One of my dreams as a type-designer was making a
good looking chancery cursive. Full of life, like
some of the best calligraphers around the world do
on their artworks.
With Julian Waters, John
Stevens and Denis Brown (just to name a few of
them) (1) chancery, or italic script, was
transformed into a new, exciting and very fresh
style of calligraphy mainly at the end of 20th
Century.
Dream Script may be that dream
named above made true. I have been practicing
chancery in the way I learnt from those
calligraphers for many years now.
Making a
font out of my ink-sketches was a tough work,
since they were closer of -being art- than of
-being type-. However, this font rescues many
aspects of handmade calligraphy: You have to look
at it really close to notice it is actually a
font, and that was one of my goals.
The
secret of a good looking chancery is on its subtle
details: pen angle is constantly changing, even on
the strokes which seem straight. Capitals and
swashes have to be done a little faster than
lowercase letters. The rhythm has to be even, in
spite of its playful look.
The fact that
makes Dream look alive is that it has many
alternates per glyph. This makes each word look
unique like it happens in calligraphy: you will
find alternates for the beginning/ending of a
word/phrase, some for the middle of it, some
interchangeable.
Also, to accompany the
script, you will find Dream Caps, which was
inspired in the eternally beautiful trajan
capitals. Place them like I did on the posters and
you will have great results for sure.
The font works great in small, middle and
big sizes and can be a great election for
magazines, wedding invitations, perfumes, and
posters.
Close your eyes, and Dream with me...
TECHNICAL
Dream Script Pro is the most
complete style, it contains all the alternates and
ligatures (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe
applications)
If you plan to use the font
for text, be sure to activate the less decorative
capitals, which are placed in the "salt" group of
alternates.
Dream Script Standard has less
glyphs than the Pro one, it contains just some
ligatures for a better legibility. (OT programmed,
better if you use Adobe applications)
NOTES
(1) Not only are they great
artists, but also good people, who are always
willing to share with their students all what they
know. I would also like to thank Ricardo
Rousselot, whose work inspired me this time to
make "The Dream Script" exlibris; and to Alisara
Tareekes, a very talented friend which
international calligraphy conferences gave me: She
kindly helped me with some tips to make this font
better.
// See a review by FONTMATTERS