Modern creative font design

Author: Zhuang Zhiping / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-03-01
Features:
4. Round Black Body (also known as Round Uniform Body) is derived from the Black Body typeface. Its design follows the skeleton structure of Black Body characters, replacing the square ends of strokes with rounded ones. Structurally, the strokes extend outward, and the frame expands, making the characters appear larger, thus more full and substantial compared to Black Body. Round Black Body has the characteristics of stable structure, uniform grayscale, strong legibility, round and full shapes, fresh flexibility, and a strong sense of flow. However, it lacks the solemn and powerful style of Black Body. Round Black Body is a trendy typeface with a wide range of applications. Generally, darker shades (bold round) can be used for headlines in graphic design or other advertising titles, while lighter and brighter fonts (thin round, standard round, or medium round) are suitable for product descriptions and body text in books and periodicals, achieving good results. The center of gravity design of Round Black Body is usually slightly higher than that of other typefaces, meaning the center of gravity of the entire character is shifted upward, giving a tight-top-loose-bottom feel. Currently, some simplified character designs used in printing by Round Black Body are not fully standardized. Some characters mix simplified and traditional components; some strokes do not follow the standard simplified forms. For example, the upper part of the character "cuì" (jade) is written in the traditional form of "yǔ"; the (traditional) is written as the simplified form of ""; the (traditional) is written as the traditional form of ""; the third stroke of is written as a flicking dot. Visually, it aligns with font design principles, especially the comfortable grayscale, but it is not standardized and can easily cause confusion in strokes. The component of in is written as ; the upper dot and stroke of are written as a flicking dot (), etc., all deviating from the current standardized simplified character forms, which does not meet the requirements and usage of standardized characters. It needs gradual correction to achieve perfection.
5. Fang Song Typeface Fang Song typeface is a modified font inspired by Song Dynasty printing style, originating around 1916. It was created by Ding Fuzhi and Ding Shanzhi of Qiantang by blending the structure of traditional Song typefaces with the strokes of regular script. It is called Fang Song to distinguish it from the Song typefaces of the Ming Dynasty, which were heavier on the horizontal strokes. Fang Song typeface has the characteristics of strong, upright, and elegant shapes, making it one of the most refined fonts. Its body comes in three forms: square, flat, and long. Square Fang Song has similar height and width, roughly square, also known as Regular Fang Song. It is distinctive for body text, annotations, and descriptions in newspapers, books, documents, and artistic articles. Flat Fang Song has a height-to-width ratio of 2:3 or 5:7 (similar to clerical script), used for books, documents, titles, or subtitles. Due to its uniform and elegant strokes, it pairs well with other fonts for contrast effects. Long Fang Song has a height-to-width ratio of 2:3 or 4:3, with a slender and rigorous structure, most commonly used in engineering and mechanical drawings. It can also be called the specialized font for technical drawing annotations. Fang Song typeface has standardized forms, with each stroke, radical, and character structure following a certain standard and posture. Designers cannot arbitrarily modify it based on content or personal feelings; identical characters must be identical in form. From this perspective, Fang Song prioritizes solemn and accurate expression of content over art, belonging to the category of practical fonts. Additionally, character combinations are achieved through standardized strokes and radicals using methods like filling, pairing, and combining. Fang Song typeface has a slightly elongated body, uniform thickness, angular starts and ends, and slanted horizontal strokes. Its pointed tips (dots, strokes, hooks, etc.) are long. It has a stylish and elegant appearance. However, overly large characters may appear weak and lack force. Printing Fang Song typeface is typically written with a brush and then refined. Thus, it reflects the sharp, long, and elastic tips of brush strokes, with varying thicknesses (thin when light, thick when heavy) and flexibility in curves, straight lines, rotations, and movements. It has a strong handwritten characteristic, giving a sense of closeness and dynamism. Handwritten Fang Song typefaces are widely used in science, technology, and engineering fields, such as mechanical drawings, geological annotations, descriptions, presentations, and manuals. It has great potential. Especially, handwritten Fang Song with hard pens is even more convenient and flexible, offering great versatility. Therefore, practicing Fang Song typeface greatly benefits understanding the structure and proportions of Chinese characters and writing other fonts (Figure 3—173).
