Post on 24-Jan-2021
transcript
gionby Mariko Takagi
gion
,
,
,
、
RegularRegular ItalicLightBold
HanziKanjiHiraganaKatakana
............................
a typeface design by Mariko TakagiReading, 2014
Latin, Japanese and Chinese in one font: Gion
Gion is a serif typeface for multi-lingual typesetting in Latin,
Japanese and Chinese*. As a contemporary interpretation
of Modern faces, Gion synthesises historical stylistic features
of Modern faces with characteristics and qualities that
enhance comfortable and continuous reading in longer text.
In other words, it connects elegance with functionality
– form and zweck. Gion has a gentle appearance, pays respect
to the content and leaves the graphic designer enough space
to create a visual tonality in their application.
*) simplified as well as traditional Chinese characters.
夢ゆメ
iki iki イキイキ Someone or something that is full of
energy and life.
iso iso イソイソ Can’t wait, based on joy or expectation.
Cheerful and excited.
uto uto ウトウト Feeling tired, dozing.
samu zamu サムザム Description of a cold, wintry and deso-
late atmosphere.
teku teku テクテク Walking a long distance at a steady
pace, step by step.
zuki zuki ズキズキ A throbbing pain, either physical or
emotional caused by a broken heart.
The name GionThe name Gion has its origin in the Japanese word ‘Giongo’*
for onomatopoeia, also described as mimetic words. Unlike
Western cultures, onomatopoeia in the Japanese context
are not restricted to comics or children’s speech. As well as
sounds made by humans, animals, nature, technological
devices (or any other ambient noise) and others, even percep-
tions of physical and emotional constitutions can be expressed
by ‘Giongo’. Therefore in Japanese, onomatopoeia are inherent
elements of the spoken and written language as they assign
subtle and transitory aspects a voice in the language. They are
phonetic transcriptions of emotions.
The first application of this typeface will be the second
volume of the book project »drawing with sounds«. This is a
bilingual (English–Japanese) artist’s book telling a story with
and through Japanese onomatopoeia representing the mood
and emotions – that is, the sound effects of the story.
*) »gi« means mimicking, »on« sound, noise and tone and »go«
stands for word/term.
Apple ... esprit ... tiger ... りんご ... ゴマシオ ... 女の人 ... tomato ... 時々 ...
Kinder ... Romantik ... Künstlerdorf ... formidable ... essential ...
Lokomotive ... Endlosdiskussionsstoff ... fox ... x-mas-cake ... えだまめ ...
Marcel ... loyality ... 雪女 ... なみだ ... daylight ... terminology
... 夢国 ... i-scream ... mono-linear ... regular ... regular italic ...
condensed ... drop ... period ... double ... レトロ ...
ロゴタイプ ... please ... exotic ... comma ... ambience ... 笑顔 . 顏 . 颜 ...
onomatopoeia ... Anika ... 愛 ... 今 ... 毬子 ... 小泉八雲 ... mono-
syllabic ... cliffhanger ... Roswit ... tonality ... Yasunobu ... utopia ...
acapella ... ascenderline ... エリンギ ... gimmick ... 気 . 氣 . 气 ...
� . 绮 . 綺麗 ... identity ... ゆらゆら ... Lafcadio ...
originality ... 夜 ... Rucola ... Lampedusa ... ありんこ ... 氷 ... りす ...
sufficient ... Typo graphie ... efficiency-oriented ... descenders
... semantic ... condensed ... diacritics ... systematic ...
contextualise ... elaborate ... 永 ... 息 ... 気の毒な若い男 ... コツコツ ...
つぎつぎ ... Giraffenhalsmassage ... empathy ... やれやれ ... reflective ...
elegance ... ending ... grazil ... luminescent ... 高木 ...
gion.
The familyThe typeface family provides three weights, and four styles
for Latin: a regular, a bold, a thin and a regular italic.
