Fa, fit, Faar.

Flier for VCRG talk in May. It has helped me formalise how to structure the paper. The text looks Nordic, fa, afar, fit (who, what, where). The design will be screen printed, folded and given to participants at the meeting.

Doric caps

Doric caps...work in progress. The sketches are one of seven A4 sheets.

Screen print Doric font 1 Lowercase

Screen print of Doric lowercase. The tones of green denote elongated vowels and idiosyncrasies of speech and pronunciation. Charles Murray's poem 'It wasna his Wyte' has been explored using reduced characters from the Doric typeface to see if it remains legible and coherent. It is clear that less details can be deployed, otherwise legibility and meaning begin to break down.

Screen printing images 2

Screen printing images

Screenprinting course, Leceister Created slate grey and lime green screen print of Doric Test.

Test Doric 2

Doric typeface test 2 Taking the font: Stone Semi Bold, I have distorted the vowels to represent the elongation of words, based on the interviews I conducted in November. Notably, this was raised by both Norman Harper and Robbie Shepherd when explaining the difference between rural and city based Doric. 'It's a cold day', for example, would be said very slowly: 'it's a 'coooooooooold daaaaaaaaay'. Not only have I distorted the letterforms using a scanner and movement, but I have also introduced Nordic references (over the lowercase a) and a tilde to indicate vox fluctuation. Bringing the letterforms back into a static and formal environment (rigid font) does not work and will require further development.

Developing typography test 1

Doric font Test 1 Reflecting on the work created last week and through talking to colleagues and fellow researchers, Leo Broadley and author Norman Harper...key areas of interest have been on the following: 1 Nordic influences (N.Harper) 2 Pronunciation guides for the reader (L.Broadley) Constructive criticism has guided me to be careful about the rounded letterforms (too childlike). From these debates and suggestions I have consciously included Nordic accents to the letter 'a' and 'o'. The vertical additions to p and q have altered to horizontals for b and d. These lines represent organic flux of voice in the speaker. The letterforms 'w' and 'e' have repetitive elements, for the e the counter is repeated and echoes to show the elongation of vowels in the dialect. This is similar for the 'w' and the inspiration was taken from the school children's work from the Torry school. A Capital T and lowercase t have been amalgamated to signify an abrupt pronunciation within Doric (for example, stoot = stout) The word 'forfochen' has inspired the angular sharper aspects of the the stroke of the 'f'. Although in my interviews with the Doric speakers all proposed that their way of speaking is soft and gentle...to a non speaker some words had a gutteral and strong snappy sound, with a strong attitude to boot! The next progression is to ensure angles for the terminals match, change the width of the second repeat to lowercase 'i' and to maintain consistency.

Lowercase a,b,c Doric typeface development. When designing the school children's lettering into digital fonts, it became clear that this font does not suit symmetry, as soon as this is imposed the charm and the rustic edges ‘jar’ and the Doric character is forced. I now know I can go back into vector but apply jaunty angles, rough edges and handmade embellishments within the characters. This is more in keeping with the ethos of the Doric spoken word. Each oval placed within the counters are at varying angles to represent the different pronunciations and quirks within the dialect. Counters within lowercase a = minus: 20 degrees b, d, p q are all -15 degrees Straight lines have been banished within letterforms to align with the fluidity and cadence of the spoken word. Letterforms have a softened edge, not hard edge as the language has a gentle lilt 'Bouba' from research, not ‘kiki’.

Digitising School children's typeface

Doric typeface

In 2012 I chanced upon a radio interview with the author Norman Harper talking about the origins of Doric in Scotland, I was instantly fascinated. This was under-represented and not well known (particularly in the Midlands!). Having completed an MA exploring the parallels of oral language and typography, this seemed a viable research project for my continuing practice as a graphic designer. My research topic is to create a typographic response to the Scottish Dialect of 'Doric'. This dialect is located in the North East part of Scotland. So far I have interviewed 8 participants, professors, teachers, authors, speakers and I have collated typeface 'designs' and sketches from school children in Torry, Scotland. Today I will retrace the children's typefaces and start to design a hybrid font in due course. I will upload the work in progress over the next few weeks/months. From the interviews conducted, two areas came to light: 1 Children need to be involved to keep the dialect alive 2 One typeface will not 'solve' the issue for the speakers of Doric, there are so many variables in accent and words. For example, there are 7 ways to say 'seagull', from inner city to coastal.