Anatoma

The anatomy of the British Character in 8 typefaces.

Anatoma is a study of British type design through the creation of a sans-serif typeface which aims to unveil the letterforms that shape the national typographic heritage. My interest in the topic is to understand if it is possible to have a typeface which we can identify as British, not meant as a visual portrayal of national identity, but as a contemporary typeface which holds, embedded, the history, evolution and use of letterforms.

Created as MA Thesis for MA Contemporary Typographic Media at University of the Arts London (London College of Communication), 2015.
Tutored by Paul McNeil.

Anatoma-Runes.otf
Anatoma-Uncial.otf
Anatoma-Gothic.otf
Anatoma-GothicBook.otf
Anatoma-Grotesk.otf
Anatoma-Book.otf
Anatoma-Sans.otf
Anatoma-Humanist.otf

Designed by Matteo Blandford, 2015

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The oldest letterforms

Anatoma Uncial & Runes

CHARACTER SET:

DEVELOPMENT

Anatoma Uncial is inspired by the letterforms found in the Magna Charta (Great Charter) as it marks a mile-stone in British political and social definition. Anatoma Uncial, has a very easy to read lowercase and an interesting, yet unbalanced, uppercase given the calligraphic nature of the characters I was studying. Overall the typeface is very successful in communicating the letterforms of the time, some even share features with the later Fere-Humanistica style of type.

The printing letters

Anatoma Gothic & Gothic Book

CHARACTER SET:

DEVELOPMENT

Anatoma Gothic and Gothic Book are inspired by the letterforms found in the middle ages as it marks the introduction of roman letters in Great Britain. The differences between Anatoma Gothic and Gothic Book are evident, and they showcase a progression of letterform in history. From the rotunda, the bâtarde to the schwabacker. The more rounded families of gothic types are closer in architecture to nowadays grotesque.

First, I drew and typologied the characters seen in the gothic types. Then, focusing on Caslon’s Gotisch and Berthelet’s Rotunda, I started constructing the most singular letters: the closed loop ‘a’ and the italic one-story ‘a’, various ‘e’, the trapezium ‘g’, the long ‘f’. Anatoma Gothic holds more Textura and Rotunda features, it is fractured and complicated to read.

The rebirth of fine type

Anatoma Humanist

CHARACTER SET:

DEVELOPMENT

Anatoma Humanist is reminiscing of E. Gill’s shapes and pointy-ness but early stages of the typeface held more similarity to the Frutiger typeface. Anatoma Humanist has an overall edgy grey-ness appearance. Its calligraphic heritage allows it to be used effectively for multiple purposes and to hold features successful both at large and small sizes. The increased roundness of the ‘b’,’d’,’p’,’q’and ‘o’ make it approachable, in contrast to the sharpness of the ‘w’,’v’,’z’.

The modern typography

Anatoma Sans, Book and Grotesk

CHARACTER SET:

DEVELOPMENT

Anatoma Sans looks at the narrow architecture of early old-face romans, the Dutch tradition and Caslon’s work. The type initially wasn’t very harmonious: the squared nature of the ‘a’ versus to the very geometrical ‘o’; the neo-grotesque characteristics, in the inclined endings of the ‘c’ and ‘e’ against the straight ending of the ’s’; humanist features, in the ‘u’, ‘y’, and narrow proportions on some of the uppercase, opposed to the smoother ‘m’ and ’n’, and rounder ‘G’.

Anatoma Book appears to be reminiscing of Courier types, yet it shares more grounds with the regular cuts of Neue Helvetica and Akzidenz Grotesk. The endings are straight and the majority of the characters share characteristics with Anatoma Sans. The ascenders and descenders are longer for lighter appearance and the letters are overall larger. To note are the double-story ‘g’ , ‘a’ and ‘i’.

Anatoma Grotesk plays on the notion of the (often unnecessary) heightened playfulness in advertisement by the use of neo-grotesk. Overall the type is very readable and other than some kerning issues it remains balanced. Of interest are the ‘a’, that plays on notion of painted display type, and the lowercase and uppercase ’s’ and lowercase ’t’ for their fluidity.