Gion covers the two Japanese syllabic scripts Hiragana and
Katakana and also the Sino-Japanese Kanjis. Furthermore,
traditional and simplified shapes of Chinese characters
(Hanzi) are included. Currently the Japanese and Chinese
characters are in regular weight only.
The four styles in Latin share elemental features,
in the drop-shaped endings and the asymmetric bracketless
serifs and the axis*, that demonstrate the cohesion of the
family. These features are even applied to the Japanese
and Chinese character set in an appropriate way. The four
styles share the visual tonality of a subtle genteelness
and elegance.
At the same time, peculiarities of each style contribute
to the family and suggest an individual area of application
within the context of a graphic artwork.
*) In case of the Italic, it is sloped by 10 per cent.
Kanji
light Katakana
trad. Hanzi
simpl. Hanzi Hiragana
Bold
Regular
Regular Italic
» Man muß die Dinge so einfach wie möglich machen. Aber nicht einfacher.«
Gion is specifically designed for application as a text typeface.
Design details that contribute to the easily distinguishable
letter shapes in small sizes become visible features of the
design in bigger sizes.
The asymmetric serifs without brackets, along with
the long ascenders that go beyond the uppercase height
by setting a minimum for the leading, emphasise the horizon-
tal to support the reader in keeping the line easily. The
thin strokes (hair lines) are strong enough for setting text in
small sizes, even in 7 pt.
The subtle transition between thick and thin, com-
bined with a vertical stress in the strokes, creates an even text
colour. The drops are another feature of the typeface.
Gion Regular sets the tone for the typeface family.
By Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
Q R
1
2 3
4
5
6
71. The drop is one key
feature, shown in: a, b, f,
j, r, s, y and J.
2. The outline of the
asymmetric serif shows
the movement of being
written in one continuous
line and creates a triangle
on the one side. (2.a)
3. The axes of the
counters are vertical.
4. The cut of the out-
stroke is 30 degrees.
5. Top serifs are flat
at the top and show a
triangular shape.
6. Straight endstroke,
with a bracket.
7. The horizontal stroke
shows a similar behaviour
to the bottom serifs. (2.a.)
8. The tail of the
upper-case Q is inspired
by Scotch Roman.
9. The R shows a
kicked-up endstroke.
2.a 8 9
The regular
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity...
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Regular Italic
The regular italic is not simply a slanted version of the regular.
The letter shapes of both lower and upper cases differ from
the uprights.
The long and kicked-up out-strokes and the deep
joins of the of the thin and thick do not only visually connect
the letters and enhance the line formation of the text, but
introduce a sense of speed without haste to the appearance
of the text. Overall, the colour of the text is lighter than the
regular.
3 4
1 2
65
7
8
1. Deep joins.
2. Kicked-up outstrokes.
3. The tail of the lower-
case f visualises a fluent
movement.
4. Top serifs are trian-
gular at the top and
the lower side is parallel
to the baseline. This
shows a reversed stroke
behaviour to that of the
serifs of the Regular.
5. The right top serif is
turned inwards.
6. The cut of the out-
stroke is 30 degrees.
7. The drops vary in
shape and size to match
the dynamic of the letter
shape.
8. The angle of the
stems is 10 degrees, with
optical corrections.
9. The stems of the
lower cases don’t have
bottom serifs. The ending
of the stroke is slightly
angled.
10. The descender of
the lower-case p ends
with a serif that shows an
upward dynamic in
the angle of 10 degrees.
11. Upper cases are
designed individually.
p TEZSGQRX10 11
9
Through thick and thin.
The cold does not bother me any-more.
The Bold
The Light
The stroke contrast increases strongly in the bold face, while
the strength of the hair line from the regular is maintained.
The main stroke expands in both directions, outwards as well
as inwards, so that the counters of the round letters become
upright slim ovals and the outer shapes expand to be more
circular. The shapes become darker and heavier without get-
ting plump. The bold is designed for titling and/or for applica-
tion in bigger sizes.
