Some excellent pieces of research and influence I found was from another type foundry, Fontsmith. It’s Nice That and Fontsmith collaborated with three creatives from around the world to create a series called 'local characters'. The series shows how typography is created but also how it can be adapted to add personality from particular backgrounds. Similar to the Monotype brief the typography aims to broader the possibility of type and to represent a culture, community or country but instead depicts the city of the designer and the unique visuals of that certain place.
My favourite of the series was designer and illustrator Jimmy Turrell's bespoke type design inspired by Byker wall in Newcastle. I connected with this design the most as its my hometown and I'm familiar with the Byker wall so I can see the inspiration behind the type design. To summarise Byker Wall, its a council estate in the east end of Newcastle, its literally an architectural wall of housing. The estate curves around the area of Byker and was a forward thinking piece of architectural design in the 60s as the primary colour clad construction and geometric forms are a visually striking part of the east end of Newcastle. Its practically impossible to miss the Byker wall if you pass through the area but its a far cry from the ultra modern Northern metropolis it once was imagined to be.
The architect behind the wall wanted the ethos of community, care and colour to represent the design and in Jimmy's designs he highlights these ethos as influences. He exceptionally represents the culture within the wall, he used a classic brutalist typefaces then simply by using a photocopier he scanned the type to create the basis of the design. Then adding primary coloured geometric shapes which help identify the aesthetic of the wall, but what I love the most about the design is the expression of an accent. The interrupted stylisation of the type is Jimmy trying to visualise the Geordie accent, as i'm a Geordie myself I know how it leaves many people scratching their heads trying to understand whats coming out my mouth. The typeface captures the tone of the Geordie accent perfectly, as sometimes it can be a fragmented accent.
In a different approach to the series, creative director of Atlas, Astrid Stavro, tailored the Fontsmith typeface FS Sally, to represent the split personality of her birthplace, Trieste, Italy. I was intrigued to know how Trieste is 'split' and what has potentially informed the design but the city is described as a puzzle. Throughout the city, architecture and nationalities intermix lucidly, in a naturally laid back style that only the Italians can master. I would describe this typeface as a multicultural response that reflects contrast, the elegant serif typeface FS Sally resonates a tradtional Italian typeface. Then the contrasting bottom half reflects a brutalist approach I believe, this could have links to the architecture in Trieste. The typeface has a broke feel to it yet it remains graceful, again this typeface perfectly sums up a place in the eyes of the designer, something that is very inspiring.
This response reflects the atmosphere of Moscow, using the Fontsmith typeface FS Dillon to depict the insane reality of the city. Designer Anna Kulachek depicts the city as bold, busy and bright and then relates these characteristics to the cities structure, architecture, restaurants and people. Fontsmith’s typeface FS Dillon, a sans-serif font, was the perfect fit to display the strength in tone of a Moscow native. “I decided I wanted to do a really typographic poster, which would reflect both Moscow’s architecture and traffic,” Anna explains. The designer decided upon FS Dillon due to it’s linear structural elements that mirror not only the city’s architecture, but attitude too. “This typeface was the straightest of the Fontsmith fonts, it is bold, just as Moscow is.”
Looking into the Fontsmtih x Its Nice That collaboration was an excellent source of research as it almost mirrors the Monotype brief, seeing how the designers altered Fontsmith fonts assured concerns about the Monotype brief. The designers almost make it look easy to alter a typeface to help evoke a culture, I can offer this research to my group and I'm assured this will later influence my groups work.
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