- Light
- Light Italic
- Regular
- Regular Italic
- Bold
- Bold Italic
More fonts by Matt Burvill
Please give us an introduction to your Person and your work.
I'm 26 years old, and have been
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Please give us an introduction to your Person and your work.
I'm 26 years old, and have been playing with fonts and lettering for about 5 years. I'm currently focused on creating new fonts and expanding my range of font products with the aim of working on custom logo/lettering/font solutions for clients. I have a background in typographic design which helps me create fonts for the graphic design business.
What was your main intention when drawing the Sequencia?
My intention with sequencia was to create my first no-nonsense text family with useful OpenType features. Previously I have experimented in display fonts with limited, decorative use. Sequencia is a font to use every day for reports, magazines, signage or any type-heavy document.
How do you see the creative potential of your typeface? Are there any special features?
The typeface is ideal for text setting because each glyph has been carefully considered for use at small sizes. It is also at home with financial reports due to tabular spacing and a whole host of currencysymbols in both lining and oldstyle figures. Another consideration was signage; the clarity that makes the letterforms ideal for text also translates to good readability at long distance. To add to it's usability in signage a comprehensive set of arrows and enclosed numbers and letters in various styles help show the way in maps and signage.
The font employs many opentype features such as Ligatures, Fractions, Scientific Superiors and Inferiors, Capital Positioning, Contextual Alts, Arrows & Dingbats (for signage and maps), Stylistic Sets, and Old Style Numerals. There's also an alternate 'g' for when the stylized two-storey version is too extravagant. Also an exciting feature is the "double spaced" glyphs in the mono styles. For instance, I discovered that long ligatures such as ffi or ffj are often omitted in mono fonts due to their length. This means that if you type a word like "official" you get a single mono f and a then squashed fi ligature which disrupts the colour of the paragraph. My solution is to "double-space" the ffi glyph so that the three characters that make up the ligature can be adequately spaced and retain that even colour of the text. The double-spacing ensures that the mono-effect is retained and all characters line up in tables. The Em-dash is also double spaced so the typographers favourite rule is adequately long.
When drawing Sequencia, did you already plan to develop a big family or does that come automatically during the process of creation anyway
The family consists of only 3 weights but in 12 styles. There are 6 fonts in Mono and a further 6 in Proportional. These each contain Bold, Regular and Light in both Normal and Italic. It was intended to create these weights and styles from the outset, but it is not always this simple when outlining a family.
In general: How does a typeface begin to take shape? What triggers its initial creation? Are you always addressing a particular designproblem first? How do you decide to develop a new typeface?
In the beginning I have an inclining of what style I want to create, be it as simple as serif/sans or more specific like humanist/grotesk. I then make some awful scribbles in my sketchbook that serve only as a reminder of that initial inclining and take it to the computer. The most exciting phase is when I start drawing some test characters, usually starting with some key shapes from which I can derive almost every other letter of the latin alphabet quite quickly. This initial "sketch" is then saved and backed up along with a log of my thoughts and progressions illustrated with screengrabs. I then leave this sketch for some time until I'm more convinced of the typefaces purpose at which point I can go back to it with a fresh perspective and begin refining the characters and expanding the glyph table. For the most part this is a purely organic process; I do not address particular design problems before I start drawing and the process of creating a new font family evolves at it's own pace.
How did you get into typography? Personal Experience/Anecdote. And what motivates you doing it on a daily basis.
I first got into lettering from doing a magazine logo for a university project. I then decided to expand the lettering of this logo into an alphabet. These were "loose" vectors until the prospect of making them work as font software got me started in font creation. The motivation is the same now as it was then; to make my, and other designers, lives easier by design. Back then it was easier to type the font than arrange it by hand, and now I aim to make it easier for designers to create good typography by using the latest OpenType software.
Does House Of Burvo develop typefaces because there is a need for in the daily graphic design business or do you make fonts because of the typographic challenge?
The typographic challenge is what makes me start one of my sketches; but as the typeface evolves I'm always looking to include features that make it relevant and useful to todays designer. That said, glyphs and features are no substitute for good lettering.
Is there any designer or typographer who has inspired you or you still feel influenced by? If so, why?
I'm more inspired by the dedication of other font creators and their resolve to create such intricate families of letters. The fact that people are dedicating such huge amounts of time to develop new typefaces and fonts, each one unique, inspires me to keep going and not give up on what can seem a mammoth task!
Do you have a working routine? What are the ideal conditions for you to work in?
When my only commitment is to myself I tend to work whenever the mood takes me, although I still try to do as much as I can during office hours. As regards conditions, I like a cool room and tend to work in silence. I've developed a habit of playing the guitar when I'm staring at the white space between letters; somehow it takes my mind off of the font just enough to notice those small errors!