Unlike the other styles in this typeface family, the light repre-
sents a monolinear face with the contradiction of keeping
the emphasised dark drops. The letters of the light are mainly
an adaptation of the skeleton of the regular with slight modi-
fications to the width; to balance the size of the counter,
the letters are slightly condensed. The construction of the
asymmetric serifs (one side triangular, the other flat) becomes
visible when the light is shown at a bigger scale.
The spotty dark drops (mainly featured in the lower
cases) cheer up the sharpness of the rather vertical and strict
structure of the light strokes and create a light-hearted text
impression. This style is suitable for display application, and it
works in both small and big font sizes.
_ Bold _
1. Top serifs of the bold
are flat at the top and
show a triangular shape,
like the serifs of the regu-
lar. However, the top left
anchor is slightly moved
to the right to reduce the
amount of black.
2. The cut of the
outstroke is 30 degrees.
3. The inner bottom
serif is shortened.
_ Light _
4. The construction
of the serifs becomes
especially visible in the
light weight. (4.a)
5. The cut of the
outstroke is 30 degrees.
6. The drops become
the eye-catching details in
the context of the mono-
linear strokes.
7. Lettershapes are
condensed.
4.a
6
7
1
fgz
3
2
QSR
4
6
5
She is alone.
She has been following them the whole day long, two men – one old, the other young – through their jour-ney across the Winter Wonderland.
During the whole day the old man kept talking animatedly. Sharing the story of his life. It was the story of a long fulfilled life with challenges, a lot of joy and something that he describes as ‘love’. The young man listened to the stories carefully.
Three of them arrived at a tavern on the dot of sunset. At this time, she noticed a shift in the eyes of the two men. While the eyes of the young man caught the fire of desire*, the eyes of the old man calmed down in satis-faction. She observed this change with great interest and curiosity from a safe distance. The old man only kept one last story in his mind.
めら*) めら
JapaneseA common contemporary Japanese text contains four different
scripts: Kanji (Sino-Japanese characters), the two Japanese
syllabic writings Hiragana and Katakana, and Latin letters. In
Japanese contemporary typefaces, Latin letters are part of the
basic character set. However, the embedded Latin faces are not
always designed with the same devotion or even skill as the
Japanese characters. The design quality often diverges widely
between the Japanese character set and the Latin within one
type family. It became almost a common practice among Japa-
nese graphic designers to choose a separate typeface to typeset
passages or words in Latin letters.
Gion forms a bridge between the different scripts,
which are not only different in complexity and shapes, but
also in what they visually express.
ドン。彼は顔に夕立のように雪がかかるので眼がさめ
た。小屋の戸は無理押しに開かれていた。そして雪明か
りで、部屋のうちに女、――全く白装束の女、――を
見た。その女は茂作の上に屈んで、彼に彼女の息をふき
かけていた、――そして彼女の息はあかるい白い煙のよ
うであった。ヒュウ。ほとんど同時に巳之吉の方へ振り
向いて、彼の上に屈んだ。彼は叫ぼうとしたが何の音も
発する事ができなかった。白衣の女は、彼の上に段々
低く屈んで、しまいに彼女の顔はほとんど彼にふれる
ようになった、そして彼は――彼女の眼は恐ろしかっ
たが――彼女が大層綺麗である事を見た。 ‘The snow
woman.’ しばらく彼女は彼を見続けていた、――それ
から彼女は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私は今
ひとりの人のように、あなたをしようかと思った。しか
し、あなたを気の毒だと思わずにはいられない、――あ
なたは若いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之吉さ
ん、もう私はあなたを害しはしません。しかし、もし
あなたが今夜見た事を誰かに――あなたの母さんにで
も――云ったら、私に分ります、そして私、あなたを殺
します。……覚えていらっしゃい、私の云う事を』そう
云って、向き直って、彼女は戸口から出て行った。その
時、彼は自分の動ける事を知って、飛び起きて、外を
見た。しかし、女はどこにも見えなかった。そして、雪
は小屋の中へ烈しく吹きつけていた。サラサラ。巳之吉
は戸をしめて、それに木の棒をいくつか立てかけてそれ
を支えた。彼は風が戸を吹きとばしたのかと思ってみ
た、――彼はただ夢を見ていたかもしれないと思った。
それで入口の雪あかりの閃きを、白い女の形と思い違い
したのかもしれないと思った。しかもそれもたしかでは
なかった。彼は茂作を呼んでみた。そして、老人が返事
をしなかったので驚いた。彼は暗がりへ手をやって茂作
の顔にさわってみた。そして、それが氷である事が分っ
た。茂作は固くなって死んでいた。
�綺麗绮
�绮綺麗
Kanji and Hanzi
As well as the Sino-Japanese characters (Kanji), Gion also
provides traditional and simplified Chinese characters (Hanzi)
to allow typesetting in Chinese.
