What are examples of ‘things you would do in calligraphy that you would not do in type design’? I don’t disagree with this idea — although I might phrase it in reverse: there are things you would do in type design that you wouldn’t do in calligraphy –, but I’m interested to know what sort of things you are thinking about.

Oh, and I thoroughly endorse your recommendation of Katmandu Kitchen. I never visit Reading without eating there.

Left by J Hudson on April 24th, 2007

I was thinking of things like a blind Waw or Ayn (i.e. without counters) which I find to be acceptable in calligraphic pieces but sticks out in a typeface. A calligrapher once disagreed with me regarding the fact that text needs to have an even grey and said that this is a charactersitic of the script. I generally prefer to have an even grey. Many typefaces have a flicker that gets worse with all the black spots. Maybe if it was consistently uneven it might be ok.

Also, there’s attention to how strokes move into each other, and the compensation needed for ink spreads and such. It seems to play a larger role in type design that in calligraphy. This would follow how you phrase it.

I think I should add a point: understanding the different functional aspects of type design and calligraphic artwork.

I’m glad you like Katmandu. I always order the same thing:
- popedoms and mango chutney
- their specialty: Katmandu Chicken Dry Fry (yummy…)
- rice (not steamed, the other one)
- peshwari naan

I should go to Reading some time…

Left by nadine on April 25th, 2007

The blind waw and ayn are an interesting case. I would be cautious about making a general statement that these should not be typographic forms, but I think it is important to understand why they are often inappropriate and disrupt the even ‘colour’ of typographic Arabic. I’ve been giving this some thought today, and it seems to me that the issue here is what happens to Arabic when one makes it very linear and very repetetive, as most typefaces do. In that context, the variety of stroke interaction (which is what is happening in the blind waw and ayn: the counter collapses and the stroke turns on itself) is greatly reduced from what one encounters in most calligraphy, so forms like the blind waw and ayn suddenly stand out. In other words, we should think about why these same forms do no disturb the colour of calligraphy, and I think the answer is that the greater variety of forms and stroke interactions in calligraphy create a context in which these forms become part of the colour of the text, rather than jumping out from it. This, in turn, suggests an approach to Arabic typography in which such forms might be less disruptive and could even work very well. And I don’t mean just typography that emulates particular calligraphic styles, but typography that like the calligraphy creates a varied texture in which such forms are at home.

Left by J Hudson on April 27th, 2007

Yes you phrase it very well. If un-evenness is a feature in itself then these variations would be swallowed within the ovreall effect.

The closest attempt at this that comes to mind now is the Hakim Ghazali typeface. It has these blobs that one might want to reduce but at the end works out quite nicely.

This is definitely something interesting to look into. How about the calligraphy sample that you posted some time ago? That would be fun to work on…

Left by nadine on April 30th, 2007