CR Blog
New typeface: Bella from Face37
Posted by Gavin Lucas, 25 July 2011, 17:21 Permalink Comments (47)
British designer Rick Banks of Face37 has just released his latest typeface, Bella, designed, he tells us, in the classical French Didot style, but based on letterforms by Herb Lubalin, John Pistilli and Jan Tschichold. Featuring extremely thin hairlines, Bella is best suited for use at large display sizes. Here's a closer look...
"I've always loved the ridiculous thin hairlines that featured a lot in New York in the 60s and 70s," explains Banks of his inspiration for Bella. "Herb Lubalin and Louis Dorfsman were masters at hand drawing thin hairlines," he continues. "There aren't that many digital fonts that deal with these extreme hairlines. Possibly due to the complexity of creating them in Font Lab."
In terms of reference points for Bella, Banks cites Jan Tschichold's Saskia font...
...and also John Pistilli's Roman face:
Here is an early sketch by Banks for the S of Bella, and some images of some of the typeface's completed letterforms:
Bella is available through hypefortype.com
Rick Banks is also the designer of Type Trumps card game which we blogged about back in 2007 here and also when he released Type Trumps 2 in early 2010, here.
47 Comments
Lovely, apart from the ampersand.
2011-07-25 17:44:00
BELLA!!!! I LOVE IT!
2011-07-25 21:09:04
Would love to use this font but I design for the super web... Those hairlines... Nice work Mr. Banks
2011-07-25 22:05:01
LOVE IT!!!!! AWESOME WORK
2011-07-26 01:22:06
I love the contrast between the thin and heavy strokes.
2011-07-26 08:12:08
Gorgeous!
2011-07-26 10:08:00
Makes me think caviar and pimms!
2011-07-26 10:44:11
Good stuffs indeed!
2011-07-26 10:51:36
Interesting to find my Saskia image here.
2011-07-26 11:27:45
Lovely!
2011-07-26 11:42:42
Is it normal to be sexually attracted to letters?
2011-07-26 11:51:58
Elegant and exciting!
2011-07-26 12:36:46
Mmm hairlines.
I like how fat the Ampersand is.
2011-07-26 13:16:27
Divine. Nice to see due diligence paid to non-alphabetical characters as well. That £ is sumptuous. And if you can make an Eszett look sexy, you're onto a winner.
2011-07-26 14:11:30
Divine. Nice to see due diligence paid to non-alphabetical characters as well. That £ is sumptuous. And if you can make an Eszett look sexy, you're onto a winner.
2011-07-26 15:01:48
agree about the eszett, not at all sure about the larger of the ampersands/epershands, but altogether loving it.
2011-07-26 16:09:33
love that &
2011-07-26 16:59:04
Beauty.
2011-07-26 17:01:15
I'm glad that the designers are tipping their hat to history. It has always been a beautiful font.
2011-07-26 17:16:43
Nice face. It's a shame you had to adjust so many my fontlab contours from Estrella for so many of your characters. I know you bought it. I have the receipt. The hairline, measurements and alignment are uncanny!
http://www.neutura.org/rag.png
2011-07-26 18:43:44
It's best practice to at least credit and link back to those whose images you use.
2011-07-26 20:58:19
Great Work
2011-07-27 01:01:27
Lovely, the numbers are delicious
2011-07-27 10:02:09
Beautiful!
2011-07-27 10:23:00
Gorgeous! Gorgeous data and typography, Mr. Banks!
2011-07-27 12:12:17
It's very strange that CR doesn't even seem to care to investigate things like:
1. How original is this typeface?
2. Has something very similar been done before?
That's my two cents …
Göran Söderström
2011-07-27 13:50:20
Love the ampersand! Bella is certainly beautiful.
2011-07-27 13:55:10
@Neutra
I hardly see any grounds for such slanderous accusations — what would happen if you were to take a whole host of poster serifs and overlay them? By the very nature of their design I'd wage a similar result in execution. It's a shame that boutique foundries such as yourself can't be more supportive of up-and-coming type designers, instead of throwing your toys out of the pram the minute someone makes a more interesting typeface.
@_face37
Congrats Rick, 25 comments and only one hater, shows your doing something right. Bella indeed.
M
2011-07-27 14:28:47
Neutura — Before making public accusations that amount to slander you'd be well advised to know that there are so many differences between the two typefaces. You will be saying that Helvetica is a copy of Akzidenz next (which it was!). http://postimage.org/image/20d73jk9w/ shows the massive difference between the two fonts....the hairlines are thinner, geometric circles, letter width, x height, numerals, kerning, not to mention that every letter is drawn differently. You can't own the Didot style. Should you have any further comments re. your typeface could they follow more appropriate channels and get in touch directly — you have my receipt (and therefore email address) after all — otherwise you will be forced to protect your interests.
