This spring semester I have been taking a really interesting class on Type Design. We basically have one main assignment the entire semester, which logically would be to design one typeface. Week after week, we look at tiny details of letterforms and try to figure out how they all fit together to form the personality of a typeface. With every line or shape you draw, you have to consider how it speaks to the rest of the shapes on the page.
For my typeface, (which I am calling Chorus) I was inspired by Haruki Murakami’s books. Murakami often uses music as a motif in his writings. His musical references give tone, atmosphere, and a fifth element to his stories. He said in interviews that music stimulates his imagination and when he writes, he has some music (classical or jazz) in the background on a low setting. The following is an excerpt from an interview Murakami had with the New York Times:
“Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more. Next is harmony — the internal mental sounds that support the words. Then comes the part I like best: free improvisation.”
I became interested in the musicality and rhythm of a text, so my typeface is designed for his books. Here are some of my process works.