The design of Kanji and Hanzi is a complex task. As
well as the coverage of a huge character set (for typefaces in
common use, a minimum of 10,000 characters), the variation
of stroke numbers within one character (between 1 and 64
strokes) is a key aspect that needs to be taken into account
while designing the characters.
The Kanji/Hanzi of Gion stylistically refer to the
classification Mincho (in Chinese Sonti). At the same time,
stroke contrast, fundamental shapes of top-serifs and the
presence of the drops, as some features of the Latin design, are
conveyed to match the tonality between the scripts within
one family.
The three characters
aligned at the left
(one on top of the other),
show the same character
in the three scripts:
traditional Hanzi,
Sino-Japanese Kanji and
simplified Hanzi (from top
to bottom). The second
character on the right
stays the same in all three
scripts.
1. The long dot, as one
recurring element in
Kanji/Hanzi. The position,
the complexity of the
entire character and the
surrounding strokes, and
the size, shape, propor-
tion and direction will
change depending on the
element it represents. The
consistent characteristic
throughout the variants is
the straight cut of the thin
instroke and the flattened
outline (similar to the
drop in the Latin) of the
thick.
2. Triangular serifs at
the right end of horizontal
strokes.
3. The shape of the stem
ending shows a similar
behaviour to the detail in
the Latin italic.
4. Overlaps of strokes
occur wherever the space
distribution requires it.
Sometimes the overlap
is applied to connect the
different radicals to one
character.
5. The strength of thick
and thin strokes (vertical
and horizontal) is adjust-
ed to optical alignment. In
complex characters, the
stroke weight is reduced.
1 2
3 54
ないしょだよ
ひみつだよ
すこしだけ
ぼくは
くるって
いるよ。
Hiragana
The Japanese syllabary Hiragana is used for native Japanese
words, grammatical particles and suffixes, among others.
The significant characteristics of Hiragana are their round
shapes and the limited number of strokes of maximum four
per character. In common Mincho typefaces (often classified
as an equivalent to the Latin Didone style), Hiragana is still
represented with a strong coherence to hand writing and
calligraphic shapes. Unlike this, the Hiragana characters of
Gion demonstrate a visual affinity to the rather geometric
skeleton of the Latin Modern faces. The outlines and strokes
of the Hiragana are clarified and adjusted to a vertical stress.
Stroke strength and modulation are linked to the lower cases
of the Latin regular.
1. The long dot, as one
recurring element in the
Japanese character set,
refers to the shape of the
drop in the Latin.
2. The loop is another
very relevant detail of
Hiragana. The shape
of the counter refers to
the counter shapes in the
Latin regular.
3. Instrokes of the
stems refer to the shapes
of the terminals in the
Latin regular.
4. The cut of the
outstroke is 30 degrees
5. The hook stays close
to the stem.
