Oh, how I love a good typeface. If you cut one open, a good one–a Helvetica or a Gill Sans or a Futura–you would see the inner workings of a technical process that is filled with passion, color and inspiration of the time period in which it was brought to life. Oh, how I love a good typeface. If you love a good typeface as well and can stop gnawing on this 3d printed alphabet for a few moments, the FTRT typeface, created by George Strouzas and the process he used to create it is a must see.
Engineering a Typeface
The details are amazing. If you like typefaces, obsess over the minute points of pixels, the subtle variations between what looks good on printed media and what perfectly portrays the emotion of the content, you’ll love a look into the development of FTRT. George Strouzas is known for the great attention to detail he takes in his projects–it’s evident by the insight he provides for each and the look into what it took to design this typeface as well.
“The FTRT typeface is the result of a 3-month research and design. It is constituted by capital latin and greek letters, numbers and symbols, in three different weights and a total of 251 different glyphs. It is characterised as a modular typeface, in which all the glyphs have exactly the same height and weight, in order for the typesetting to be easier in a grid environment or for lettering – the letters being either in a landscape or a portrait setting.”
The set was inspired by Dutch Typographer Willem Hendrik (Wim) Crowell whose geometric style typefaces and designs of the 60’s and 70’s take on inspiration from cathode ray tube technology, phototypesetting equipment and other machinery giving a very iconic touch to his grid-based layouts.
George has put together a great case study on the process of creating FTRT, the font weights, color schemes and details on the decorative elements. Highlights are in the images below. You can see more of George Strouzas’ work, other fonts and graphic brilliance on the KEIK Design Bureau Project page and George Strouzas Behance portfolio.
