Digital development of numbers

Digital development of numbers

Took my rough sketches into the digital development stage inspired by the shapes, angles, linear elements and overall industrial solid aesthetic of the studio. 

Took basic influence for the typeface from how the condensed, long, square window frames sit within the studio. This will influence how my numbers sit within the rest of my design layout.

Getting the basic structure of the glyphs down was pretty straight forward, although overall I narrowed the width of each glyph down a bit compared to the sketches . And attempted to create a monotype style anatomy in terms of a constant width of each glyph. The narrow width was inspired by the columns and narrow window frames within the studio. 

Once I had the basic shapes I had a basic framework to create the rest of the numbers. 

Just a simple addition was made at the base of the "1" to make it sit solidly on its baseline. 

Vertical terminal added to distinguish the "2" from an "S".

A vertical terminal bottom and top of the letter to keep a consistent feel through the letter system, the cross bar remained the same width of the other anatomical elements. 

The 5 was simple, just a simple reinterpretation of the number 2, 4 maintained this monotype width through its square bowl.  

Making the 6 was even more simple.

A simple extension of the vertical terminal to create one solid vertical stroke to complete the number 6. 

Consistant alignment of cross bars, spines, bowls etc to give a structured solid feel inspired by the studios aesthetics. 

Keeping that consistent monotype width within the bowls of the 8, giving it that top heavy element within the negative space of the top bowl. 

Experimented with an extended crossbar on the 7, don't like it though it creates an unbalance and the glyph loses that structured and solid aesthetic. 

Back to the monotype width, works alot better. Consistent width creates a better overall structure. 

Tried by simply rotating the 6, but the bowl was far too small in height, to keep a consistent feel it needed to be higher and maintain that top heavy aesthetic to the numbers that had bowls on the top half of the numbers. 

They all work together in terms of structured aesthetics, but the 0 is far too wide within its horizontal split, ruins the monotype consistent width I wanted. 

Created a solid closed counter, adding a diagonal visual element often seen in some monotype type specimens. Makes it a recognizable number "0" rather than been recognized as a letter "O"

Aspects to change/try out

Round joints, spines terminals off.

Experiment with line weight.

Alter height & width of the anatomy of each glyph, e.g. extend bowl vertically and horizontally.

Create a slight roundness to the corners of the joints. 

Create a contrast in line weights and line lengths of certain parts of the anatomy.

Firs thing I did was round off the caps and the joints. 

This created a very subtle and delicate softness to the angular, condensed letters. A nice subtle contrast but not very noticeable. 

Increasing the weight made the roundness more obvious and presented this contrast of subtle softness and angular linear and condensed elements. 

Decided I wasn't keen on the round elements to the end of the strokes/terminals, the joints worked but the roundness voided the angular linear, and structured aesthetic I wanted to create. It looked too playful. 

Much better contrast of squared of elements and round joints. I suppose theres a slight contrast of angular and round elements in the studio within the ventilation system rapped in padded insulation tape. So this is relevant. 

I added an extra angular element inspired by the angular and linear aspects of the studios aesthetics, Works alot better now aesthetically. Before the typeface worked in terms of meeting that condensed, structured, angular and linear feel but as an aesthetically pleasing element it just didn't look considered, looked a little rushed. 

Increased the weight of the stems, looks better this way can appreciated the little details within the joints and other angular elements. 

This looks good aesthetically but I don't think it would work when the letterforms are scaled down. The weight would increased significantly and the negative space in the counters and bowls would reduce in aperture, I wanted something quite mechanical and accurate in terms of aesthetics. I wanted the "blocky & structured" aesthetic to come from the construction rather than the line weights. 

This weight is almost there, just a little lighter and it will work at all scales and remain delicate, accurate and legible. 

3pt line weight works perfect, began to experiment with the diameters.

Widened the width, this worked well, strengthened the feeling of "structure" but I based the condensed aesthetics on this mainly on the window frames, and this isn't very condensed anymore. 

Too condensed now, created an illusion of extra weight too and caused bad readability and legibility, this vast amount of condensing gives off a more "wire" like aesthetic making it feel too thin and no longer structured, angular, and linear inspired by the rooms aesthetics. 

Large adjustment to the width, looks awful now, looks completely out of structure, unbalanced, each glyph has different appearances of width when I wanted a monotype aesthetic. 

Perfect width, played around with the height now though, shortened everything a little now, just shortened the bowls leaving the vertical stems overpowering the height of the bowls creating an unbalance. 

Extreme edit of height, major unbalance and awful aesthetics. 

Started to shorten the bowls, appears very stubby/stumpy now though, works better than the extended bowls though. 

Amazing how much a change in height can make. The whole characteristics changed no, instead of looking structured and mechanical it looked like an old style pixel typeface created for old computers. Not relevant to my concept at all. 

Experimented with contrasting weights of horizontal stems/horizontals to simulate a contrast visible in the visual aspects of wiring (thin type anatomy elements) and structured bulky elements like the columns (thick type anatomy elements)

Final numbers

Wanted to keep things consistent so kept with the same line weight on all the stems/strokes/crossbars. The final typeface simulates my concept inspired by the rooms aesthetics of angular elements, linear elements, condensed elements inspired mainly by the window frames, and contrasting subtle round edges inspired by the insulation wrapped pipes on the roof. Good structure, legible, simple, accurate. Works perfect, ready for input into my calendars.