OUGD404 Manipulating Typeface

In our session we were tasked to manipulate one of our typefaces and change some of its characteristics. Using a scalpel I removed the serifs and used a pen to make the line weight consistent on the letters. 

I decided to use Cambria as my roman font and see how I could manipulate it. I used the letters AbxyZ because they contain an ascender, a descender, the x-height, the cap height, a bowl, and a crossbar so I could see if the manipulations would work on all of the alphabet.

Original

Removed Serifs

Consistent Line Weight 

After I had completed my manipulations I began doing the required range of letters (Aa, Bb, Cc, Xx, Yy, Zz) in regular, bold, oblique, light. 

Lowercase Regular

Uppercase Regular

Uppercase Oblique 

Lowercase Oblique 

Lowercase Bold

Digital Versions

After constructing the digital versions of my letters I started to experiment with how bold and how light they should be. By increasing and decreasing the weights of the lines in the letters I managed to get I idea of the appropriate widths.

Using the pen tool in Illustrator I traced around me scanned letters to create digital versions in light, regular, bold and oblique. 

Regular

Light

Creating a light version of the lowercase letters was fairly challenging because of the inconsistent weight the letters had been drawn at. Some parts of the letters became too thin or were still too thick, this is evident on the bowls and shapes of the counters. 

Bold

Oblique

To create an oblique I adjusted the shear of the letters forms to 12 degrees as this is a common angle to uses when creating italics or obliques. 

Regular

Light

I reduced the line weight by 5mm across all the letterforms which helped keep the font looking consistent and part of the type family I have created. 

Bold

For the bold I added 5mm to the line weight, again to make it a consistent adjustment.  

Oblique