Font specimen - Betico

betico

by Tommaso Ciccotti

Font anatomy of the source font

the counterform of the lobe creates a strong contrast

Cap height

Cap height & Ascender

X-height

Overshoot

Descender Baseline

Overshoot

the difference in thickness creates a strong contrast

Px Grotesk was designed from the rendering of typographic curves on screens. At smaller sizes, pixels simplify shapes. Taking this paradox as his starting point, Nicolas Eigenheer designed a typeface that creates a contradictory relationship between a grid and a flexible line.

High

ROMA NAPOLI

MAMMA

Lowercase Letters

betico

Numerals

Diacritics, punctuation, signs and symbols

U-Bahn Berlin

Paracelsus Bad Allee Bonhoeffer

Franz Neumann Platz

Osloer

Bernauer Gesundbrunnen

Pankow

U5 U6 U9 U8 U7

BrandenTor

Rosenthaler Platz

Schonhauser Allee Senefelder Platz Rosa Luxemburg Platz Wedding Unter Den Linden

Alexander Platz

Platz

Mendelssohn Bartholdy Park

Spittelmarkt

Stadt Mitte

Lichtenberg Frankfurter Allee Frankfurter Tor Strausberger Platz

Moritz Platz Jannowitzbrucke

Schlesisches Tor

Mehringdamm

Honow

Hellersdorf Cottbusser Platz Kienberg (Garten der Welt) Wuhletal Elsterwerdaer Platz Biesdorf-Sud Tierpark Friedrichsfelde

der Luftbrucke

Kleistpark Sudstern

Tempelhof (Sudring)

Alt-Tempelhof

Westphalweg Alt-Mariendorf

Hermann

Hermann Platz

Rathaus Neukolln Neukolln (Sudring)

Grenzallee Blaschkoallee Parchimer Allee Britz-Sud

Johannisthaler Chaussee Lipschitzallee Wutzkyallee Zwickauer Damm Rudow

Evolution

Evolution

1.The skeleton of the typeface is based on the Px Grotesk Bold. Changing the shapes of the skeleton is the first step before the application of the brushes

2. The second part consist on applying the brushes: I used two different brushes for upper and lower case letters to create contrast and to improve the readability. I also used a third brush for the letters with bowl.

3.The final part is expanding the brushes and doing the cuts on the stroke. The typeface betico is characterized by horizontal and vertical terminals.

Px Grotesk Bold

Brushes

Angle: 0° Roundness: 87%

Size: 7pt Vertical, horizontal and oblique brush used for lowercase letters

Angle: 0° Roundness: 85% Size: 9pt

Vertical, horizontal and oblique brush used for uppercase letters

Construction process of the rounded letters stroke. Angle of the corners: 3,5 pt

Font sizes in use

OZ magazine

The magazine that screwed up the system and became a symbol of the counterculture

In 1968 there were many underground newspapers read and shared in hippy communities around the world. There were bold and revolutionary magazines like "Frendz", "The Oracle of Southern California" and "Wendi n- gen", in Germany. But the publication on everyone's lips was "OZ". The magazine was stimulating, trippy, full of erotic taboos. And soon she would end up at the center of an obscenity trial

. Produced in a Notting Hill Gate basement by three publishers, Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis the magazine was famous for artist Martin Sharp's psychedelic covers, Robert Crumb's cartoons and Germaine Greer's feminist thinking. Oz was an alternative, underground magazine associated with the 1960s counterculture. The magazine covered topics such as uncomfortable gay rights, racism, the environment, feminism, sex, the pill, acid, rock music and to the Vietnam War; Oz was one of the most important subjects of the countercultural revolution of the 20th century

It was published in Australia from 1963 to 1969 and in the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1973

Subway Art

Interview with Scream RTSK, famous Roman graffiti vandal.

It is difficult to explain the attratction that writers have for the subway*. It could be the fact that what we do has developed mainly from support of the subculture; it could be the atmosphere of the places where the subway is painted, the difficulties encountered in painting it, the risks or the simple fact that the name crosses from one side of the city to the other. I have never been able to fully understand it. What I know for sure is that this thing made me feel unique and the experiences pushed me to overcome my limits and to affirm myself as a living and present entity in this society, which is increasingly trying to homogenise us. Sometimes the reality we live leads me to think that I have wasted too many resources by cultivating this passion; maybe I could have used all that time and energy in a more constructive way... but constructive for whom? It's what I felt like doing, much more than just a need, much more than a pastime. It was a feeling of really being alive. When I go down to the station or to take pictures of my pieces, something in my mind asks me: "Why?" Fuck! I'm alive, I'm not a number.

*The first subways were painted in new york in the 80s, it was a functional activity to spread one's name throughout the city. Rome has always been influenced by the New York attitude, in fact a few years later Cromo (Stand TRV) painted the first metro of line A together with his MT2 crew

24

14 pt 11 pt

pt 7 pt

Typographic scale

Hardcore Hardcore Hardcore Hardcore Hardcore Hardcore

The right corner has a roundness of 3.5 pt

rThe external part is rounded The shoulder is semplified, and the roundess on the external part creates contrast

The inner part the tail is sharped

part of sharped

Cap height & Ascender

X-height

The upper letters don't have overshoot

The shape of the bowl is a circle with low roundness for having more contrast

lHorizontal terminals follow the cap height. The T crossbar follows the x-height without overshoot

High x-height

Font characteristics

Betico typeface is inspired by monospaced characters for the geometries. The characteristic element is the combination of sharp lines and curved shapes, this allows good legibility even when it is used for very small formats

Contrast between rounded strokes and sharped lines, it keeps the geometric aesthetic and improve the legibility

nThe right shoulder of the N,M and H has a strong roundness

Rounded letters have a soft shape as a lobe, matched with straight perpendicular lines

Single-eye A and G

Inner part of the letters composed by oblique lines is rounded

round letters based on the same stroke

straight stem letters stem letters with high contrast on the shoulder

n m h rtjyfl

letters with oblique strokes and rounded inner terminal

v w y x

contrast between the roundness of the external part and the 90 ° angle of the inner part

Letters based on diagonal stroke

Rounded letters are based on the stroke of the OI

RPB

The upper lobe follows the same shape and doesn't overshoot Straight stem without contrast and rooundness

LIEFTJ