Well, this is how things go.. When the official deadline was less than 24 hours away I changed my mind and went a totally different direction.
I quit worrying about using Matthew’s fonts and thought about what I was inspired to focus upon (which is where I really was anyway). This ends up being the T, specifically the Red Line. I ride it twice a day and have an affinity for it. I figure he does too since he lives in Cambridge.
I’ve also been reading publications by and for Matthew. In the most recent Eye he’s penned a short article about designing a woodcut font. I got interested in the punchcut process, designing the counter space. He tells a story about how Frutiger used to start creating a letterform by drawing the negative space with white paint on black paper.
And then I always have this little rebellious nature that seems to make its way into what I do. It’s a tribute to the T but it visual starts as a U...
The T is the punch line to the punchcut. That’s what I’ve always loved about good ad headlines. You get that millisecond to make a connection and have your own "a-ha moment".
I got confirmation from the organizers that NOT using Matthew’s type is a good thing because he’s probably sick of seeing it. So there’s no way he could be sick of seeing Helvetica..... right?
The AIGA event to honor Matthew is on September 24 at the Cambridge Public Library. This poster along with 15 other limited edition letter forms will be available for purchase. Ride the Red Line to get there. Special thanks to my friend Nick at Young Monster for screen-printing these for me.
