Greg. Thank you for the reply. We don't have "Middle School" in New South Wales and I haven't a clue as to what YA means (Young Adult ?).
The first comment I make is to get rid of the “wobblies”. A large number of people think that if you have wavy bits in your letters then it becomes “calligraphy” whereas the opposite is true. Strong, decisive and firm strokes give greater legibility and greater satisfaction to the eye.
For example, your letter
E has a generous distribution of the “wobblies” ! Traditional Gothic uses the rounded form such as here.
But I can understand your wish to use the straighter form for younger children --- although I think middle school should be able to cope easily with the rounded form. So maybe this
illustrates something nearer to your aim. Note that entry and exit strokes have a very slight “wave goodbye” feel about them and not the hefty “bouncing” effect which I refer to as the “wobblies”. See also in the
M N and
X .
Most of your upper-case letters are basically good and will fit their purpose well. The introduction of a vertical hairline is very acceptable --- especially if it were in red (making it an “ornament” and also allowing it then to be used in the
S without it’s looking like a dollar symbol).
Here is an exemplar which I have designed for you to play with. There is no copyright on it so you may feel free to modify, adapt, accept or reject as much as you wish. You have a springing link stroke within many of your lower-case letters so I have introduced that in some of the upper-case as a visual harmony.
The following is the same alphabet but I have added the hairlines as colour. The first row has a single line of red (traditional colour with black). The second row has one line of red and the other of blue (both of same thickness). The third row has the colours reversed (and the red thinner than the blue).
As you can see, even this simple idea makes a very effective “background” to the letters.
When I looked at your lower-case letters, I wondered whether you would be interested in a personalised version of a genuine style used in a manuscript of 675 years ago in Eastern England. In 2009 whilst researching palaeography in early original manuscripts in my old college in Cambridge, I came across a very interesting dissertation on the Gospel of John. I have modified the style three times to suit more modern eyes and now have made a fourth version that may be of interest to you.
Letters
j, k, w, y and
z were not used then so I have designed them in a manner which I think would fit the style. Also, the letter
r has a differing shape when used after a “bowl” letter --- see the third row. Again, I offer this exemplar free of copyright.
Geoff
Linear Mode
