Ghent: Process Book and Type Specimen

Ghent

a typeface for groovy people
who don’t write a lot

By Emily Macon

Ghent?

The name Ghent pays homage to an energetic neighborhood
in Emily’s hometown of Norfolk, Virginia.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Emily (thankfully)
sprouted in a community where ardor and marching to the
beat of your own drum are fiercely encouraged.

Table of Contents

Chapter One Chapter Six

It began with clay Variable Fonts

Chapter Two Chapter Seven

Ghent is born Marcro adjustments

Chapter Three Chapter Eight

Getting bolder Tricky letters

Chapter Four Chapter Nine

Schpilkes Ghent!

Chapter Five Chapter Ten

Just loosen up Ghent in Use

Chapter One

It began with clay

James Edmondson’s experimental workshop Given I’d need to create more than one master
opened my eyes to letter formation beyond typeface, I began experimenting with a
the pen. We experimented with pipe cleaners, more legible style that maintained the same
paper, white out, and — my favorite — clay. characteristics as the juicy display style. **

As a child Sculpey connoisseur, my hands My classmates insisted that this was a great
happily, quickly, and mindlessly created unique direction to move in, but it didn’t fully feel right.
letterforms. My classmates urged me on to
flatten and digitize the clay shapes, so I did. *

**

4

*

5

Chapter Two

Ghent is born

In an effort to add structure and guiding rules, I was very proud of my work — until break
I kept some elements (detached stencil, ball between terms when I traveled to Paris. In
shapes) and completely removed others the trendy Le Marais district, I noticed the
(funky, organic shapes). Without thinking too abstracted stencil style everywhere. No longer
hard, I moved in the direction of an abstracted living under a rock, I noticed it at home in San
stencil family in both regular and italic styles. Francisco too. This had me worried.

hamburgerfonts
hamburgerfonts

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN
OPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopq
6r s t u v w x y z

Chapter Three

Getting bolder

Andy Clymer’s weekend workshop provided minimized counters provided more opportunity
the foundation for expanding a typeface via for experimentation beyond the otherwise
interpolation. sterile aesthetic. I began to feel like I was
driving the direction of the project, not the other
Huzzah! Ghent in a bolder weight had a more way around.
soulful element to it. The thicker letters and

hamburgerfont

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

OPQRSTUVWYZ

abcdefghijklmnopq

rstuvwxyz 7

Chapter Four

Schpilkes

I had made weekly tweaks to my type family It was during this desperate time that I noticed
like a good student, but my heart wasn’t in it. my handwriting as I took notes during Grendl’s
I was not excited about what I was working history lecture, and thought: what if I digitized
on. How did I even end up with an abstracted my own script?! I even came up with the name:
stencil? How boring! How basic! I kicked myself Cosmic Sans. I felt the fire in my belly and
in class, I kicked myself out of class. It was so excitement pulse through my veins. Finally.
unlike me to enter a project without formulation I worked into the night digitizing scans of my
and a clear goal in mind. Kick kick kick. handwritten letters.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN
OPQRSTUVWXYZ

AJKMR

8

Chapter Five

Just loosen up

During class the next week, I spoke with Frank Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t even
about starting over. He looked at me as if I was recognize that that was allowed. If this were
taking crazy pills and quietly reminded me that a movie plot, James saying these three words
there was one month left of class. I put Cosmic would have been the turning point. I stopped
Sans in the “save for another time” folder both taking my rules so seriously and started making
on my desktop and in my mind. Twenty minutes decisions based on what felt right. Suddenly
later during critique, James said something that everything was fun and clear. I looked forward
stuck: Just loosen up. to coming home and working on Ghent!

Meh Woohoo!

9

Chapter Six

Variable Fonts

I kept my new mantra: Let loose (Have fun! But it also helped me envision Ghent in a more
Don’t take yourself so seriously! Be yourself! playful context. Thinking about Ghent with
Whatever!) during Nick Sherman’s Variable happy and light associations subconsciously
Fonts workshop and transformed Ghent affected how I approached design decisions. As
letterforms into bouncy personalities. This I eased up, life began to breath into the typeface
workshop opened my eyes to the magical (and and it really felt like my own.
not so intimidating) world of Variable Fonts.

Superpolator UI

10

11

Chapter Seven

Macro adjustments

Non perfect circles

Perfect circles played well with Ghent
Regular, but didn’t work for bolder
styles. Instead of rigidly enforcing my
rules, I optically swapped them out for
oblong circles.
The imperfectness of the round shapes
also contributed to the warmer, more
welcoming aesthetic I was actively
moving towards.

fcavij

12

Overlapping ball terminals

I had been deep in the display style mindset itself significantly helped. Adding more space
when I began creating Ghent’s companion book between the letters also helped them breathe
style. I was happy with the more traditional easier in small text sizes. Next, I tightened the
letterforms, but they didn’t appear crisp at a serifs, discussed on the next page. These three
small size, as if printed on low quality paper. tricks together did wonders!
Changing the ball terminal structure to overlap

cc
13

Consistent stroke ending anglesIhadalwaysbeenmeticulous

about maintaining consistent
stroke ending measurements:
exactly ten pixels.

Yet I didn’t immediately
recognize the optical differences

a amadebytheangleofeachstroke

ending.

The letterforms appeared much
more cohesive after adjusting
each stroke ending to terminate
in a similar way, as if a chunk of

a asillyputtyhadbeenpulledapart.

