Publisher: Harald GeislerZebramatic is a font for editorial design use, to create headlines and titles in appealing stripes. Constructed to use flexible and a variety of graphical possibilities, Zebramatic type is easy to utilize. The font is provided in 3 designs: POW, SLAM and WHAM. These styles work both as ready-made typefaces and as patterns to create special, individualized type. The font design's full capacity is unleashed by layering glyphs from 2 or all 3 styles in different colors or shades.
Dealing with the various designs I was reminded of the late Jackson Pollock put paintings-- in particular the documents of his painting process by Hanz Namuth and Paul Falkernburg in the movie Jackson Pollock 51. In Pollock's photos the complex appeal emerges from how he layered the poured and leaked paint onto the canvas. Comparable joyful experience and interesting outcomes emerge by layering the different designs of Zebramatic type.
Texture
In the heart of the Style is Zebramatics unique texture. It is based on an analog distorted stripe pattern. The distortion is used to a grade that makes the pattern complex however still consistent and clear. You can view some of the preliminary stripe patterns in the background of examples in the Gallery. Zebramatic POW, SLAM and WHAM each deal a distinct pallet of stripes-- a special zebra hide. POW and WHAM use different distortions of the same line width. SLAM is cut from a wider pattern with thicker stripes. The letter cut and kerning corresponds throughout styles.
Design Concept
Attention-grabbing textured or weathered fonts are perfect for headings, advertisements, publications and posters. In these circumstances rugged uniqueness, letter flow, and summary functions are amplified and exposed. Textured typefaces likewise right away raise the design questions of how to create alignment across a word and handle repeated letters.
Zebramatic was developed as a specifically flexible font, one that might be used easily in a single design or by superimposing, interchanging and layering styles to produce a distinct type. The various styles are entirely interchangeable (identical metrics and kerning). This architecture gives the typographer the freedom to decide which type or types fit best to the particular project.
Alignment and repeating were unique concerns in the style process. The striped patterns in Zebramatic are carefully conceived to line up horizontally however not to match. Matching patterns would create strong letter-pairs that would "stand out" of the word. For example, take the bothersome word "stuff". If Zebramatic aligned alphabetically, the texture of S T and U would line up perfectly. The repeated F is likewise an issue. Think of a heading that states "APPEARANCE HERE". If the letters OO and EE have actually copied "unique" glyphs - the heading suggests mass production, maybe even that the designer does not care. Some OpenType features can work immediately around such disenchanting scenarios by accessing various glyphs from the extended glyph-table. However these automations are likewise repeated; the produced options end up being patterns themselves.
Flip and stack
To master the scenario described above, Zebramatic offers a different programmatic practice. To remove alphabetic alignment, the letters in Zebramatic are developed individually. To prevent repetition, the designer can flip in between the three styles (POW, SLAM, WHAM) providing three choices per glyph. Stacking layers in different series offers theoretical 27 (3 * 3 * 3) unique letterforms. A last variable to have fun with is color (i.e. red, blue, black). Images showing the layering capacity of Zebramatic are provided in the Gallery.
The style is robust and practical. The font style is quickly operated through the main font style panel (vs. the surprise sub-sub-menu for OpenType associated features). The procedure of accessing various glyphs is likewise applicable in programs that do not support OpenType thoroughly (i.e. Word or older Variations of Illustrator).
International Specs
.Zebramatic is prepared for your global typographic safari. The font contains a worldwide character set and extra signs-- beneficial in editorial and graphic style. The typeface is available in OpenType PostScript flavored and TrueType Format.
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