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Basgar

  • Client: TypeParis 2017
  • Year: 2017
  • Discipline: Typeface design

Basgar started with exploring the connections between the sister cities Bristol and Bordeaux, which I am both familiar with. Town twinning—the modern concept born out of WWII to maintain and promote international peaceful relationships—materialises through trading and socio-cultural exchanges. My investigations led me to devise the idea of a typeface that would celebrate the common history and culture the two cities share.

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Identifying features in Garamond and Baskerville

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Basgar in the making

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Basgar in the making

The creation of the typeface is grounded in research about Garamond and Baskerville, from a historical angle to the more technical and structural specificities of the two character sets. After identifying the similarities and differences, I went on to design a kind of hybrid text face.

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Basgar Regular

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Basgar Regular main character set

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Basgar Italics Regular

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Basgar Italics Regular main character set

Basgar is therefore commemorative, referencing historical and cultural shared heritage; it takes on features from both Baskerville (UK) and Garamond (FR) with generous proportions, wide counters, diagonal axis and visually strong diacritics.

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Basgar, a commemoration referencing historical and cultural shared heritage.

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Basgar printed specimen (opened inside and outside)

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Basgar printed specimen (closed and opened outside and inside)