2011-07-27 14:31:04
Served
2011-07-30 00:58:55
Bella Bella!
2011-07-30 12:13:10
Rick send me an e-mail explaining my comment, so here it goes, Rick and CR :)
01. I think an article like this should show previous interpretations to show other attempts in doing this typeface, since it's not very original, there are _so_ many version out there alread. It could make the article a little bit more nuanced and more professional, in my opinion.
02. Besides that it was also a reaction to what Neutura wrote about his fonts. Since I'm very used to work with outlines and fonts, I know that the likelihood that glyphs showing up very close, or exact, is very small if the work is designed from scratch. I see these kind of things happen to often, therefor I often react. This time I had to explaing myself, which was probably as good.
All the best,
Göran
2011-07-30 19:16:46
agreeing with a few comments here. Overall a very sexy set but the ampersand needs a tweek. great work though.
2011-08-01 10:32:54
Gorgeous! Voluptuous!!!
2011-08-01 15:19:28
How you managed to angle the slash the same, space punctuation the same, and 99% near exact match on this many characters is astonishing considering it's from scratch. Not to mention Bella is thicker. Add that to purchasing my typeface a month prior. Hmmm....
No hate, just amazed at how my glyphs magically fit on top once lined up.
http://www.neutura.org/rag2.png
2011-08-01 22:50:22
Beautiful font but would you please NOT use the incorrect double and single quotes. They are an anathema to proper typesetters!!!!!!!
2011-08-02 09:00:26
I think a public message board isn't the most professional of places to discuss this. Alex, I have spoken with Rick about your comments and he has agreed to provide you with sketches, work-ups, and the type developers details — Phillip Kelly I believe.
Hopefully this will be enough for you to both resolves your differences, and carry producing great work.
2011-08-02 12:09:54
BRAVO for Bella! That is the perfect name for it because it is stunningly beautiful!
I love this font and am looking forward to buying it.
Regarding these ugly accusations above: I am not a type designer but I can plainly see significant differences in literally every character between Estrella and Bella. Of course there are similarities -- they are both Didot style fonts. Just like the dozens or even hundreds of Didot styles that have existed for decades...are they all copying you, Neutura? Your comments are unprofessional and your argument is unreasonable.
2011-09-05 07:16:32
Very nice type indeed. I especially like the pilcrow.
2011-09-06 23:03:58
Haha Neutura
2011-09-15 09:48:11
It's a lovely face for sure. I can see the point neutura is making. (If ) you just purchased the font from them and then you happened to have a few identical glyphs I'd be skeptical as well. Doesn't look they are saying your copied a style just certain glyphs. My two scents.
2011-09-17 18:10:52
[comment deleted by moderator]
2011-09-29 16:00:00
this is actually my favourite font of all time.
2011-10-31 17:14:34
Stunning
2011-11-05 13:38:48
Loving Bella, this is certainly a font to be using only with a specific style and topic but bold and classy none the less.
2011-11-22 14:14:01
Strange that he didn't mention Bodoni, THE classic hairline serif font, in his influences. Pretty font though.
The links to Neutura have disappeared by the way. Ooh spooky...
2012-10-09 18:10:10
Gorgeous gorgeous font.
2012-10-13 13:36:04
Get the RSS Feed
More like this
Articles:
- Blog: Are students getting their money's worth?
- Blog: TDR: the movie
- Blog: Results are in on the future of type
- Blog: Adobe heads to the cloud
- Blog: The office is dead, declares property campaign by Music
- Blog: What is the future of type?
- Blog: CR May issue: The Annual
- Blog: Fontsmith's FS Emeric launch campaign
38671
Most recently commented
| Duffy gift wraps Mall of America (2) |
| Station symbols a secret delight (3) |
| Are students getting their money's worth? (24) |
| Richard Woods says DIY (3) |
| Google's Atari Breakout image search surprise (1) |
Most read
| Design Studio of the Year |
| Adobe heads to the cloud |
| Bianca Chang's choice cuts |
| What are your favourite logos? |
| The billboard turning thin air into water |
Subjects
| Advertising | (1330) | |
| Art | (507) | |
| Books | (349) | |
| Digital | (583) | |
| Graphic Design | (1597) | |
| Illustration | (895) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (276) | |
| Music Video / Film | (857) | |
| Photography | (492) | |
| Type / Typography | (397) |
