The ffBlocker™ was released in 1998 and if memory serves it is also the first typeface with clean outlines that I ever drew. It started out actually looking quite differently; Upright, much more bashful in appearance and with a more manifest construction. It took a long time and many, many iterations to arrive at the current form.
By adding weight in the verticals and then a slight slant I introduced a subtle thick-thin contrast, infusing the originally quite mechanic looking face with almost humanist qualities. Check out the lower case o to see what I mean; It could belong to a much more typographic typeface. At the time I was very influenced by the packaging I found in the frozen food section in a japanese supermarket and I had this vision of a font that would listen to the Prodigy (remember it was the mid nineties...) and maybe make for good titles for Bladerunner II. The secret formula seemed to be to minimize the counters of the glyphs while contrasting bubble gum like round shapes with sharp edges.
Here is a post card that FontShop printed back in 1998 to promote the ffBlocker™.
This is the original descriptive text for the ReadMe that went with the release of the ffBlocker™.
You see here that I have been working on a 2.0 version for quite a while now, with a larger number of styles activating much more of the manga side of the design. The future weights of the ffBlocker™ will range from a more legible text oriented style to deep, iconic titling. I am going for the full OpenType goodness with greek and cyrillic character set and plenty of alternative glyphs. So I hope to have something presentable in the summer of '08 (so much for famous last words).
Now these three pieces here are from left to right the original design for the submission to FontShop. You can see how rigid and mechanical the typeface still was at that point. Then there is a CD sleeve designed by Kasper Wensveen for Dyzack and on the very right there is a whole page advertisement that FontShop Benelux ran for a series of FontFonts in the design magazine Items. The left (yellow) half of the page wasdesigned by Erik van Blokland of Letterror, the right was designed by me. At the bottom is a calendar page designed by Susi Bikle of Studio Zipper who at the time worked at Ontwerpwerk.
By adding weight in the verticals and then a slight slant I introduced a subtle thick-thin contrast, infusing the originally quite mechanic looking face with almost humanist qualities. Check out the lower case o to see what I mean; It could belong to a much more typographic typeface. At the time I was very influenced by the packaging I found in the frozen food section in a japanese supermarket and I had this vision of a font that would listen to the Prodigy (remember it was the mid nineties...) and maybe make for good titles for Bladerunner II. The secret formula seemed to be to minimize the counters of the glyphs while contrasting bubble gum like round shapes with sharp edges.
This photograph is featured in the book "Made with FontFont"
59 USD / 49 Euro, Hardcover, 352 pages, color illustrations ISBN 978-0977985043.
59 USD / 49 Euro, Hardcover, 352 pages, color illustrations ISBN 978-0977985043.
Here is a post card that FontShop printed back in 1998 to promote the ffBlocker™.
This is the original descriptive text for the ReadMe that went with the release of the ffBlocker™.
ffBlocker™ is an outrageously arrogant face, literally inflated and with only the slightest trace of historic character shapes. The stereotypes strictly reserved for the aesthetics of the cheap and fantastic. Horror monster, martial arts and action movies come to mind. A sequel to something that wasn't tasteful in the first place. This typeface originally had three weights: "Oldschool", "Vengeful Return" and "Son of the reanimated". The two latter ones were released by FontShop International in 1998 under the names DubLowFive (005) and DubLowSix (006).
Now these three pieces here are from left to right the original design for the submission to FontShop. You can see how rigid and mechanical the typeface still was at that point. Then there is a CD sleeve designed by Kasper Wensveen for Dyzack and on the very right there is a whole page advertisement that FontShop Benelux ran for a series of FontFonts in the design magazine Items. The left (yellow) half of the page wasdesigned by Erik van Blokland of Letterror, the right was designed by me. At the bottom is a calendar page designed by Susi Bikle of Studio Zipper who at the time worked at Ontwerpwerk.
