"NewGreco" regular script font: A bold yet gentle kana design

2019.08.27

"NewGreco" is based on the regular script "Greco" and is now compliant with JIS2004. The kanji characters have been changed from the "kusa-kanmuri" (grass crown) and "ito-hen" (thread radical) to a more modern character shape that is familiar to Japanese people. In addition, new kana characters have been created to match the kanji. The kana design is conscious of the natural flow of the brush to match the clean brush strokes of the kanji. It has a resolute yet gentle atmosphere, and can express both strength and delicacy when composed into a sentence.

We interviewed Kanae Yamamura Type Designers in her fifth year at the company and in charge of the typeface design for "NewGreco NewGreco" She tells us the story behind the creation of the typeface, including its concept and features, as well as her journey as Type Designers from the time she joined the company until now.

The road as a Type Designers

This spring, I have reached my fifth year of joining the company. For the first year before joining the company, I had been trained as a part-time job, so it is actually my sixth year.

I have been doing calligraphy since I was 6 years old. After becoming a college student, I became interested in fonts while learning in undergraduate classes and making flyers in circle activities, and I started thinking that I would like to work on fonts from that time. I consulted with the instructor in charge.

Then the instructor in charge took the lead Joint research with Fontworks I was able to attend the meeting, and I had the opportunity to visit Fontworks and listen to Fujita's story. There, he said, "Please let me have an interview." At that time, there was no recruitment, so I said, "I'll give you an assignment, so if you like it, I'll interview you."

At university, I made brush fonts as a graduation project. After that, when I entered graduate school, I continued to make fonts. I was trying to make Kanji into a font from the work of Ougishi, and then make Kana as a Japanese typeface. At that time, I was producing with Illustrator.

From the top, the detailed book, the Taisho book, and the line book submitted in the assignment

Practice for a task. I wrote the outline with a pencil and painted the inside.

The challenge at this time was to design a single sentence, "Lovely, unique and rich typeface", using fine prints, large prints, and line books.

I was enthusiastic about the task, but until now, I was only writing with a brush, and I had no experience of making each character on a square or writing a skeleton with a pencil. Approximately one month later, finish 3 and submit. I was only worried, but I managed to clear it and have an interview.

I later heard that I was given this assignment because I had always been into calligraphy and because the plan to redesign the kana for "Greco" had just come up at that time. Therefore, after joining the company, I was put in charge of creating the kana for "NewGreco".

To actual production. Making kana that touches existing kanji

After receiving the job offer, I decided to work part-time for a year before joining the company. After undergoing training in lettering and other subjects, I immediately began work on creating the kana for "NewGreco."

First of all, I made Hiragana of Weight M with short sentences. It's not very difficult, but I can't really feel the feeling when I create each character, and the short sentences are easier to understand because they give me an atmosphere.

Actually write with a pencil or brush pen, take a picture, lay it on the layer under the font production software, and draw the path of the character. If you can make a few letters based on it, create the remaining hiragana according to it. I made corrections even after the hiragana was completed.
There's also a way to scan and reduce the passes to make it smoother, but I didn't study it, so I dared to continue doing this.

However, the situation where Fujita's OK didn't come out and he couldn't proceed at all continued.
I could write with a brush, but when I actually tried to draw a path, the reproduction did not work well, and in such a situation I could not see the future.

I joined the company on April 1, 2015, and continued working on "NewGreco" after joining the company.

By about July, all the kana of 3 weights had been created and modified, and the process of converting them into fonts was started.

The letters I made when I started working

To create another version of "Kana"

There was a period of about two years when other work came in, and I resumed production. I decided to leave the created Kana once and try to make a completely different version of the Kana.

Greco is a typeface that has sharper kanji characters and better balance than other companies' regular script fonts. I also used other companies' typefaces as reference, but among the various sources I collected, the one I used most as reference was elementary school textbooks from the Meiji to early Showa periods. At that time, many were written with a brush, and I was able to find many different shapes for the same character.

In addition, although the typefaces for other releases were being produced, the release schedule was decided the following year, so we started the final production for the release. As a result, it was decided to adopt the Kana of the one who made it last.

Kana production of all 3 weights is completed, and in June 2019, all data production including kanji, symbols and setting of character filling is completed.

Reference Material 1: Characters collected from materials or written by myself. I try to make many letters for each letter, but the most common ones are "me", "hi", and "u". The smaller the number of strokes, the more difficult it is to balance.

Reference Material 2: Textbooks for elementary school students from the Meiji period to the early Showa period

Difficulty combining new Kana with existing Kanji

Greco 's kanji is written in regular script, but it has less of a brush-like feel and a more mechanical design than regular regular script. I had to create kana that matched those kanji, but I ended up making them look like they were written by hand, and Fujita told me to do that when I was creating my own typeface.
I felt that it was very difficult to create something good given the constraints that were in place.

It took us five years to release it, but I'm really happy that the typeface I worked on will be released, and I hope that many people will use it!

Difficult point: When combining a typeface with a new design with an existing typeface like this time, conformity is required, but originality is too strong and it is NG.

It was easy to say that I was able to make something that I thought was “fun” and that I could make. Especially "ru". I loved "Ru" myself, and Fujita immediately gave me an OK saying, "This can be refreshing."

Introduction of Type Designers Kanae Yamamura

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1991.
Completed master's course in design and engineering at Kyushu University Graduate School of Design.
Joined Fontworks Inc. in 2015.

He is responsible for the production of the tentative title "NewGreco."
He started practicing calligraphy at the age of six, and during his university years his interest in fonts grew, leading him to aspire to become Type Designers.