Responses by Fred Shallcrass, typeface designer, Frere-Jones.
Background: A variable typeface family designed for people who want language to move, Constrictor began as a title sketch for a documentary about Margaret Lovatt, who was part of a NASA funded project that set out to communicate with dolphins and ended up dosing them with LSD. This rich input was layered with typographic history, experiences and memories from the physical world to create a font family which radiates an energetic presence and has movement at its core.
Design thinking: Movement was the key to defining Constrictor. The family is drawn along a width axis, which creates a visually engaging and kinetic overarching structure. Individual glyph shapes also rely on movement in the shifting of weight between thick and thin parts of letterforms and the continuous strokes, which give glyphs like n their almost script-like appearance. This defying of strict contrast and typographic style classifications creates patterns of interference that provoke an emotional response and spark joy in users and readers across editorial, branding and motion applications.
Challenges: Working with delicate forms at an extreme angle along a width axis creates a lot of technical challenges which required patience and experimentation to overcome. Managing the distortion of shapes as they move to and from the limits of what they can sustain requires interpolation and point structure support to ensure the font moves gracefully rather than deforming.
Favorite details: The relationship of details is something of which I am very proud. Constrictor has a complex logic of shapes that create an intentional noise and have a minimal amount of reconciliation between them. Shapes are allowed to be sharp or soft, slow or fast, and tight or open. They contain sensations of tension and release. Instead of setting out to push all shapes toward behaving in a singular way, Constrictor has a more varied approach to aesthetics.
Visual influences: Constrictor draws inspiration from the opportunistic contrast of a historical typeface named Venetian, combined with the uninterrupted stroke logic of a script and the vigorous game of angles on an old-style italic. I then refined those structural influences in an effort to increase visual intensity and provide a stimulating and new aesthetic experience.
Specific project demands: A variable axis that shifts from one extreme to another like Constrictor’s does enables the forms to be energetic and dynamic, but it does raise a number of technical demands that take a lot of time and care to navigate. This extra layer of technical consideration was necessary for Constrictor’s forms to be as legible and as useful as they are.
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