveness of the overall letterforms

- The realistic elements to the type

- The detail and intricate elements

- The way it works as a series (although unfinished)

I asked if my typeface was too literal, only showing what everyone would see about josh rather than his personality. I was then asked if i wanted to show Josh as a person by this, or if i wanted to include more detail about his personality? which would work best?

Overall i like the idea i have, i think it is a strong, unique idea that will work. It shows josh as a person and has a comical aspect but also with deeper meaning.

I have tried to make the font not only a literal translation of his hair, but also been influenced by other elements of his personality.

- He likes the sea and Caribbean islands, therefore i have moulded the hair to also react like waves, and think this is a natural link with the two anyway.

- He is also a chilled, laid-back character, which again is reflected in the waves and intricate wavy lines of the hair.

- He likes reggae music, which again links into both of these

- He also mentioned his family a lot, so i have taken influence from this, trying to include literal translations, roots grow and expand, much like roots of somebody's hair.

I am glad i had the chance of the group crit. It has given me  a strong idea of where i would like to take my font, and what i want my finished typeface to look like, and how this represents Josh. 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research

Looking at more hair illustrations.,looking for the different styles of drawing hair in a more 'cartoon' like style in preparation for creating a new typeface. 

Source // SPRAY GRAPHIC

Think about adding different weighted lines to emphasise different areas of the drawing, and keep the lines very disorganised, and not creating a pattern,  seems to work the best in this type of style. 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Research

Mt bingo. Illustrations. Came across these which reminded me of my font. Really nice illustratiosns made up of intricate lines, shapes and curves 

Alphabet Soup - Typeface - Font Research

For my typeface, i want it to be inspired by 'HAIR'. The reason being, Josh has lots of it. 

Here i have been looking at some 'HAIRY' existing fonts. 

Source // Behance

A font i found on the Behance Network, created from a cut up wig. I am going to be hand drawing mine, but can use actually hair/wigs for inspiration, maybe scan them in and draw from them. Really clever and nice idea, executed in this case, really well.

Another 'Hair' inspired font i found again on Behance. This font was inspired by 'Futura'. Another well executed attempt at a similar idea to the last. 

Design made from cut out paper by the same artist as the last image, Craig Ward. This isn't associated with hair but has taken inspiration from leaves and vines and is a really nice idea. 

Source // Type Nuts

More hair inspired Typeface. This time, using bows  on the end of each bunch of hair to form the letterforms. Might be something to think about before panning my own type. 

Hair Font from Nacho Gil on Vimeo.

Moving image, Hair Alphabet created by artist Nacho Gil. Really like the concept of this and how it has been executed. Obviously, my font won't be moving image, but  i will take influence from this and the movement of hair, before creating my own.

Source // Dilo Klak

Like this font alot. It is inspired by hair but has a much more illustrative feel about it than the others i have researched. Using these fine hand drawn wavy lines, the artist has built up these really nice letterforms that almost look like balls of fur.