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.