The second edition of the "Pal" series is the "PalRetron" with Western retro and gothic lolita motifs.

Stories

"PalRetron", the second installment of the "Pal" series, is a typeface created with the theme of Western retro and Gothic lolita. The unique vertical and horizontal strokes give a romantic impression, and are decorative and gorgeous, while the design with shading makes it a very typeface when used for light novel titles, catchphrases, etc.

We interviewed Ochi, who designed the typeface, about the secret story behind the typeface, including the concept and characteristics of the typeface.

The trigger was "I want to create a powerful typeface that is the opposite of looseness."

When the production of "PalRamune", which sells Yuru cuteness, which is the first work of herself, has reached the threshold, the creation of "I want to create a powerful typeface that is the opposite of Yuru" I got greedy.

However, it was too vague, I was worried about what kind of design to make, and I was making trials. At that time, I had the opportunity to talk to the customer, and I asked for a "Taisho Roman" or retro style typeface. "

Powerful typeface, Taisho roman ... Although there was a part to get lost in the direction of the second bullet, I think that there is no retro type catch typeface in Fontworks, so I thought "Let's make it!" It was

What is "Taisho Romance"?

First of all, in order to organize "Taisho Romance" in my own, I collected materials such as movie posters from one side.

What I imagine in "Taisho Romance" is the handwritten characters, the strength of the habit, and the unique atmosphere. How to design such an image as a font to be used in the new era has become an extremely high barrier. I couldn't capture the direction of the design. However, even if you are worried as it is, time will pass, so if it is, you should think about shifting the axis in a direction that you can easily grasp.

When I sort out "Taisho romance", I felt like I was caught in the word "Taisho" and couldn't move forward.

Then, when I thought about "retro," which was another keyword, the meaning of "roman = western" is also included, so I think that "western retro" should be attached by connecting western and retro. ..

Taisho roman reference materials

I've always liked "gothic lolita" clothes, so let's try "western retro" and "gothic lolita"

I've always liked "gothic lolita" clothes. So I decided to add the essence of "gothic lolita" to the "Western retro". Because I thought that Gothic Lolita would be a typeface that would be easy to accept and use even for people who love anime and games.

I felt that adding a gothic lolita element to the typeface design would make it a "slightly scary but cute" design typeface.
Furthermore, this time I wanted to create a flashy typeface, so I added the gothic lolita's flashiness to the "Western retro" concept.
However, I was worried whether the "Western Retro" typeface would actually be popular, and although I had a good idea, the skeleton of the essential character was in a state where nothing came to my mind.

Refer to the manga title logo.

Are Western Retro and Gothic Loli really required by customers? I was worried about whether or not the world wanted it, so I decided to go to the bookstore and feel what is popular in the production scene right now, and what kind of fashion is in the world.
In particular, in the case of logos such as comics, which are not typefaces, the logos that are created by the designer are often very helpful because they are designed by the designer. I wondered what kind of logos were popular, and I went around various corners. Then, I was surprised to find that there are many Western-style logos. Everyone loves Western food. So I was convinced that the font of this concept was acceptable.

For other books that I thought would be helpful, I wrote down the titles and looked up later, and first I made materials for the production. The concept has been decided, and the skeleton of the typeface has come into view.

A cartoon logo researched at a bookstore. In particular, these two works were exactly what I imagined.
My image of the Western logo is the feel of a brush that the lines become thinner and thicker and flow smoothly. But, it's not like a calligraphy or writing brush, not a pen, not a Mincho. It looks like calligraphy but not calligraphy, and this "B" has a nice Western feel and is very cool. By adding decorations, hiragana can also be made western. I felt that this writing style was not helpful.

Prototype-The design motifs are "calligraphy", "black letter", and "gothic lolita (decoration)."

The "Western Retro" design was created by mixing the elements of "Calligraphy", "Blackletter" and "Gothloli (decoration)".
Where the rhombus is attached, at the beginning of the brush, the part where the hail (like a ribbon) is decorated = gothic lolita, the Western letters incorporate the elements of the black letter. The coolness, tightness, and design alignment of the black letter. That was helpful. Besides, there is also a factor to make it a typeface.
Calligraphy is a handwritten character, so the same character is not exactly the same. If you set the calligraphic element to 100%, the softness and tenderness will be lost and the "intensity" will be lost, so I designed it by complementing that part with a black letter.

"Calligraphy" and "Black Letter" that became the motif of the design
Normally, I think of some letters as to which letter I want to make, but first I wanted to make the letter "love". But not just love, I wanted to use it as a word, and made it "pure love". Also, add hiragana and katakana and try combining them. I made a sample with "po" and "su".

When the prototype was completed and it was decided to show it to Fujita, the Chikushi Type Designers, we were creating the exact opposite of Fujita's idea that "let's show the characters with a skeleton", so the typeface with decorations this time is an evil way. I was surprised to see that it seems to be.
However, I still remember that I was able to go smoothly with the OK.

After that, I had the opportunity to show the prototype typeface to the binding designer who will be the actual user. When I showed it, I immediately liked it and liked it. Within a year from the prototype, we decided on the next release typeface.
However, I was very impatient because I did not consider the detailed design of the skeleton because it was a prototype typeface with image priority.

Started production of "PalRetron"-First, produce kanji

In the production of PalRetron, we started with basic kanji.

PalRamune was made one letter at a time according to the old story. However, PalRetron is not a typeface that can read long sentences, so we collected the titles of songs that match the image of the typeface, and produced each kanji character of that title.

I designed the skeleton by groping, but since it is a design typeface that is the exact opposite of PalRamune, it was difficult to grasp the knack at first and it was quite difficult to produce.
Type Designers I had two junior students divide the work into kanji, and I supervised and improved the efficiency.

The feature of PalRamune was that the density of the letters was different, but this time it was necessary to unify the density, so I sharpened my nerves and repeated brushing up, it was completed.

Next, to produce hiragana and katakana

Then, I started making hiragana and katakana.
The most difficult thing to do for PalRetron was the hiragana. Even if I wanted to refer to manga titles, logos, posters, etc., there were many kanji logos, but hiragana was only "to" and "no", and there was no reference material.

Hiragana is different from kanji and katakana in that it has a rounded shape, so it was very difficult to decide how to design with a PalRetron. A rounded design will be dull, and a straight line will result in a slightly dull design.
While referring to the Tsukushi Antique Gothic design and calligraphy book, I adjusted it so that the tension can be expressed while leaving the roundness.

As a result, I spent about five months creating hiragana. Honestly, I couldn't quite proceed as I expected with regard to the production of this Hiragana, and I could not see the future.

Western numeral production

The Language matches the concept of "Western Retro", so I enjoyed the production as if I were a fish with water.
I wanted to make a design that incorporates a lot of black letter elements for European languages, but it is difficult to recognize which letters are in the black letter, so adjust to make it legible by adding a lot of calligraphic elements. Did.

Materials at the time of development

Release announcement After being posted on the Fontworks site, I also showed it on my Twitter.

I was glad to hear the amazing response, and I thought again to do my best at the final work of the release!

Introducing Akiko Ochi, a Type Designers

Type Designers Ochi Click here for an introduction.

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