Design Development - 'Sharp' Serif

From my previous development, class crit and research I have decided to continue working with the Caslon typefaces. I have chosen the develop further the 'sharp' serif idea as I believe it has the most potential in communicating 'maliciousness' as well as being applicable on a wider scale.

I started by looking at the Caslon typeface in Regular. I have chosen Regular because I believe that the weight of the strokes is most appropriate for what I was aiming to communicate. The weight is not too thin so that it becomes harder to read, meanwhile it is also not too thick so that it loses it's gracefulness and therefore doesn't interrupt the juxtaposition of my design.

Fig.1

The idea behind my design is fairly simple, I will be replacing the transitional serifs on Caslon into my new 'sharp' serifs. Meaning that most of the serifs already present within the letterforms will simply be manipulated to create new ones. The first thing I did before going digital with this was consider how I will approach some of the less obvious letterforms. I didn't want the communication of my typeface to simply rely on the new serif, so I looked at the letterforms with horizontal strokes and how I could manipulate those to also communicate 'maliciousness' as well as emphasis the 'sharp' serifs. 

I looked at the letters 'E' and 'F' and their arms (Fig.1), and first tried applying the spike-like design idea in line with the serifs. This, in my opinion, proved to look uncomfortable and off-balance. The letterforms seemed to lose their shape and in consequences lost the seriousness that aided in communicating the 'malicious' atmosphere. I then decided to stick with the original form of the arms, and simply sharpen the point where they meet the main stroke. This proved to be successful not only because it didn't throw the form of the letterforms off-balance, but also because it added a subtle increase in the aggressiveness of the design. By adding more sharp stroke ends, I have increased the communication of my chosen word even further so. 

I also looked at the letters 'A' and 'H'  (Fig. 1) and their crossbars. Because the crossbar extends connects one main stroke to another, I knew that re-creating the 'sharp' nature of the serifs within the letterform will not effect the balance of the letterform as a whole. I knew what I was aiming for visually so the only decision to make was what direction will the 'spike' threaten towards. It is evident that the 'spiked' crossbar extending from left to right is way more appropriate. This is not only because it is more aesthetically pleasing to look at, but also because that is the direction that the crossbar would be written in, making it feel more functional and coherent than the other design. 

The last letter I looked at was 'W' (Fig.1). This was because I felt that within the original Caslon typeface, the 'W' has an awkward joint between the thin and thick stroke on the top vertex, as well as too many serifs. I first looked at making the joint more aligned, and although that bettered the balance of the letter, it still seemed as if the use of serifs on the ends of the middle strokes was too overwhelming and unstable. I finally just got rid of the middle serifs all together, and were happy with the newly found stability and unpretentiousness of the letterform. 

I then went on to mapping out the whole alphabet onto layout paper by applying the 'sharp' serif design to all the letters, as well the the specific individual alterations made to the letters 'A', 'H', 'E', 'F' and 'W'. I believe this has been successful because as a whole this typeface appears to have a flow and conference within it, all the letterforms relate to each and communicate 'maliciousness' in the appropriate way I had first intended.