Coming Soon: Gina by Daniel Rhatigan

Written by Typographica on July 21, 2007

Gina by Daniel Rhatigan

As an example of the maturing influence the Reading’s MA program can have on an aspiring type designer, take a look at Gina and, despite its obvious accomplishments, the shy way the designer speaks of it, uttering disparaging remarks like “almost not embarrassed to have people see it”. My reaction?

Thank you, thank you for putting your Reading work into a serif. I’m so tired of sansies I could dagger myself.

To which Typographica alum Patric King replies:

seriously. this is how i’m reading releases these days:

“our new offering is a light humanist sans with dutch qualities that aid in the easeAAAAAAAAA- AAAAAAAAAAAARGH”

Gina is Dan Rhatigan’s student work in progress. Read more about its evolution in his Reading blog and Ultrasparky. Don’t miss the latest two posts.

See also: Gerry Leonidas, senior lecturer at Reading who lists other grads (sadly not updated for this year).

11 Comments

  1. What a lovely font! Nice work.

  2. Sparky says:

    Aha! I was wondering where all the traffic was coming from. Thanks an awful lot for the kind words. It’s hard not to focus on the flaws of something you’re working on so intensely, but I’m feeling better about it after a month of additional work. The 14 of us at Reading this year turn in our typefaces next week, and plan to post specimens online soon. There just might even be a little postcard floating around TypeCon telling folks where to look…

  3. Gerry Leonidas says:

    See also: Gerry Leonidas, senior lecturer at Reading who lists other grads (sadly not updated for this year).

    Last year’s work is here, on a wiki. Drill down to the “graduates” pages. Now essays and dissertations are there as well as typeface specimens.

  4. Excellent, Gerry. Thank you.

  5. vernon adams says:

    Looking nice Dan :-) In terms of the ‘sansies v serif’ debate, the Type Design Course @ Reading produces it’s fair share of sansies too (mine, for example /plug).

    I recommend the course to serious aspiring type designers.

  6. Nice work Dan. Sweet, lucid, very classical, and laden with essential finishing touches (serif terminals on a, k, r, s, and tail of y). The even-width capitals work well as a team (angles of K and X are integrated) and will make the font versatile.

    Let the great classical seriffed type resurgence begin.

  7. Sparky says:

    And here she is, one month later and submitted for grading. I’ll still need a couple of years to polish ‘er up and finish the family, I think.

  8. Noel Jackson says:

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but it look entirely similar to “Swift” by Gerard Unger. No?

  9. At the low resolution of a computer screen Gina and Swift are only apparently similar. Even so, with sufficient examination the structures of Gina’s C, J, K, L, Q, W, b, f, j, k, t, w and y are visibly different. Less obvious are Gina’s c and e, curling in slightly more than Swift’s. Viewed close-up in the .PDF the whole of Gina’s design is markedly different from Swift: the bowl shapes, stressing, branching from stems, serif design and serif mating. Gina’s numeral forms depart even further, adhering closer to arabic and blackletter.

    Question for Dan: the branching and serif mating make me wonder if Peter Bilak’s Fedra Serif was an influence on Gina’s design?

  10. What a wonderful typographic time we live in, when this can be a complaint:

    our new offering is a light humanist sans with dutch qualities that aid in the easeAAAAAAAAA- AAAAAAAAAAAARGH

    Anything can be overdone, but having too many humanist sanses is the kind of problem I like to have, as a reader and a typographer.

  11. Noel Jackson says:

    James, you are absolutely right. That was an off the cuff remark I should have saved for further investigation.

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