Designer Shigenobu Fujita's thoughts on typeface design

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"I think this Chikushi Q Mincho is the end point for me, one of the Mincho styles."

Chikushi Q Mincho was released on August 22, 2017.
In October of the same year, we received the "2017 Good Design Award" for the Chikushi typeface series, including the Chikushi Q Mincho.

(https://fontworks.co.jp/news/archives/169)

Incorporating newness while reproducing the bleeding of metal type, the design is not homogenous, but the original shape of the character is utilized. Shigenobu Fujita, a Type Designers who created the Tsukushi typeface series that creates "nostalgia" and "warmth" and gives viewers a "nostalgic feeling", talked about typeface design and the future of Chikushi typeface. ..

For the anchor point "Yu" in the Tsukushi typeface

Video title: Kana "Yu" Bezier curve path is made in this way.

When I released the image of the anchor point, it received a surprising response, and I made a video about how to make the Bezier curve path of "Yu".

Chikushi Q Mincho and “Trend”

Chikushi Q I'm surprised at the reaction to the morning.

I don't think there has ever been such a reaction in the industry.

I am surprised myself.
It is unlikely that dozens of people "played by writing letters" within a couple of days and two after releasing Q Mincho saying "Yes, I gave it". ?

Of course, it is a long story for Q Mincho that it will be 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and so on.

However, Q Mincho may have a very interesting direction. I have such expectations.

Add "# Chikushi Q Mincho" and post an image using Chikushi Q Mincho!
Immediately after the launch of Chikushi Q Mincho, users used Chikushi Q Mincho and shared many images. We released the image on a special page.

Chikushi Q Mincho is playing kanji.

For example, Mincho type.

When distinguishing the Mincho body, the kana character is a very easy-to-understand "start". "Oh, this
from Company A-Mincho!" "This is from Company C!"
But if you type in only the kanji, for example, the Japanese kanji, and say "which is which typeface", you get "yes yeah". To that extent, the kanji of Mincho style doesn't change much regardless of the typeface.

However, Chikushi Q Mincho is playing in Kanji. I'm not sure.

From left: Tsukushi A Old Mincho, Tsukushi Mincho, Chikushi Q Mincho, Shuei Mincho Mincho, Matisse, Tsukushi C Midashi Mincho, Hiragino Mincho.

Even in typeface, I think there are seasonal things like fashion, like fashion.

The fashion trend goes around all the time. Speaking of pants, it's like thinning or thickening. In that way, when various types of typefaces are created, it becomes possible to see "which one is this season".

The modern Japanese typeface has become a trend since 1975.
The so-called "bread-and-brush" typeface, which may look old-fashioned now, is full of letters. At that time, there was nothing other than newspaper typefaces, so it looked very fresh and cool when I asked "What this!". The young people, who are sensitive to trends, thought, “This is the time we are going to be in the future”.
I'm sure it is the exact opposite. It's said that a squeezed typeface receives more support.



Chikushi Q Mincho is said to be “cute” three years before the letter samples were issued.
However, we are only making the impression that we are making good looking typefaces.

I'm sure the definition of "kawaii" is different between people in their teens and 20s and those in our 50s and 60s.

I think that old humans, for example, have a beautiful female face and are beautiful, and round people are cute. But isn't it such a perfect typeface? Chikushi Q Tomorrow morning. If anything, it's a slim face.

That's why I don't know which side of Mincho will lead to being cute (laughs)

Important things in typeface design

I'm going through everything. Even if it looks clunky as a character.

I want to make shapes that I find interesting, so when I make a typeface, I try to cut it off in the first step and focus on the designs that I am fascinated by.

When you make a shape, your imagination will make a leap forward in your mind, saying, "It would be interesting to be like this" and "It would be interesting to be like that". In such a case, if you put a limit on "this area" from the beginning, it will show through somewhere in the created product. So I'm going through everything.
It doesn't matter if the letters are clunky, at that time.

Shake all the way to the end, and then search for a drop-off point to form the body as a typeface. "Then, what are the characteristics of this typeface?"
For example, in one typeface, one character may have features up to 10, some characters up to 5, and some characters up to 7. Then, as a whole, suppose you decide which side should be cut off and decide on an average of 7. In that case, you have to balance the 5 guys up to 7, and the 10 guys up to 7. If you don't do that, it will look like another character when you read it.

Since it will be smoothed out like this, if you shake it off once, it will result in an interesting typeface.