6. Regular Script Modern printing typefaces use Regular Script, which evolved from Clerical Script during the late Han Dynasty and was later refined and standardized. Its characteristics: square and complete structure, strokes with bone, muscle, and balance, moderate thickness, high clarity, strong readability, and a comfortable, dignified, and elegant style. Its application range is very broad, commonly used in advertisements, name cards, official documents, letters, books, annotations, etc. (Figure 3—174).
7. Clerical Script Clerical Script typefaces come in various styles, with unique strokes, calligraphy techniques, and structural forms. Among them, the Han Dynasty style, such as the "Zhang Qian Stele," has square and steady shapes with a slightly rough calligraphy style; the "Liqi Stele" has a slender and elegant style with refined strokes; the "Caoquan Stele" is round and elegant, with a graceful and flowing appearance; the "Shichen Stele" is refined and composed, with clear contrasts; the "Shimen Sòng" has slender and vigorous strokes, sharp and straight. Additionally, styles from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty also vary. The Tang Dynasty style has flat and orderly shapes, with a strong and elegant appearance; the Yuan Dynasty style, represented by Zhao Mengfu, has a seal script influence, with exaggerated horizontal strokes, angular hooks, and variations in strokes and structures, embodying a profound and rich ancient charm. The Qing Dynasty style of Deng Shiru has strokes that create a sense of pressure, leaving a naive and rustic impression in the ink. The modern style of Wu Changshuo has square or elongated shapes with bold and mature calligraphy. These excellent Clerical Script styles, through processing and refining of calligraphy techniques, strokes, and structures, havely innovated, developed, and transformed, creating new Clerical Script styles with spacious, clear, and standardized strokes. From the current Clerical Script typefaces, we can appreciate their ancient and vigorous charm. They possess aesthetic qualities such as dignity, simplicity, steadiness, thickness, vigor, elegance, and refinement, and are widely used in print media. They are suitable for commemorative and permanent writings, advertising, presentations, and printing book titles (Figure 3—175).
8. New Wei Typeface New Wei typeface evolved from the traditional Chinese calligraphy style of Wei Stele and formed in the late Qing Dynasty, becoming popular in the 1970s. New Wei typeface exaggerates the curves and angles of strokes in the traditional Wei Stele, transforming soft strokes into straight ones, thus increasing the hardness and strength of Wei characters. New Wei typeface has a wide range of applications in modern printing and writing. For example, it is often used for headlines in newspapers, books, posters, and advertisements, achieving very ideal results. The printing typeface of New Wei has standardized shapes, strokes, and structures, with uniform darkness and a unique character. It is striking and eye-catching when used in graphic design headlines, creating strong contrast effects. Hand-drawn with a brush, flat brush, or board brush, it is convenient and flexible, with spacious and beautiful shapes, as well as a neat and solemn appearance. It is more unrestrained than Clerical Script but resembles Black Body, giving a strong sense of display. When drawing New Wei, a brush, flat brush, or board brush is typically used. Its calligraphy technique is characterized by a flat and thick brush. Therefore, when the brush absorbs ink, the tip should be slightly flattened. Another feature of New Wei is that all turns are square on the outside and round on the inside, making the characters appear more vigorous and powerful. The start of New Wei is similar to Clerical Script, using a hidden tip, with slight pauses at turns and hooks or hooks at the end, without a return stroke. Since the strokes are flat, the end stroke is not sharp but naturally forms a wide and strong tip. Some strokes are written together with the previous ones, but this is not always the case and must be determined based on the shape of the character being written. Methods for drawing New Wei include traditional calligraphy techniques with a brush, followed by refinement, to complete the font design; or traditional calligraphy techniques with single-line modeling to draw hollow characters, which also achieves good results. Of course, drawing hollow characters requires a solid foundation in New Wei to achieve the desired effect.