6. The curved stroke
shows a similar weight
distribution to the equiva-
lent in the Latin regular.
3
21
4
5
6
スキナコトヲ、
スキナトキニ。
Katakana
The second syllabary of the Japanese writing system is Kataka-
na, which is assigned to non-Chinese loanwords. As Katakana
characters were originally radicals of Chinese characters,
they share the same elements and stroke behaviour with Kanji
(Hanzi), with the only difference being the reduced complexity
– fewer than four strokes create one character.
In Gion, the simplicity of the stroke and the vertical
stress of the modulation support the coherence between the
shapes of Japanese Katakana and the upper cases of the Latin,
without latinising the Japanese script or ‘japonising’ the Latin
letters. Parallel to the Latin, the Katakana characters convey
an open, clear and gentle impression.
21
1. Triangular serif
aligned to the serifs of
Kanji.
2. Instrokes of the
stems refer to the shapes
of the terminals in the
Latin regular.
3. The shape of the stem
ending shows a similar
behaviour to the detail in
the Latin italic.
4. The ending of the
downstroke to the left is
cut vertically.
5. The cut of the out -
stroke is 30 degrees.
6. Characters with
shapes similar to ‘he’ and
‘ri’ in Hiragana (6.a)
and Katakana (6.b) are
visually distinguished.
6.a
6.b
へりヘリ
4
5
3
Die Weisse Frau beugte sich tiefer
über ihn, imer tiefer, bis ihr Gesicht
ihn fast berührte. Da sah er, dass sie
wunderschön war, obwohl ihre Augen
ihm angst machten. Ein Weilchen
betrachtete sie ihn, dann lächelte sie
und flüsterte: „Ich hatte im Sinn, mit
dir wie mit dem anderen Mann zu
verfahren, aber ich habe Mitleid mit
dir, weil du so jung bist. Du bist ein
hübscher Bursche, Minokichi, und ich
werde dir nichts zuleide tun. Erzählst
du aber irgend jemandem, und wär’s
auch deine Mutter, was du heute
nacht gesehen hast, dann werde ich es
erfahren und dich umbringen! Vergiss
das ja nicht!“
その女は茂作の上に屈んで、彼に彼女の息
をふきかけていた、――そして彼女の息
はあかるい白い煙のようであった。ほとん
ど同時に巳之吉の方へ振り向いて、彼の上
に屈んだ。彼は叫ぼうとしたが何の音も発
する事ができなかった。白衣の女は、彼の
上に段々低く屈んで、しまいに彼女の顔は
ほとんど彼にふれるようになった、そして
彼は――彼女の眼は恐ろしかったが――彼
女が大層綺麗である事を見た。しばらく彼
女は彼を見続けていた、――それから彼女
は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私
は今ひとりの人のように、あなたをしよう
かと思った。しかし、あなたを気の毒だと
思わずにはいられない、――あなたは若
いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之
吉さん、もう私はあなたを害しはしませ
Lafcadio Hearn:The Snow Woman. A pact as cold as ice and a love that leads to loneliness.
The act of balancing between the two:“lonelyness” vs. “being on one’s own”.
}
{雪女}An ancient Japanese ghost story that does not lose its fascination.
