In addition to receiving feedback on the design of the Jetsonville font from other members of my capstone project cohort, I reached out to three members of the Twin Cities graphic-design community and requested feedback on Jetsonville.
Users from whom I received feedback
• Mike H., creative director, artist, designer of user experience and information architecture
• Heidi M., graphic designer, adjunct faculty at MCAD (instructor for the Design in Context class where Jetsonville got its start)
• Andrew B., graphic designer, photographer, graphic production artist
All three qualify as potential users of this font and members of the font’s target audience.
Connection method
E-mail.
Content shared and questions asked
I sent each of these users a work-in-progress version of the Jetsonville OpenType-format font file and a list of questions:
1. Did the font install properly?
2. Did you encounter any usability problems?
3. What do you like about the design of the font?
4. What do you see that could be improved?
5. How do you see this font being used (for example, what types of projects or to create what kind of feeling/attitude)?
Feedback received
1. Did the font install properly?
Yes for everyone.
2. Did you encounter any usability problems?
No one encountered any usability problems.
3. What do you like about the design of the font?
Mike H: “My first impression of the design was that I liked the way the tapered curves played against the rigid, straight verticals. As I began to work with it, I felt like this is a great space-age font, but the more I worked with it the more a few other things bubbled up. It seems like there are hints of a deeper history, almost Mesopotamic cuneiform juxtaposed with a more distant, human-as-alien future. Don't get me wrong. I think it has great application as a retro-futurist/mid-century font. I just felt like it actually has more uses than that, which is kind of neat. I don't often see that in this type of display font.” Mike also commented, “That capital 'O' is really great as well.”
Heidi M.: “Jetsonville looks SO beautiful. It was really fun to work with and I found very few issues. Great job with all the punctuation—I love the commas and apostrophes. Overall, this is looking fantastic.”
Andrew B: “Very readable. The default tracking and kerning appears good. Good decorative font. Probably a bit much for body text.”
4. What do you see that could be improved?
Mike H: “This feels like a font that will really sing when developed into the extremities of ultra-thin and bold. The dynamic in the way the lower-case 'a' is designed less vertically is really nice! I'd be curious to see what hints of that might do for the other letters, especially the lowercase, but maybe also the uppercase. But, that I fear might also destroy the expanded use I mentioned previously.”
Heidi M:
“• Are there any fun ligatures you could bring into play?
“• Your word spacing seems a bit tight in your capital alphabet. It's great for lowercase.
“• There are two lowercase letters that I'm struggling with—the ‘a’ and the ‘e.’ On the ‘a,’ it feels like the finial arm at the top is a bit closed in and close to the bowl. I'm tempted to tell you to extend the arm up a bit, but I can see how thoughtfully it lines up with the details in specific letter pairings (like a ‘z’). I love the overall shape, but I think legibility would improve if something was tweaked slightly. With the ‘e,’ if feels very horizontal when placed next to more vertical letters like ‘t’ and ‘h,’ which is important to note, since ‘the’ will be used often. There’s also quite a bit of negative space both above and below the curve, making pairings with a ‘p’ a bit awkward. I tried plugging in your capital ‘E’ as a lowercase letter, and that seemed to work better for me.
“• I wonder if you could bring in a bit more character to the slashes and dashes by incorporating a bit of the tapering. I know you're using both straight and tapered lines throughout, so maybe this is where an alternative glyph could come in handy.
“• I have no doubt that you've spent many, many hours exploring options and details, so take this with a grain of salt.”
Andrew B:
“• I can’t tell if I like repeating the shapes or not.
“• A few of the special characters are too similar to letters: E and &, S and $, a and @.
“• The lower case ‘c’ and ‘e’ are too similar. There are many words where these will appear together (like necessary and pieces).
“• It might help to vary the characters a little bit more.
“• How would lower case ‘j’ look with a curved descender, like ‘y’?”
5. How do you see this font being used (for example, what types of projects or to create what kind of feeling/attitude)?
Mike H: “I can see this font being used to bridge the past and the future—a hopeful nostalgia. Of course, it would lend itself to drive-in movie theaters, diners, and book design, but there is something of a deeper past and more distant future (in time, space, and even evolution). In this I think it is strongest. Humanity as a race that spans eons.”
Mike H. also provided some feedback that I did not request (but was very glad and grateful to receive!), in the form of four usage examples he created:
Actions I am taking based on this feedback
Based on both this feedback and feedback from other students in my capstone cohort:
• I have already started exploring changes to the lowercase “a”, “e” and “j” characters.
• I have already designed some default ligatures and have started exploring some ideas for other discretionary ligatures.
• I have already opened up the word spacing but might open it up further.
• I have already explored tapering of the dashes and slashes but might revisit that topic.
