Cat Wentworth
Intermediat
Source material: Fell Small Pica (John Fell, mid 17th century)
Spring semester 2021
In researching various type specimens, I came across a book of Old Style typefaces designed by John Fell, a bishop from Oxford and a scholar of philosophy, philology, and classical and religious texts. He wanted to be a publisher, so he studied various typefaces with the aim of designing his own family of faces that would visually support his writings. The result was the Fell Types, which the bishop bequeathed to the Oxford University Press in 1686.
The Fell Types were among the first Old Styles cast in England. The original source material for these faces remains a bit mysterious but was likely of Dutch origin. Indeed, the Fell types are a stylistic link between seventeenth century Dutch Old Styles (like those of Kis and Van Dijck) and eighteenth century English Old Styles (think Caslon). Some of the sizes were cut in-house at Oxford by Peter de Walpergen, but, given that the small and large sizes differ quite a bit, at least one more person presumably helped.
I was drawn to the Fell Types not only for their mysterious origins but for their contradictory details. The x-heights of the letterforms are inconsistent, the baseline is rough, and many related letters differ wildly in their details. Yet, when viewed as whole faces, the tension settles in a satisfying way.
Moreover, larger size specimens, such as the (28 point) French Canon pictured above, meld soft, round elements with sharp, almost aggressive moments. I sought to keep some of these moments (such as the slashed angles on the capital ‘J’ and lowercase ‘j’), while regularizing the character set for a smaller reading size. I chose to draw from the 11-point specimen (also called ‘Small Pica’); the resulting characters work both for reading text and for smaller-sized captions.
Much of the noise left by the original metal type, and the resulting ambiguous details, have been cleared away in favor of sharper, more squared off serifs and terminals. I regularized the numerals, created more comprehensive punctuation, and drew my own interpretations of several characters (Q, S, ampersand, and more). Without clear or comprehensive source material for the Small Pica size, many details have been extrapolated from the French Canon specimen.
(images coming soon)
Overall, Intermediat is a modern interpretation that negotiates the typeface’s 17th century origins and its 21st century applications, between ink bleed and vectors, and between a symphony of varied details and a smooth reading experience.
These student typeface designs created at Yale School of Art are noncommercial academic projects, commonly revivals or reinterpretations of historical typefaces. Read more about this typeface design course at Yale School of Art.
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