mingle-mangle language versions 38 39
あいうえおかきくけこさしすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふへほまみむめもやゆよらりるれろわんをゐゑ
が ぎぐげござじずぜぞば びぶべぼだぢづでど ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ ぁぃぅぇぉっゃゅょ {Hiragana}
アイウエオカキクケコサシスセソタチツテトナニヌネノハヒフヘホマミムメモヤユヨラリルレロワンヲ
ガギグゲゴザジズゼゾ バビブベボ ダヂヅデドパ ピ プ ペ ポァィゥェォッャュョ
{Katakana}
三上中之事云人今低何作入全八出分力動口叫吉同向吹呼固国夕外夜夢大女子害小少屈屋層巳年形彼微思恐息愛戸手押振支方日明時暗書木束東棒死段殺母毒毬気氷永泉烈無煙理男発白直眼知私立笑続綺美老自若茂行衣袋装見覚語誰警起返違部酬開雪雲音顔風飛驚高麗�々
{Kanji, Sino-Japanese}
三上中之事雲人低何作入八出分力動口吉同向吹呼固�夕夜夢大女子小少屈屋�巳年形彼微思息愛手押振支方日明時暗書木束東棒死段殺母毬氣冰永泉烈無理男發白眼知私笑�美老自若茂行袋装見覺���酬閃開顏風飛驚*
{Hanzi, traditional Chinese}
三上中之事云人何作入全八出分力口吉同向吹呼固国夕夜大女子小少屈屋层巳年形彼微思恐息手押振支日明木束棒死段母毬气冰永烈理男发白眼知私笑绮美老自若茂行衣袋装觉语谁�起酬雪颜风飞惊丽鹰 {Hanzi, simplified Chinese}
*) The grey indicates those characters which are identical in the Japanese character set.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ���������� . ���������� !¡?¿”’,./:;`[\](){}‹›«»_-–—―‘’‚“”„•…�*� @#%& ɞƪⱨƣƫʈꝓʐ ÀàÁáÂâÃãÄäÅåĂăĆćČčÇçĎÈèÉéÊêËëĖėĚěÌÍÎÏÑñŃńŇ
ňÒòÓóÔôÕõÖöŐőŔŕŘřŚśŞşŠšŢţŤŮůŰűÙùÚúÛûÜüŴŵẀẁẂẃẄẅŶŷŸÿÝýỲỳŹźŻżŽž
{Regular}
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Regular Italic}
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Bold}
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Light}
Characterset and Languages
The weights, styles and set of characters, listed below represent the
current status at this time, July 2014. It is intended to continue this design
project by extending the character set of Latin, Hanzi and Kanji on the
one hand and introducing more styles (stencil, black display, light and
bold italic) to the Latin in the near future.
。.
.
.
.Acknowledgements
Thanks to Gerry Leonidas, Fiona Ross, Gerard Unger, Michael Twyman,
James Mosley, and all the visiting lecturers and the staff of the department.
Special thanks to Yoshihide Okazawa, Sammy Or and Akira Kobayashi,
who gave me very valuable feedback during the design process of the Japanese
and Chinese characters.
My deep gratitude goes to Marcel, Anika, Roswit and Yasunobu Takagi.
This specimen was submitted as partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Typeface
Design, The University of Reading, 2014.
All rights reserved by Mariko Takagi, 2014.
www.mikan.de
Credits
Illustration of the ‘snow woman’: Anika Takagi, Cologne, Germany
Photograph of the ‘man at the window’: Dirk Vogel, Dortmund, Germany
Sample text for...
Hiragana
song lyrics from UA, かなしみ Johnny
Japanese
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000258/files/50326_35772.html,
2014. 05. 14 (Japanese)
Application sample, article
Hearn, Lafcadio (1973) Yuki-Onna. In: Kwaidan – und andere Geschichten
und Bilder aus Japan. Elisabeth Schnack (translation from English),
Manesse Verlag, Zurich. Pp 80–87 (German)
Application sample, visual novel
text by Mariko Takagi
Mariko Takagi acts as an intermediary between the Western
and Japanese cultures in general – and between Latin letters
and Japanese/Chinese characters in particular. Typography is
her tool and at the same time her form of expression.
Having lived and worked as a half-Japanese and half- German
in Germany and Hong Kong, she started to write, design
and publish books about Japanese culture. As an author and
designer, she provides her readers with an insight into this
‘strange’ and foreign culture to overcome stereotypic ideas.
Gion is Mariko’s first excursion into the field of typeface de-
sign. With this initial project, she is exploring the possibilities
of joining the fundamentally different writing systems in one
font design.
美な