This typeface was made for Typography II, where we were told to make an inspired typeface. One of my favorite fonts ever is Grilli Type’s GT Sectra. Sectra was made by taking a simple path for the letterform and processing it through the use of various tools, like drawing over that path with a broad-nibbed pen and then cutting it using an X-Acto knife.

Process

So, for Sclera (which is named after the white part of an eye), I decided to take a similar approach as Sectra and make something in a sort of blackletter style. I jumped into Krita and began to draw using a chisel-tip brush.

Then, I began to take that same brush and trace those letters using only straight lines:

With these, I was able to make very simple vector paths that could be brought into Illustrator to be stroked with a similar brush. A lot of the angles had to be changed to accommodate the angle of the brush, or else many of the lines would disappear. This also gave the typeface a good visual rhythm, where many diagonal lines were made at the same angle. However, since they’re just simple strokes, it would allow me to make the font bolder, lighter, or change the style quite easily.

I think this one turned out well for an inspired typeface, and I really enjoyed the process that GT Sectra used. I definitely would like to extend this to the lowercase characters as well, and add more symbols. My other typeface Hello World looked so much better after I added the lowercase set. I love how moody it is, and I could see it on the cover of a horror book or something like that!