In order to get the ‘wonky’ quality into Chia, I designed and built a new software tool that allowed us to have flexible and exacting control over many manipulations of the design. All of these decisions were giving us a basic structure for Chia that was simultaneously systematic and energetic. Danelle implemented this idea into the cap drawings, and they started feeling more human, unique, and charming. I drew a sketch of systematic ‘overhangs’ for the cap drawings, that were reminiscent of the kind of handwriting detail that feels very human: humans are not super good at making two strokes line up exactly. Glyphs like ‘x’ and ‘k’ had terminations that aligned to the direction of the stroke, rather than to the baseline or x-height, which made them feel more animated and alive. Danelle’s drawings of the ‘v’ and ‘w’ are great examples, with their strokes that bow slightly, rather than being comprised of straight lines. I had drafted a fairly straightforward geometric sans as a basis for the design, but we immediately began implementing construction choices that were warmer and more hand-made. A balance between function and character. To avoid this, Danelle came up with a very clever solution: ‘domed’ endings that were neither fully round or fully straight. We have previously observed something called the ‘dogbone effect,’ where literally rounded strokes seem to swell in weight as they terminate. It seemed fitting that the Chia fonts have a sort of a ‘pen’ quality to them, which implied rounded ball-point-like endings to strokes. Print handwriting was a great place to begin because it is traditional, familiar, and structured, but it is also something that feels naive and human, rather than mechanical and perfect. Knowing the Chia fonts could be used in dialogue put a distinctive ‘functional’ spin on the brief, but we also knew how important the ‘wonky’ aesthetics would be to the result. We knew these fonts had to be grounded in something systematic, and stay legible, but they also had to feel like they were drawn by someone, that they had heart. The characters and plot points within the game gave reason for these fonts.įor Chia, the typeface intended (for instance) for the notebooks of the game’s lead character, Danelle Cheney researched print handwriting exemplars. Whereas the reasoning for many custom typefaces is something like ‘it has to be legible in this context’ or ‘we want this to represent our brand,’ the brief for these fonts was largely based in narrative. We loved hearing about their perspective on the visuals, and learning about what each font was meant to do in context. Our early meetings were led by art director Lisette Titre-Montgomery, and designer Seth Forester, who shared the look and feel of the game with us, and walked us through some placeholder fonts they had been using during development. That left most of the process to the ‘how’ question, and we got straight to work figuring that out. Double Fine’s message to us was loud and clear: we know that people make fonts, this game needs fonts, and this is why. Because the talented team at Double Fine spend their time making custom assets to immerse the player further into the experience of their games, they understood the value of custom fonts right off the bat. We feel understood by people who work in games.
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