Nowadays, with the rapid development of software and technology, C4D and AE dynamic software are widely used. We can use various materials or forms to display fonts, but the font design principles we follow are unchanged, so the foundation of font design is particularly important.
Four aspects to be mastered in font design
1. design principles
Starting from the demand, starting from the meaning, combining form and meaning.
This is the basic principle that determines the direction of font design. The essence of art is to try more possibilities, and the essence of design is to determine less possibilities. By determining the principle, eliminate some wrong options. The same font can change countless possibilities through design, which is a process from word meaning to glyph.
Easy to identify
Design should also grasp the degree, when the font can not be recognized, no matter how good the design is, others can not understand it.
(The same fused character can change into countless glyphs, and different glyphs give people different feelings about the meaning of the word. I tried this word in dozens of directions, constantly overthrowing it, and came back to find the shadow area left by this word. )
2. Center of gravity and structure
Knock on the blackboard! Focus, this is the focus and difficulty of font design.
Eric Speakman, a German font designer, once said, "What matters is not the design of the black part, but the design of the white part." Here white refers to negative space. Only when the negative space is balanced can we achieve a comfortable visual experience. Chinese and western languages are also interlinked, and the fonts and graphics are the same.
Gravity center and structure are the distribution of visual center and spatial structure of fonts. Find out where the visual center of the font is and determine the contrast between the positive and negative spaces of the strokes. Stroke can be regarded as positive space, and blank space can be regarded as negative space. The visual center will determine whether the structure of the word looks stable and offset, and the positive and negative spaces will determine the position of the strokes and the nature of the font.
In this piece of content, there are countless tutoring methods and theories on the internet, which is inconvenient for everyone to understand and learn. It's depressing to read. Here we make a simplified and easy-to-understand understanding.
Let's first understand two basic glyphs, bold and song style, which can also be called sans serif and serif.
Thick strokes are simple, uniform in thickness, and square in starting and closing, so they are also called square-headed bodies or isometric bodies. Bold characters have the characteristics of rigorous structure, solemnity, strength, simplicity and generosity. In Chinese, fonts without serif are usually called bold. The bold style is not as lively as the song style, but the visual effect is stronger, which is suitable for the positions that need to be highlighted, such as titles. (The boldface looks more like modern CCTV underpants)
Song style is characterized by square font, horizontal and vertical, thin and vertical strokes, sharp edges and corners, rigorous structure, uniformity and strong regularity of strokes, which can make people feel comfortable and eye-catching. In modern printing, it is mainly used for the text of books and periodicals or newspapers. (Song is more like the traditional Forbidden City)
The easiest way to understand is to find the center of gravity and structure of the font by comparing the basic fonts, and compare the fonts designed by ourselves with the commonly used bold characters. This method is widely used, but not all glyphs should be like this. )
In addition, the center of gravity structure has several basic rules: (the rules are for reference only, don't be rigid, or it depends on the design situation)
Font center of gravity
The non-font center is the visual center, because the human visual center is on it. Compared with all standard fonts, the center of gravity of the font is above, which gives people the most stable visual feeling.
Contrast up and down
When making some slender and elegant fonts, the center of gravity of the font is always above, and the lower part of the font is elongated. This can be seen as looking at the long legs of Jiuti Beauty or Ouba. The lines look more refined and increase the vertical space, which makes the positive and negative spaces of fonts easier to design and identify.
Thickness contrast
When making bold characters, when there is a strong sense of oppression in positive and negative spaces, we often compare the stroke thickness or the thickness of positive and negative spaces to make the structure more stable. At the same time, we can ensure the sense of design and recognition by comparing the fonts under extreme compression in negative spaces.
3. Font features
Fonts are ever-changing, and personalities are also different.
Sense of strength: Lanting Tehei, Chaogang Hei and other bold characters with small negative space. Key words: male, games, sports, key points.
Brightness: Lanting is bold with large negative space, such as fine black. Key words: female, literature and art, text, lightness.
Childishness: children's hand-painted fonts such as kindergarten and Tintin's hand-painted style. Key words: children, lively, childlike, naive, casual.
Sense of solemnity: traditional calligraphy fonts such as Song Ti and Kai Ti. Key words: rigorous, solemn, official, ancient, China, traditional festivals.
Classical and modern: serif and sans serif, modern and classical. Many English LOGO of modern international brands are based on sans serif design, but some retro movie posters still use serif.
The workload and difficulty are the biggest, and it is often necessary to make repeated adjustment attempts to ensure the natural fluency and integrity of the connection. You can draw the basic shape with a brush or on paper, then adjust the thickness, aiming point and direction, and adjust it repeatedly after unfolding.
Do you think what I shared is not detailed enough? However, if the above contents are explained in detail, it will be endless, so we only do basic system cognition, so that we can organize in-depth study according to this system later, so I won't go into details here. It's a good thing to some extent. I believe you will use it.
But after all, you can't avoid practicing calligraphy. Font design will have more personal understanding and style, which is more like an ever-changing painting method, which is completely different from software learning, so this skill doesn't take three to five minutes to crash, otherwise the excellent works of font design websites will multiply.