gion by Mariko Takagi , gion Regular , Regular Italic Light Bold Hanzi Kanji , Hiragana Katakana ............................ 、 a typeface design by Mariko Takagi Reading, 2014 夢ゆメ 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. 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. The name Gion The 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 samu zamu サムザムDescription of a cold, wintry and desolate atmosphere. sounds made by humans, animals, nature, technological devices (or any other ambient noise) and others, even perceptions 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. 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 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 Kanji ... 夢国 ... i-scream ... mono-linear ... regular ... regular italic ... condensed ... The family The typeface family provides three weights, and four styles drop ... period ... double ... レトロ ... light Katakana ロゴタイプ ... please ... exotic ... comma ... ambience ... 笑顔 . 顏 . 颜 ... onomatopoeia ... Anika ... 愛 ... 今 ... 毬子 ... 小泉八雲 ... monosyllabic ... cliffhanger ... Roswit ... tonality ... Yasunobu ... utopia ... for Latin: a regular, a bold, a thin and a regular italic. Gion covers the two Japanese syllabic scripts Hiragana and acapella ... ascenderline ... エリンギ ... gimmick ... 気 . 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. 氣 . 气 ... 绮 . 綺麗 ... identity ... ゆらゆら ... Lafcadio ... trad. Hanzi �. simpl. Hanzi Hiragana originality ... 夜 ... Rucola ... Lampedusa ... ありんこ ... 氷 ... りす ... The four styles in Latin share elemental features, in the drop-shaped endings and the asymmetric bracketless sufficient ... Typographie ... efficiency-oriented ... descenders serifs and the axis*, that demonstrate the cohesion of the family. These features are even applied to the Japanese ... semantic ... condensed ... diacritics ... and Chinese character set in an appropriate way. The four styles share the visual tonality of a subtle genteelness systematic ... Bold contextualise ... elaborate ... 永 ... 息 ... 気の毒な若い男 ... コツコツ ... 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. つぎつぎ ... Giraffenhalsmassage ... empathy ... やれやれ ... reflective ... elegance ... ending ... grazil ... luminescent ... 高木 ... Regular *) In case of the Italic, it is sloped by 10 per cent. gion. Regular Italic »Man muß die Dinge so einfach wie möglich machen. Aber nicht einfacher.« 1 2 3 The regular 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- 4 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- 5 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. 6 7 2.a By Albert Einstein (1879–1955) QR 8 9 1. The drop is one key 5. Top serifs are flat feature, shown in: a, b, f, at the top and show a j, r, s, y and J. triangular shape. 2. 6. The outline of the Straight endstroke, asymmetric serif shows with a bracket. the movement of being 7. written in one continuous shows a similar behaviour line and creates a triangle to the bottom serifs. (2.a.) on the one side. (2.a) 8. 3. upper-case Q is inspired The axes of the The horizontal stroke The tail of the counters are vertical. by Scotch Roman. 4. 9. The cut of the outstroke is 30 degrees. The R shows a kicked-up endstroke. There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity... 1 2 3 The Regular Italic 5 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. joins of the of the thin and thick do not only visually c onnect 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. 1. Deep joins. 5. 2. Kicked-up outstrokes. turned inwards. lower cases don’t have 3. 10 The right top serif is The tail of the lower- 6. bottom serifs. The ending The cut of the out- 9. The stems of the case f visualises a fluent stroke is 30 degrees. of the stroke is slightly movement. 7. angled. 4. shape and size to match 10. The descender of gular at the top and the dynamic of the letter the lower-case p ends the lower side is parallel shape. with a serif that shows an to the baseline. This 8. upward dynamic in shows a reversed stroke stems is 10 degrees, with the angle of 10 degrees. behaviour to that of the optical corrections. 11. Upper cases are serifs of the Regular. 6 7 The long and kicked-up out-strokes and the deep Top serifs are trian- 4 The drops vary in The angle of the designed individually. p TEZSGQRX 8 9 11 The Grand Budapest Hotel The Bold Through thick and thin. The stroke contrast increases strongly in the bold face, while the strength of the hair line from the regular is maintained. 1 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 2 circular. The shapes become darker and heavier without getting plump. The bold is designed for titling and/or for application in bigger sizes. 3 The Light Unlike the other styles in this typeface family, the light represents a monolinear face with the contradiction of keeping The cold does not bother me anymore. 4 5 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. 6 4.a fgz QSR 6 7 _ Bold _ _ Light _ 1. 4. Top serifs of the bold The construction are flat at the top and of the serifs becomes show a triangular shape, especially visible in the like the serifs of the regu- light weight. (4.a) lar. However, the top left 5. anchor is slightly moved outstroke is 30 degrees. to the right to reduce the 6. amount of black. the eye-catching details in 2. the context of the mono- The cut of the The cut of the The drops become outstroke is 30 degrees. linear strokes. 3. 7. The inner bottom serif is shortened. Lettershapes are condensed. めら *) めら She is alone. She has been following them the whole day long, two men – one old, the other young – through their journey 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 d esire*, 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. 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 Japanese A common contemporary Japanese text contains four different scripts: Kanji (Sino-Japanese characters), the two Japanese syllabic writings Hiragana and Katakana, and Latin letters. In 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 Japanese contemporary typefaces, Latin letters are part of the woman.’ しばらく彼女は彼を見続けていた、――それ basic character set. However, the embedded Latin faces are not から彼女は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私は今 always designed with the same devotion or even skill as the ひとりの人のように、あなたをしようかと思った。しか Japanese characters. The design quality often diverges widely し、あなたを気の毒だと思わずにはいられない、――あ between the Japanese character set and the Latin within one type family. It became almost a common practice among Japa- なたは若いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之吉さ nese graphic designers to choose a separate typeface to typeset ん、もう私はあなたを害しはしません。しかし、もし passages or words in Latin letters. あなたが今夜見た事を誰かに――あなたの母さんにで Gion forms a bridge between the different scripts, which are not only different in complexity and shapes, but also in what they visually express. 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 1 Kanji and Hanzi As well as the Sino-Japanese characters (Kanji), Gion also 2 3 4 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, 5 绮綺 �麗 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 1. outline (similar to the is applied to connect the aligned at the left recurring element in The long dot, as one drop in the Latin) of the different radicals to one (one on top of the other), Kanji/Hanzi. The position, thick. character. show the same character the complexity of the 2. 5. in the three scripts: entire character and the the right end of horizontal and thin strokes (vertical traditional Hanzi, surrounding strokes, and strokes. and horizontal) is adjust- Sino-Japanese Kanji and the size, shape, propor- 3. ed to optical alignment. In simplified Hanzi (from top tion and direction will ending shows a similar complex characters, the to bottom). The second change depending on the behaviour to the detail in stroke weight is reduced. character on the right element it represents. The the Latin italic. stays the same in all three consistent characteristic 4. scripts. throughout the variants is occur wherever the space the straight cut of the thin distribution requires it. instroke and the flattened Sometimes the overlap Triangular serifs at The shape of the stem Overlaps of strokes The strength of thick ないしょだよ 1 2 ひみつだよ Hiragana The Japanese syllabary Hiragana is used for native Japanese words, grammatical particles and suffixes, among others. すこしだけ 3 4 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 the counter shapes in the 5. Latin regular. to the stem. Japanese character set, 3. 6. refers to the shape of the stems refer to the shapes shows a similar weight drop in the Latin. of the terminals in the distribution to the equiva- 2. Latin regular. lent in the Latin regular. Instrokes of the very relevant detail of 4. Hiragana. The shape outstroke is 30 degrees of the counter refers to 5 くるって recurring element in the The loop is another ぼくは The cut of the The hook stays close The curved stroke いるよ。 6 スキナコトヲ、 1 2 Katakana The second syllabary of the Japanese writing system is Katakana, which is assigned to non-Chinese loanwords. As Katakana 3 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 スキナトキニ。 – 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 4 an open, clear and gentle impression. 1. 5 6.a 6.b へりヘリ Triangular serif 4. The ending of the aligned to the serifs of downstroke to the left is Kanji. cut vertically. 2. 5. Instrokes of the The cut of the out- stems refer to the shapes stroke is 30 degrees. of the terminals in the 6. Latin regular. shapes similar to ‘he’ and 3. ‘ri’ in Hiragana (6.a) The shape of the stem Characters with ending shows a similar and Katakana (6.b) are behaviour to the detail in visually distinguished. the Latin italic. The act of balancing between the two: “lonelyness” vs. “being on one’s own”. Lafcadio Hearn: {雪女} The Snow Woman. An ancient Japanese ghost story that does not lose its fascination. A pact as cold as ice and a love that leads to loneliness. Die Weisse Frau beugte sich tiefer その女は茂作の上に屈んで、彼に彼女の息 über ihn, imer tiefer, bis ihr Gesicht をふきかけていた、――そして彼女の息 ihn fast berührte. Da sah er, dass sie はあかるい白い煙のようであった。ほとん wunderschön war, obwohl ihre Augen ど同時に巳之吉の方へ振り向いて、彼の上 ihm angst machten. Ein Weilchen に屈んだ。彼は叫ぼうとしたが何の音も発 betrachtete sie ihn, dann lächelte sie する事ができなかった。白衣の女は、彼の und flüsterte: „Ich hatte im Sinn, mit 上に段々低く屈んで、しまいに彼女の顔は dir wie mit dem anderen Mann zu ほとんど彼にふれるようになった、そして verfahren, aber ich habe Mitleid mit 彼は――彼女の眼は恐ろしかったが――彼 dir, weil du so jung bist. Du bist ein 女が大層綺麗である事を見た。しばらく彼 hübscher Bursche, Minokichi, und ich 女は彼を見続けていた、――それから彼女 werde dir nichts zuleide tun. Erzählst は微笑した、そしてささやいた、――『私 du aber irgend jemandem, und wär’s は今ひとりの人のように、あなたをしよう auch deine Mutter, was du heute かと思った。しかし、あなたを気の毒だと nacht gesehen hast, dann werde ich es 思わずにはいられない、――あなたは若 erfahren und dich umbringen! Vergiss いのだから。……あなたは美少年ね、巳之 das ja nicht!“ 吉さん、もう私はあなたを害しはしませ 38 } mingle-mangle language versions 39 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 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} 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. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ �� . �� !¡ ?¿”’,./:;`[\](){}‹›«» _-–—―‘’‚“”„•… �*� @#%& ɞƪⱨƣƫʈꝓʐ ÀàÁáÂâÃãÄäÅåĂăĆćČčÇçĎÈèÉéÊêËëĖėĚěÌÍÎÏÑñŃńŇ ňÒòÓóÔôÕõÖöŐőŔŕŘřŚśŞşŠšŢţŤŮůŰűÙùÚúÛûÜü ŴŵẀẁẂẃẄẅŶŷŸÿÝýỲỳŹźŻżŽž 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} {Regular} abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Regular Italic} abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Bold} abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöü ß ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ {Light} 上中之事雲人低何作入八出分力動口吉同向吹呼固�夕三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. 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 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 。 . . . . な 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 design. With this initial project, she is exploring the possibilities of joining the fundamentally different writing systems in one font design.