What if Platt R. Spencer and Charles P. Zaner were
born in mid-20th Century? What if instead of
Beethoven or Chopin they were fan of The Beatles,
Cream, or maybe the Rolling Stones?
Beatle is what I think those masters would
have made with their hands if they were influenced
by music of our 60s. Letters shouting for peace,
like a true hippie does, with a lot of elegance.
In the 1960s and 1970s "typography" suffered
a dramatic change. Sometimes influenced by
hallucinogens and the psychedelia movement,
artists started to break some rules of type by
giving letters a lot of movement. They would
change their proportions, play with the baseline
and the logic of distribution of weights.
With Beatle I wanted to mix the delicacy of
engrossers script with the exuberance of flower
power. Since hippies clearly don't follow really
strict rules, I found that neither did letters
from that era. Or, at least, there are not many
(if any) guides of lettering which explain how to
do them out there.
The result is a font
designed with a lot of freedom; filled up with
provocative alternates and fat tails.
Enjoy it and of course, let it be.