Neu von Hubert Jocham: Alida Text und Display

Rund zwei Jahre arbei­tete Hubert Joacham an einer unge­wöhn­li­chen Antiqua. Es begann als einer Display-Version mit Haarlinien und feinen Serifen. Lange wusste er nicht, wie es mit den Entwürfen weiter gehen sollte. Ungewöhnlich für ihn, denn eigent­lich beendet Joacham seine Entwürfe in Rekordzeiten, weil es »Leben und Charakter in die Konturen bringt«. Doch für Alida musste er neue Wege beschreiten, und daher dauerte es weit länger als üblich.

Auf seiner Internetseite beschreibt Hubert Jocham den Prozess in großer Ausführlichkeit, noch mehr Informationen für Off-Line-Leser enthält dieses PDF.
»A sans serif is easy in one way. You have a vertical stroke that ends like a square. Most of the time the outline is even. There is not much happe­ning at the border of black and white. In the 19th century when the sans serifs got popular people called them Grotesques. Not used to the forms of the sans they might have thought, there is some­thing missing, some­thing cut away, not complete.

In the last few years I worked more on serifs then on sans serifs. One of the first things you discover when doing this, is that the spacing is comple­tely diffe­rent. The serifs and other elements create other shapes and a much more complex system of propor­tion. Many more decis­ions have to be made and many more form compon­ents have to be desi­gned and be harmonized.

For me as a desi­gner who still grew up in this German Bauhaus/HFG athmo­sphere where less was always more, this expe­ri­ence is very inte­res­ting. When your approach is always less is more you loose the ability to design complex compo­si­tions. You tend to take things out that might have been important. Don’t get me wrong. I still love sans serifs and I am working on a new one at the moment. But serifs are much more challenging.

Alida for text has got 7 diffe­rent weights with italics and small­caps and a display version with 7 weights and italics.

Aus dem Alida-PDF:

Example 1 (Leaf) with the small x-height follows classic propor­tions. The early roman type­faces from the Renaissance where struc­tured like that. The ideal of geometry shown in the Capitalis Monumentalis influenced the capi­tals and the lower case. The O, almost a geome­tric circle has a massive counter. The letter next to the O ther­e­fore needs to step away. Classic propor­tions only look good with much space inbet­ween and arround. Books with wide and open columns are the best places to be for this typefaces.

Example 2 (Voice Serif) with the big x-height follows clas­si­ci­stic propor­tions. Younger type­faces from the 18th century like Walbaum stand at the end of a tran­si­tional period that not only influence the stroke. The width of the capi­tals is more similar here. The O is narrower then a circle. Neoclassical propor­tions seem to deal with space more effec­tively. Because columns can be narrower these type­faces work best in news­pa­pers, maga­zines and as a corpo­rate typeface.