In the process of updating CemeteryWalk, I noticed that many grave markers have decorated corners, most often with a floral motif. These decorations were the inspiration for the creation of Ckornoments, a typeface family of corner ornaments. It contains 23 sets of four ornaments, for top right and left and bottom right and left. The family has two styles, solid and outline. The two styles were designed to be used in layers, but can also be used separately. In addition, the floral designs are separated into parts so that the flower can be a different color than the rest of the design.
Although they were inspired by tombstones, the ornaments can be used for purposes unrelated to cemeteries. For example, they can be used to frame a page or poster or as dividers between sections of text in newsletters.Friday, October 16, 2020
New: Ckornoments
Monday, October 12, 2020
Expanding BetterIngriana
BetterIngriana is one of several typefaces in the IngrimayneType collection that was created by blending two different typefaces. In this case it was Ingriana, an informal serifed typeface, and BetterTypeRight, a typeface with large, rounded serifs. The bold is very bold compared to the regular so an obvious way to expand the family was to create a new semi-bold style between the two existing styles. In the picture below, the new weight is shown in yellow.
BetterIngriana is available from myfonts and fontspring.Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Expanding IngrianEuroikaH
IngrianEuroikaH is one of several typefaces in the IngrimayneType collection that was created by blending two different typefaces. In this case it was Ingriana, an informal serifed typeface, and Euroika, a decorative serifed typeface with high contrast. The bold is very bold compared to the regular so an obvious way to expand the family was to create a new semi-bold style between the two existing styles. In the picture below, the new weight is shown in yellow.
IngrianEuroika is a very legible text font despite some peculiarities due to the way it was constructed.
The revised family is available at myfonts and fontspring.
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Revising CemeteryWalk
In 2018 I designed CemeteryWalk for a local cemetery-walk event. In September I thought it might be useful to add a few more images of tombstone art to the fonts, and once I started, I kept thinking of other improvements I could make. I ended up adding an alternative set of letters, reachable with the OpenType stylistic alternatives feature, as well as a set of accented characters used in various European languages. The set of alternatives takes letters from the typeface RoundWhy, which like Roundup used in the original set of letters, has reverse contrast.
As for the added images, they became a separate font, CemeteryWalk-Art. The font began with images that I had previously designed, was supplemented from ideas I found on the Internet, and was completed by designs based on tombstone art in a local cemetery. Below are some of the images that were based on images from the local cemetery. Some but not all of the pictures in the typeface have both a silhouette and an outlined form that can be used together in layers, as in the picture below.Until the early 20th century many of the images on gravestones had symbolic meaning. For example, there are two flower buds with a broken stems in the picture above. They were a symbol used on the grave of a child, a person who died before blooming. Flowers remain common on markers but now they seem to be more decorative than symbolic.