Saturday 31 October 2009

Rue

Rue is my third typeface and also my graduation work at VSUP. TypeTogether will be publishing the 'upright' version by the end of this year while I am currently working on the italics.

Formally, Rue is conceived as a casually ornamental, low contrast and vertically-stressed monoline narrow-faced san serif with random traces of calligraphic tendencies. I suppose it is a representative summation of my eclectic aesthetic decisions through the disconcerting process. As a face, Rue is rather spirited and biological which seems to purpose itself well in an organic lifestyle of aesthetic and wellness such as botanical products and services, books and literature of such. In addition to an extensive period of typesetting Rue, I also realized the potential of the face as a form for gift and ornament. In retrospect, Rue was conceived as a typeface, used as an image and discovered as an ornament.

Why Rue?

It was to commemorate the transition of tutorship from František Štorm to Tomáš Brousil. I cannot figure out if I have had the 'best of both' or 'not enough of either'... At the same time, I needed an -R- word to continue from -P-rahaha and -Q-uandary. That is how Rue received its name before conceiving its form.

Rue is conceived in 2 styles (display+book) with 5 weights (thin + light + regular + semibold + bold). Approx. 400(+) glyphs per character set.
Typical presentation style where colours are used sparingly.
Muddy-coloured alternative.
Exhibition panel standing approx. 3x3m.
In the press, on the drum. Offset and silkscreen printing.
38 copies of offset prints with silkscreen covers. Freshly assembled from bookbinding workshop.
Same specimen with cover variations.
Inside the specimen.
The specimen both as a face and ornament.
Rue as an ornament.
Rue was never about clarity.
And abandoned ideas.
At the final show.
Rue is a diary of finding my way in the vast universe of typeface making.

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