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Type Design, Gill Sans Ultra Bold 2010
Typographer, UIC, MFA Thesis, 2010 Curiosity of the misfitted Gill Sans Ultra Bold led to the creation of the new version, Gill Sans Ultra Bold 2010, shown at the top. Through the process of deconstruction and analysis of the entire Gill Sans family, I derived design principles to recreate a systematic Ultra Bold typeface that withheld Eric Gill's high standards for humanist fonts. Gill Sans current font family used in system development. Gill Sans Extra Bold, Bold, Regular, Light. |
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Gill Sans Font Analysis
Designer, UIC, MFA Thesis, 2010 Deconstruction of the Monotype Gill Sans family to examine the systems of this semi-geometric, humanist font. The hypothesized outcome was principles derived from the original suite in order to recreate a more systematic Gill Sans Ultra Bold. In the first spread (left), you will see the current Gill Sans Ultra in a red outline to understand the lack of system used in it's creation. The grey shapes represent the all other weights of the family. The second spread (middle), deconstructs the elements of the letterform by understand the nuances of of the overall shape, counterspace, terminal, and successiveness of it's measurements. The third spread (right), shows a before and after of Eric Gill's original Ultra Bold (top) and my version of Gill Sans Ultra Bold 2010. |
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A Look at Eric Gill
Designer, UIC, MFA Thesis, 2010 Spread from a comprehensive research book that I utilized in understand Eric Gill's body of work. The knowledge and awareness of his values, work ethic and philosophy enabled me to represent him during the creation of Gill Sans Ultra Bold 2010. I sought to find the reason why an experienced typographer would include an exaggerated Ultra Bold. What I found was, Eric Gill had been commissioned to create a font for a corporate banking and instead provided a social commentary of the early 1900’s, a political cartoon drawn in typography. A revealing caption from Eric Gill, says, “If the bankers, in the Psalmist’s phrase, ‘waxed fat and kicked,’ then their symbolic £-sign must achieve, when necessary, the maximum fatness and kick that a good lettering-artist could reconcile with his æsthetic conscience,” (see last spread on the right). |
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The Work of Eric Gill
Designer, UIC, MFA Thesis, 2010 Infographic mapping the work of Eric Gill. He began as a stone mason which led him to not only refine his talents as a typographer but also as a sculptor. Detail of Mapping Eric Gill's work |
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Panel Collage
UIC, MFA Thesis, 2010. Gouche and collage on wood panel. Top: Place, 2010. Gouache, newsprint, graph paper. Middle: Time, 2010. Gouache, graphite. Bottom: ART Nonsense, 2010. Gouache, acrylic, graphite, ink, newsprint, cardstock. Three sections of drawing table tops summarizing the journey of my thesis. This work was inspired by Eric Gill’s philosophies. His life was often full of contradictions, his social activism, typography, and writings on the functionality of everything that he did, motivated the freedom in my creative process to balance the technical aspects of designing a humanist typeface with the human side of creating art. I was able to incorporate these concepts into the creation of the typeface, Gill Ultra 2010 as a way to maintain the integrity of the character of Eric Gill. *Reproductions of Eric Gill’s works were use in these pieces. |
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