"I don't know whether it's good or bad. But it's flying very fast, this."

On the right is the antique Ming dynasty, which even was called "Martian".

When I brought the Old Gothic B as a sample, Mr. Sobue tilted his head. "I don't know if it's good or bad. But it's flying really fast, isn't it?"

After that, I made an antique Mincho with more kanji than ever before. At the beginning of the antique tomorrow, everyone was scared at first. Some people said, "East" is a character with a very long leg, so it's a character like a Martian (laughs).

Note 1: Book designer, Shin Sobue. Cosfish representative. Widely designed with extraordinary "enchanting power".

But after that, I wanted to narrow it down further.

The Q Mincho that I created in that way was completed to some extent, and I showed it to Sobue, "Kana is too overkill for this," "It should be more mature." Then they say "Eh! This is as it is. This is good!" "It's good to shake it off."

Even if you shake Q Mincho in a mediocre direction, it's not fun. As a result of shaking off, Q Mincho, which is the most shaken out shape of the letters I have made so far, is completed, which makes you think, "It's definitely a Mincho type, but it's very fresh. This is amazing" I see.

"Making letters" is the work of making the shapes stand out.

It is sometimes said that he is a "Bezier curve magician."

I don't have a brush

Instead of actually writing on paper, I think about how to shape it in my head.

I understand the reasoning behind the movement of the brush, so I think about what I want to do with the shape, and then draw a path on the screen of the computer saying, "The brush must be like this." Using the handle and anchor points, I will work to make the shape stand out while making "What will happen if I lower it here" and "What will happen when I raise it".
That's how I make letters.

But I have something to do with it. "I want to draw this kind of", or look at the materials in metal type, "I have this kind of "is", I want to make the Japanese syllabary that fits this."

For example, Vintage Mincho.

The reason for this was that the shape of "Fu", which was a training under the supervision of Yukichi Fukuzawa, was interesting. Characters other than "fu" are normal. The shape of "Fu" was so interesting that I made the Japanese syllabary to match it.

I'm developing what I have accumulated in my own way... I think design is like that.

The origin of the Mincho era of the world is Tsukiji No. 5.

For example, in the early days of Hidehide, the scent of Tsukiji was so pounding that if you weren't familiar with it, it would be like, "Well, isn't this together?" However, over the years, Tsukiji seems to be Tsukiji, and Hidehide is refined to be Hideei. While various typefaces were being refined, we were able to express our own characteristics.
If you compare it with the pseudonym of the first issue Mincho, Tsukiji is a mochi, but it is "mochi", but Hideei is crisp with a beautiful handsome. Speaking of sumo wrestlers, Tsukiji is a soft and solid sumo wrestler who is "fluffy", and Hidehide is a muscular sumo wrestler.

It's a Mincho type, but it's completely different, isn't it?

Designs are often influenced by something else. This time, I will develop the inspiration that I received in my own way. Isn't it all? I think that design is something that develops various things accumulated in the past in a way that suits you.

Q The same applies to the morning.

It is often said that "ya" is very similar to Tsukiji's typeface, or that the top of "me" is above the typeface of Hideei No. 3 and other typefaces. But everything is different.
Even if there is an affected character or a "character like this", if they are placed next to that character, the same isn't the same at all.

The "ya" that seems to be "engaged" and the "me" that protrudes toward the top.

The people who use it can't get excited unless they're making themselves excited.

I'm making myself excited.
Because if the people who are making produce something that isn't exciting, the people who use it will be excited, right?

"It was also metal type until now, it was also in the phototypesetting era, it was reproduced as it is," it may make the customers happy, but I think there is nothing more It is. Somehow, I want to make you feel that kind of excitement. Otherwise, it's not fun to make it.

That's why I'm making letters while pursuing "I think it would be interesting if there was such a typeface". "That's different, it's not fun when it happens, so make it more interesting."

I think that something with a shape is boring at any time if it doesn't feel exciting when it comes to that era.

I always wanted to make my Mincho typeface look “traditional but fresh”.

I like fashion
At that time, when I became a member of society and bought clothes with the money I earned by working for myself, the clothes with a traditional design called "trad" and clothes that looked like European style clothes (laughs) There were two trends.

But around 1975, I was already tired of clothes that used to sell traditional traditional designs. …No, it wasn't as fresh as it was.

Then, in the sixties, the "new trad", which had a slightly different line and was sexy, became popular.

