ff alega: defining techantiqua

Its technicality belies its unadorned beauty; its modernity conceals its classical roots; and its simplicity disguises it as a mere skeletal substructure. But this is no bag of bones; with Alega, Siegfried Rückel turns Gill’s form-norm on its side, and the result is a unique hybrid of a face whose characteristics blur genre boundaries and whose eminent readability, notwithstanding its novelty, may just force us to reconsider our criteria for a good book face. Here, Siegfried discusses the sans-serif branch of Alega, which is distributed through FSI.

JC: Alega is a non-traditional text face: It possesses a unique, technical character, to the extent that some of the glyphs (e.g., the upper case Q and X) stray far from the archetypal forms; yet I perceive it as having a palpable warmth and familiarity. How do you feel these qualities are conveyed?

SR: Alega is a technically constructed type. Most technical types leave a cold impression owing to their clear and austere forms. In contrast, Alega has letterforms that – apart from some exceptions – tend to the forms of an antiqua. This means that there doesn’t exist a quadratic or rectangular a or u that fits in a prefabricated framework, but rather that the individual characters are well-balanced and proportioned and create more or less the impression of antiqua signs from a distance. The italics in particular have the characteristics of a handwritten typeface.

Nonetheless, there are some characters that have nothing at all to do with antiqua forms. These work to the effect that the typeface differs from traditional types. Above all, there are glyphs like the uppercase X that are reminiscent of cave drawings or of primitive African art. In creating these, the normal strictness of a traditional type is livened up. A most important aspect, however, is the soft curveform that dominates all letters. All letter endings are softened, and most interior shapes consist of curves. All of this, combined with the well-balanced letter proportions and different line thicknesses, lends this warm impression to Alega.

JC: In your notes on the FontFont site, you mention the motif that is present in the lower case – particularly in the b, d, p, and q – taking the form of a 90-90-115-65° polygon. How did you conceive of this form and its implementation?

SR: I discovered this shape by experimenting with some fun faces in connection with a totally different type; I was of the opinion that it would be possible to create a totally new typeface. After some experimentation I defined the forms for b, d, p and q. On basis of these forms I adapted all other letters. I did so because this 90-90-115-65° polygon affected me so much. I had the impression of the ultimate, technical form for the aforementioned glyphs.

JC: Your letterforms are non-traditional, yet you’ve issued all of the complements – text figures, small caps, a wealth of ligatures – that are needed for traditional, careful book work. Was it your intention to create a new book face?

SR: Yes – I intended right from the beginning that Alega shouldn’t be just a new typeface, but a very useful font for demanding typography.

JC: You’ve noted also that Alega could be used for anthroposophic typography. Are you a devotee of Steiner, or were you schooled in the Waldorf pedagogy?

SR: My only point of contact with the doctrine of Steiner is the fact that Joseph Beuys – a well-admired artist – has incorporated anthroposophic thoughts into his works and texts. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that Alega is very suitable as a new interpretation of anthroposophic typography.

JC: The Greek fonts were released very shortly after the Romans. Why did you choose to draw a Greek face, and did you encounter any problems – or uncover any new insights – in doing so?

SR: The Greek version was planned right from the beginning. I’m always disappointed when a good design concept is undermined by the substitution of an unsuitable face for text in another language – for example, when there is no Greek version of the selected type for the Greek text on packages or in instructions. Besides, I am simply fascinated by Greek letters. When I am in Greece I have fun deciphering Greek words even though I don’t read the language. And there you notice that there are only few modern Greek types.

Lack of fluency is certainly a handicap when you want to design a face of another language or type system. When you cannot read or write the language you are inevitably dependent on having the type tested for its legibility by a native speaker. Even so, I’ve noticed that although you have to consider some important aspects of the other written language you can go much further than is done usually (i.e., you can depart from the traditional forms).

But my interest in foreign types in general is reason enough for me to create a Greek version. In the same vein, I began to design single signs of the Chinese type system in the manner of Alega and with the help of a Chinese calligrapher. But this was a just-for-fun project and won’t be worked out in the end.

JC: To the best of my knowledge, Alega is your first commercially available typeface. In what ways have you seen it used so far? Do you plan to expand the face further, or have you moved onto new forms?

SR: At present, Alega has mostly sold in the USA, and so I haven’t seen many examples of it in use. As mentioned above, I am occupied from time to time with the further development of Alega; a Turkish version is planned. And at the moment, I am still working on the revision of the seriffed version that will come out soon as part of release 33 of the FontFont library.

Originally, I didn’t plan to develop a seriffed version, but then I began to try a few possible transformations of the basic idea. The result convinced me to the extent that I showed it to the FontFont type board, whose members were also enthusiastic about the idea. So a totally independent type was created – one that can be combined easily with the sans-serif, but that also offers new possibilities for use. Of course I have other type projects in mind, but at the moment it is not clear which one I’ll begin with.

22-October 2003

*Added 28-October: Be sure to Check out Siegfried’s own, wonderful site that features more detailed and comprehensive settings of Alega as well as a sneak preview of Alega Serif.