Tighter serifs for book style

ff nn

14

Sharper, longer serifs

u u uand stroke endings

Tightening serif curves on Ghent’s book style Similarly, scooping out thick areas (e.g., t, q)

helped sharpen the appearance of the letters, helped maintain a consistent weight balance,

especially when printed in small sizes. and also added personality.

qq tt

15

Chapter Eight

Tricky letters

The s process to drawing the rounded ball terminals
first, and spine second, helped. Hours tinkering
The s, both lowercase and uppercase — and in in RoboFont (reflect horizontally, reflect
all styles — was challenging. How do I include vertically, compare, repeat) really helped.
both a thick spine AND hardy ball terminals
that are large enough to parallel those in the
other glyphs? How abstract should I go? Does
it look like it is leaning forward? Changing my

Leaning forward. Small ball size

Too wide. inconsistent with other

Should spine curve glyphs Squeazed spine
around to more
directly point to ball inconsistent with
terminal?
other glyphs
�16 s s
�s

The f

Too Crossbar
abstract inconsistent with
other glyphs

�ò�fff
The N

Stencil style N N17
inconsistent with
other glyphs

NN

The z

Too Inconsistent with other glyphs
abstract

�z�zzz

The g

Ugly

Needs more contrast ggg

Needs smaller
counters,
neck should be
closer to baseline

Too fussy18 Too much
empty space
g�g
� gtotheleft

The y

Angled downstroke matches translation style, y
but doesn’t work well for x shape

Lifeless tail

yyy

The G

Looks like a G, but not very friendly G
Getting there...

G�GG
19

Chapter Nine

Ghent

Ghent Regular, Bold, Bold Italic, and Book

abcdefghij
klmnopqr
stuvwxyz
àâäåçéñß
#",.!?({})

20Ghent Regular

ABCDEFGHI
JKLMNOPQ�
RSTUVWXYZ

&@
*1234567890

21

abcdefghij
klmnopqr
stuvwxyz
1234567890

þþþþþþþþþþ

22Ghent Bold

ABCDEFGHI
JKLMNOP
Q�RSTUV
WXYZ

Ç

ˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆˆ

23

abcdefghij
klmnopqr
stuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHI
JKLMNOPQ

RSTUV
WXYZ

24Ghent Bold Italic

abcdefghij
klmnopqr
stuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHI
JKLMNOPQ
RSTUVWXYZ

1234,.!?”()*

Ghent Book 25

Chapter Ten

Ghent in use

F.U.N.E.X?

S, V.F.X.

F.U.N.E.M?

S, V.F.M.

J’aime les fruits

Benji & the bee

Marco Pit

FREE WIFI

EaNtMETorWeBOaRgeKls
PASSWORD

fakenews

The only
time I set
the bar
low
is for
Limbo.

Michael Scott

pick your nose

Konikoff Plastic Surgery

gummy

paste

Do not do life without it.
Or else your teeth will fall out.

viva la vulva

calling all menstruators

As people around the world celebrate protest against their working conditions.
International Women’s Day on Thursday, Like today, these women were in less
countries from Kyrgyzstan to Cambodia organized workplaces than their male
will officially honor women’s rights and counterparts, were in the lower echelons of
achievements across the political, the garment industry, and were working at
economic, social and cultural spheres. The low wages and experiencing sexual
day has been designated as an official harassment regularly.
United Nations observance, and is a
national holiday in many parts of the world. In honor of the anniversary of those strikes,
which were ongoing for more than a year, a
But the day’s origins are more radical than National Women’s Day was celebrated for
what we might expect from a day so widely the first time in the U.S., spearheaded by the
celebrated. Socialist Party of America. Led by German
campaigner and socialist Clara Zetkin, the
The impetus for establishing an idea to turn the day into an international
International Women’s Day can be traced movement advocating universal suffrage
back to New York City when thousands of was established at the International
women who were garment workers went Conference of Working Women in the early
on strike and marched through the city to twentieth century.

girls just want
to have
fundamental
rights

Be nice
to plants.

In a study performed by the Royal Horticultural Society,
researchers discovered that talking to your plants really can help
them grow faster. They also found that plants grow faster to the
sound of a female voice than to the sound of a male voice. Other
studies have experimented with different sound levels and even the
kinds of things that are said to plants.

In the month-long study, the Royal Horticultural Society
recorded both men and women, reading from either
literary or scientific works. Each recording was played
through a set of headphones that was attached to each
tomato plant pot. The same tomato variety was used,
same soil, same care regimen, etc. They also included
two plants that were not read to as a control.

At the end of the month, the plants that had been
attached to female voices grew an average of an
inch taller than those attached to a male voice. The
overall winning tomato listened to Sarah Darwin,

126

great great granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
Her plant grew approximately two inches taller than the rest.

Reading to Her Tomato Plant

Asked about her plant’s favorable response to her voice and selection,
Sarah Darwin commented, “I am not sure if it’s my dulcet tones or the text
that I read from On the Origin of Species that made the plant sit up and
listen, but either way I think it is great fun and I’m proud of my new title.”

Sound Science

Researchers went into the study with the idea that the male voice would
make the plants grow faster, and they were surprised with the results.
They said that they are unsure why the female voice worked better,
positing that it could be related to women’s greater range of pitch or tone
that affects the sound waves that hit the plant, and that sound, just
like any other environmental factor, has an effect on
plant growth.

The results of the study have been
supported by other studies and
theories, yet the exact link
between the human voice
and plant growth
remains
elusive.

127

Kind people
kindaarepmeyople

GGhheenntt
thinkHeorms,eatnodsotrrethaokdeorsx,jews.

Much love to

Tânia Raposo
Frank Grießhammer
James Edmondson

& Type@Cooper Friends

Thank you for sharing your expertise, patience, and most of all, humor.

For more work by Emily, visit
www.EmilyMacon.com