36 days of type - H

After going for 'humanist' instead of the blackletter niche of hybrida the main decision at the start of today was whether to do a san serif or serif humanist. This decision was precursed by some research into the definitions of each subgenre.


Humanist serif typefaces emulate classical calligraphy with contrasting strokes.  Humanist typefaces were the first Roman typefaces. Other characteristics of Humanist typefaces are small x-height, and low contrast between strokes. You'll often see classic and traditional things printed with a humanist serif typeface, like books and articles. Example Jensen:  


I also looked into the handwritten Humanist minuscule as a highly humanist serif:

Humanist minuscule is a handwriting or style of script that was invented in secular circles in Italy, at the beginning of the fifteenth century.^[1] "Few periods in Western history have produced writing of such great beauty", observes the art historian Millard Meiss.^[2] The new hand was based on Carolingian minuscule, which Renaissance humanists, obsessed with the revival of antiquity and their role as its inheritors, took to be ancient Roman:

[W]hen they handled manuscript books copied by eleventh- and twelfth-century scribes, Quattrocento literati thought they were looking at texts that came right out of the bookshops of ancient Rome"

Humanist Sans Serif typefaces emulate calligraphy and have minimalist contrasting strokes. These design of these typefaces are good matches for small text and small text, to they're often used in government, education or finance work. Gill Sans and Whitney are considered Humanist sans serif typefaces.



I decided on serif due to the potential to be more expressive within my letter form, however I am conscious that I should look further into san serif fonts later on in the alphabet. I started to sketch:

The forms I was creating were too calligraphic so I decided to go for a more simplistic approach and work on some kind of lowercase into upper mix that would add alternative complexity.   

Once vectorised the washed out pale blue colour and contrasting gold/yellow was picked out from the research into Humanist Minuscule and some added floral embellishment was hand-drawn using renaissance scriptures as reference. The first completed tile was the more evenly spaced middle crossbar but this was eventually lowered for the main panel in consultation with the guidelines for a humanist serif and once again in line with Humanist Minuscule. 

"H is for Humanist - as typesetting progressed from handwriting, typographers incorporated calligraphic strokes to give a notion of its human origin. Often characterised by a low x-height."