Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966. Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.
With Disturbance™ the primary concern was rhythm and how to extend the possibilities within the accepted current structure of the alphabet. Tschichold pointed out that poor rhythm in type destroys legibility and readability. The failure of some of the early attempts in single alphabet design is with a lack of rhythm and harmony; the concepts were too often clouded in the modernist ideas of the time.
26 letters that comprise the Disturbance alphabet were chosen for maximum legibility. These letters were then harmonised and ascenders and descenders added. This increases the vertical movement within the type and together with the many ligatures, creates new word shapes and a new rhythm.
Jeremy: I began to focus on type generally during my time at the RCA. I spent a lot of time in the letterpress room. For my thesis I designed the Disturbance type (later released as FF Disturbance in 1993). It was called Disturbance as my lecturers said “I couldn’t do this to the alphabet it is too disturbing”. During my second/final year at the RCA I looked more closely at letters and created a couple more fonts. The very early stages of Bliss were created then.
After graduation I got a job in corporate design at Addison Design Consultants. My first project was Sabena Belgian Airlines (now gone). Addison went bankrupt in 1994 (ish) and I went and worked at Wolff Olins, where I stayed for about 4 years (though I did take 6 months off to travel Australia). During the 6 (ish) years of employment I developed Bliss and a few other fonts (Blue Island, The Shire Types, Alchemy) in my spare time. When I came back from Australia I basically knew I wanted to leave and do my own thing. So a few months after my return I resigned and set up Jeremy Tankard Typography to focus on my type designs.
Type today wouldn’t exist without the technology - it is an absolute part of it. Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters and how they work in various languages. I approach type design as product design (not so much as art). As time goes on it ’can’ be seen more as software design - some designers already see it as this (think of Letterror in The Netherlands).
I don’t see the technology as a constraint - more a challenge. I enjoy making OpenType fonts which involve a great deal of program code in order to make the fonts function.
The design of type hasn’t changed much over the years. The same problems exist today as they did 100 years ago and longer. As technology changes/advances there are just more issues, sometimes different issues, to juggle. The optical effects still remain - overshoots, spacing, balance, rhythm… but now we also have Windows OS, Mac OS, PostScript, TrueType, low resolution output, ClearType rendering, Quartz rendering, Unicode, OpenType features and expanded EU language support etc. etc.
I generally design for my own foundry. Sometimes people contact me to ask if I undertake commissions (from logos to full fonts). Depending on what the job is and how busy I am, I will accept the project. I generally only work on new designs and ones that could eventually enter my retail collection.
Sometimes commissions are restrictive (I may not accept these jobs). Sometimes they are open - as they want me to design it, not re-work their attempt. Christchurch Art Gallery was a perfect job - the release version is Aspect. They initially wanted a basic font - I decided to turn it into a huge ligature-based beast - they got a lot more than they asked for. As a result the visual design of the art gallery is intrinsically linked to the design of the font.
The recent Arjowiggins Inuit font was a bit restricted. I wanted to make it support Central European languages and a few weights, but the person who could make the decision was on holiday at the time!! A real pain, as the final font could’ve been so much more.
10) "Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters & how they work in various languages."- Jeremy Tankard
Characteristics
(g) open bowl
(k) single junction at stem
(p) bowl is not connected
(q) tail points directly downward
(c) has barbs on top and bottom
6 and 9 are same characters only inversions of one another
both lowercase and capital letters mixed together.
only a few ascending letters
even less descending letters
numbers are not all on the same baseline
it's really just a disturbing font.
Disturbance is Disturbingly Disturbing
1) See below
2) Jeremy Tankard (born in South Africa, on a date apparently unknown by all of the world).
3) Designed in 1993
4) Classification: Serif
5) The classification Serif is characterized by little extra strokes found at the end of main vertical and horizontal strokes of some letterforms. Serifs fall into various groups and can be generally described as hairline, slab, or wedge and are either bracketed or unbracketed. Hairline serifs are much thinner than the main strokes. Square or slab serifs are thicker than hairline serifs all the way up heavier weight than the main strokes. Wedge serifs are triangular in shape. Unbracketed serifs attach directly to the strokes of the letterform, sometimes abrubtly or at right angles. Bracketed serifs provide a curved transition between the serif and the main strokes. Within these divisions serifs can be blunt, rounded, tapered, pointed, or some hybrid shape.
6) Other fonts of the same classification: Perpetua, and Goudy.
7) Louis Rosserto and John Plunkett launch one of my favorite magazines, WIRED; the essay "Cult of the Ugly" by Steven Heller is published in Eye; and the great Justin Lodoly celebrated his 4th birthday in May of that same year.
8) Other fonts by the disturbed Jeremy Tankard: Bliss Pro, Enigma, and Wayfarer.
9) Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966. Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.
With Disturbance™ the primary concern was rhythm and how to extend the possibilities within the accepted current structure of the alphabet. Tschichold pointed out that poor rhythm in type destroys legibility and readability. The failure of some of the early attempts in single alphabet design is with a lack of rhythm and harmony; the concepts were too often clouded in the modernist ideas of the time.
The 26 letters that comprise the Disturbance alphabet were chosen for maximum legibility. These letters were then harmonised and ascenders and descenders added. This increases the vertical movement within the type and together with the many ligatures, creates new word shapes and a new rhythm.After graduation I got a job in corporate design at Addison Design Consultants. My first project was Sabena Belgian Airlines (now gone). Addison went bankrupt in 1994 (ish) and I went and worked at Wolff Olins, where I stayed for about 4 years (though I did take 6 months off to travel Australia). During the 6 (ish) years of employment I developed Bliss and a few other fonts (Blue Island, The Shire Types, Alchemy) in my spare time. When I came back from Australia I basically knew I wanted to leave and do my own thing. So a few months after my return I resigned and set up Jeremy Tankard Typography to focus on my type designs.
Type today wouldn’t exist without the technology - it is an absolute part of it. Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters and how they work in various languages. I approach type design as product design (not so much as art). As time goes on it ’can’ be seen more as software design - some designers already see it as this (think of Letterror in The Netherlands).
I don’t see the technology as a constraint - more a challenge. I enjoy making OpenType fonts which involve a great deal of program code in order to make the fonts function.The design of type hasn’t changed much over the years. The same problems exist today as they did 100 years ago and longer. As technology changes/advances there are just more issues, sometimes different issues, to juggle. The optical effects still remain - overshoots, spacing, balance, rhythm… but now we also have Windows OS, Mac OS, PostScript, TrueType, low resolution output, ClearType rendering, Quartz rendering, Unicode, OpenType features and expanded EU language support etc. etc.
I generally design for my own foundry. Sometimes people contact me to ask if I undertake commissions (from logos to full fonts). Depending on what the job is and how busy I am, I will accept the project. I generally only work on new designs and ones that could eventually enter my retail collection.
Sometimes commissions are restrictive (I may not accept these jobs). Sometimes they are open - as they want me to design it, not re-work their attempt. Christchurch Art Gallery was a perfect job - the release version is Aspect. They initially wanted a basic font - I decided to turn it into a huge ligature-based beast - they got a lot more than they asked for. As a result the visual design of the art gallery is intrinsically linked to the design of the font.
The recent Arjowiggins Inuit font was a bit restricted. I wanted to make it support Central European languages and a few weights, but the person who could make the decision was on holiday at the time!! A real pain, as the final font could’ve been so much more.
10) "Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters & how they work in various languages."- Jeremy Tankard Jeremy More Jeremy Even More Jeremy
Graphic Design Referenced
