Onomichi City University Department of Fine Arts is a department that provides education for the purpose of producing human resources who are engaged in creative activities such as painters and designers. As one of the towns of art and culture where Onomichi City aims to live and live, it aims to foster specialists and contribute to local culture.

I think that the activity as an artist requires a willingness to express and a certain modeling ability to support it, and in the first year, practical training that emphasizes basic practical skills without being obsessed with specialized fields and develops basic modeling ability Has been incorporated.

This time, we asked Associate Professor Takaoka of the design course and students Hirai and Kimura about the importance of fonts in design.

One of the major characteristics of Onomichi City University is that you can study the basics of Japanese painting, oil painting, and design in the first year, and then choose the course you want to study in earnest.

I teach in typography and editorial in a design course. With the idea that we want you to know the importance of characters properly and to learn the knowledge of fonts properly, we try to put emphasis on fonts, such as giving a lecture from a font maker who is an expert.

It's a psychology, but I think it's necessary to have something like guts to handle letters. There are times when students try to improve the accuracy of the whole production, and they often leave the letters behind, and there is also a dilemma due to the relationship with other graphic elements. It's important to have a consciousness that I like letters and are making them, and I think it's a task that I am particular about.

For that reason, I would like you to understand and understand the basics from now on. Characters that are indispensable as an element of design. I would like to introduce how students at Onomichi City University perceive it through the students, rather than from my explanation.
Hirai-kun is a graphic artist, and Kirai-san is an editorial artist.

I was originally interested in design, so I majored in design from high school. In high school classes, I had the opportunity to come in contact with letters such as the lettering test throughout the three years, but at that time I didn't feel like I was interested.
Of course, I learned knowledge about the mechanism of letters here, but the opportunities to make logos at the university increased, I began to think that it was interesting as I investigated how to express letters, and I will focus on the letters part in graphic design as well. It has become.

As an extension of that, I am creating European fonts and studying the design of Japanese. Actually, I often write my own characters, and I don't have much opportunity to use existing fonts, but I sometimes incorporate those that I think are easy to use and I like the design. Mainly because I'm doing graphic design, I think that in a good sense, a “flat” design that is “characteristic-free” is easy to use. Of course, I don't think this font design is common to all media, but I think that it can be accepted by men and women of all ages when viewed as part of the design. Regarding this point, even when I created the Western font myself, I often struggled with what I should consider in order to make the characters readable.

With the newly created Japanese design, what I paid attention to was the letters written by children.

In order to reproduce the unique shape, rhythm, and fun that children write, I decided to sample it from elementary school students who have just begun to learn writing. I thought, "I can read it properly even if a part of the letters are cut off," or "Why is this happening?"

Although it is a character made from immature hands and inexperience, it is not a'designer 'who designs typefaces so that the desire to imitate the shape of a small child can be properly transmitted to people. I felt it.

Thinking about why the design was made, what kind of things are required, and by grasping the characteristics and rules, we will consider how to incorporate design elements and design in the future. I would like to feed them.

I often use Fontworks fonts for my editorial design. I became interested in letters because of the lesson of setting up a fictitious company and creating a brand for that company, called the "CI plan."

Since I used to like books for a long time, I decided to create a series of things such as corporate logos and publications that are products, setting the theme as something that a publisher and a bookstore merged. I think that the first time I was in the process of making letters, I was excited about what kind of fonts to make, and that was the first time.

In particular, since editorial design requires highly readable Mincho fonts for Text, I have become particularly particular about using Mincho fonts. Now, I can naturally distinguish Mincho fonts when I use them often, and when I see a poster at the station, I think, "Ah! This font is..." It's thanks to TsukuAOldMin that I became interested in fonts in this way.

I often use it for vertical Text, and although it has a thin and delicate image, the scales give it a luxurious feel and I think it is really beautiful. I loved it when it only had the "R" weight, and I was looking forward to it being made into a family. I used it frequently from the beginning, but I started using it more and more to assist Professor Takaoka in his lectures and to create school pamphlets. In addition, fonts with different kana designs (TsukuBOldMin / TsukuCOldMin) have also been released, and I am looking forward to using it in various situations in the future.

<Mr. Takaoka> Despite the same grouping of design, the two think about fonts, like Hirai-kun, "think graphics mainly, harmonize fonts and character sets, and leave no smell." It seems that the root of the concept is different from the idea of “using the image generated from the font itself and arranging the font suitable for the purpose and leaving the odor” like Mr. Kirai.

I think that each of them will have their own design preferences and issues with production media, but unlike when I was younger, I often feel that their perspectives on design are fresh, so I'm excited to see how they will use what they've learned in the future. In that sense, a system that allows you to use various fonts is useful as a tool to express your free ideas.

In fact, there are increasing requests from students to increase the number of environments in which they can use Tsukushi typefaces. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to hear about the creation of "TsukuMin" and your thoughts on new fonts.

I think that the students were able to realize once again how font design can change the way something looks. I think this lecture was a good stimulus for the students. I am really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the students who will take flight from here!