Kirimomi Swash Font

Publisher: Wordshape

For the previous year I have actually been working on a new type style task with the Japanese sports style brand Onitsuka Tiger in combination with my online journal, Néojaponisme. I took a seat with some folks at Onitsuka Tiger's office in Tokyo to pore over the business's huge archives of print advertising from the business's advent in 1949 through today, and to draw inspiration as I pleased for the style of a set of digital fonts that assist tell the story of Onitsuka Tiger as a brand.
Checking out the numerous ads, brochures, brochures and assorted other products, it became instantly clear that there was a bigger story to be told-- the Onitsuka Tiger products cover the technological and cultural development of Modern printing. The typography and graphic style of Onitsuka Tiger's assorted printed materials supplied a myriad of potential jumping-off points that cover both Japanese and Western history, exposing a stunning series of commonalities in addition to fascinating divergent minutes in time.

From classical influence to extremely futuristic, there is a substantial range of fascinating sources to pull from. Onitsuka Tiger's printed promotions began in the age of metal typesetting, benefited from phototype compositing in the 1960s through the 1980s, then got in the digital realm in the late 1980s. As a Japanese business that marketed domestically and abroad, the marketing department needed to understand typographic patterns worldwide, and this was reflected in their printed materials. From the prevalence of American Type Creators typefaces used in early marketing blended with hand lettering to incised prototype katakana and hiragana to the Helveticization of the world, Onitsuka Tiger's printed matter functions as a cultural and visual study of popular styles and distinct techniques to graphic design.

- Kirimomi Swash
A display typeface which is rooted in both classical kind and the sharp edges of photoype lettering. The typeface looks back to the historic kinds of French typefounder Jean Jannon for it's base, in addition to the curved terminals and weighty serifs of the work of William Caslon. The various interpretations of their work throughout history have been used to offer each letterform presence, stability and rigidness. Sharp phototype swashes chosen from the logo for Emperor, a line of golf shoes launched by Onitsuka Tiger thirty-plus years ago have actually been used to give the face a timeliness of the Modern/Postmodern period, offsetting the historical skeletal frame.

Kirimomi Swash is first and primary a display face, and in order for it to work with dignity, a variety of ligatures and alternate characters have actually been included. It is intentionally not designed for text setting, as that would need a smoothing-out of the most prominent aspects, and the result would more than likely be a typeface that while possibly working, would not stick out in a crowd.

A number of pattern-making glyphs have actually been drawn and consisted of in lieu of standard typographic accessory within each of these fonts. Contemporary font innovation enables the deployment of pattern aspects in a regulated environment, allowing designers to manage the quantity of space in side bearings. When typeset and leading/line-height is changed, one can produce smooth, even patterns, pick coloring and change scale rapidly without having to turn to external files.