So I thought that the shape was that if you keep looking at the same thing, it will "be invisible" somewhere. It loses its freshness. So, "Ah, trad, even if it's traditional, if you don't keep brushing up, the freshness will fade."

If it doesn't look fresh, I wouldn't even pay to buy it. So I realized that I always needed something that "traditional but looks fresh."
That's why I thought I would make my Mincho typeface that way.

It is better to say "when will you come out?"

When I talk to the bindings, I often get the topic, "By the way, Fujita-san, Old Gothic... when will you make a family?" "I'm thinking about that, when will I get it out? As the customers say, I have to think about making the Old Gothic family a reality. But..." Mr. Fujita, when will this new typeface come out?"

Q It was the same when I showed the sample of Mincho morning to various people.

When it's shown to customers, it's
to say "when will it come out" than to be liked. "Like" and "It's nice" are half-like stuffed toys. However, being told "when will you come out" is completely different. Because that doesn't mean you want it.

If more than half of the "viewers" find it interesting, then the design is successful.

"I want to be excited."

I'm not interested in the model or anything like that. Since I was a child, I've been told that it's heresy, so there's nothing wrong with being called a heresy character (laughs).

I'm not good at fixed things or obvious things since I was little. I can't bear to imitate the right because it's so boring.

If you are not excited, other people will not be excited. Anyone who understands the excitement can understand it. Of course, I can't believe that everyone will be excited.

The thing that everyone likes is close to what you can and don't have. So it's okay for some people to say "I hate this, this". Otherwise it would be unnatural (laughs)

On the other hand, if more than half of the people who are familiar with it, or people who are particular about it, are excited, the design is successful.

"From now on" in Chikushi typeface

I think "typeface away from Mincho and Gothic" is the third period of Chikushi.

Chikushi typeface is roughly divided into three types.

The first period of Chikushi typeface is until Old Mincho and Maru Gothic. Since then, I've been like "Mincho, this kind of Gothic like never before" until Q Mincho and the AM Gothic I'm making now. This is the second period.

Regarding Mincho, I think this Q-Mincho, which has penetrated through, is one of my ending points. AM Gothic is also about half the line different from the traditional Chikushi typeface (lol)

It's the second term when it is interesting to have such a typeface.

Tsukushi AM Gothic. It is a characteristic Gothic typeface that suits the European typeface Futura.

So, from now on, I will leave Mincho, Gothic, and Maru Gothic. I think that there are three eras, such as the Song Dynasty and the writing style. The cursive font sample has only a few characters, but I post it on Twitter, for the time being.



At first, I was trying to call it the name of Chikushu-style instead of the writing style.
However, when I showed it to Mr. Toriumi (Note 2), "Mr. Fujita, you should stop this "regular book"." For me, it was a line drawing that was connected or not, so I wondered why.

But after that, I made kana and noticed.

"It's not a regular copy, this is it" (laughs)

Such a "yu" cannot be said to be an ordinary "kana", and it cannot be said to be a regular script unless it is an ordinary "kana". But I want the shape of "Yu".

I see, I don't want to make an ordinary kana, so I changed it to "writing style".
After all, it's like "I've never seen something interesting, I want to use it". It would be interesting and I would use it. That's what it is.

Note 2: Type Designers Osamu Toriumi. Representative director of Yuji Kobo Co., Ltd. He is involved in the production of more than 100 typefaces, centered on basic typefaces such as the Hiragino series and the typeface library.

Please pay attention to the left hail. Harai is a cursive style, which is a bit different from general Harai, which is “press and remove power”.

Being loved for a long time is a very important typeface.

I'm curious about how Q Mincho will spread in the font industry.
As I said at the beginning, it is unlikely that a large number of people in the industry will be so interested in Q Mincho and will use it within 2 to 3 days. I think this typeface has the potential to be a very interesting direction. I have such expectations.

Be loved for a long time. That is very important as a typeface.

I was happy with the response immediately after it was released, and in the early days I was interested in what was the first publication using the typeface just released. But right now, I'm more interested in the frequency of seeing books at the bookstore five years after the release and the frequency at the time of ten years after the release.

When I turned on a TV channel, when I played a game, when I went to a bookstore and saw a flat book. From a long time ago, the Chikushi typeface has become noticeable. It's a long story that tells whether a typeface has been successful for five, ten, or fifteen years.

Only after seeing it here and there, I can feel that this design was the correct answer and that I was happy to make it.

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