Evert Bloemsma research

MY RESEARCH

EVERT BLOEMSMA

Evert Bloemsma was a Dutch typeface designer who studied graphic design at the Arnhem Art Academy from 1976 to 1981. It was during this time that he developed a high interest in Swiss typography. Swiss design influenced his type designs, particularly his first typeface, Balance. In all his typefaces, Bloemsma placed as much concentration on the black space of the letterform as he did on the white space in and around the characters.

Early in his career, Bloemsma worked on the production of digital fonts at URW in Hamburg, Germany while developing his own typeface designs. Following his employment at URW, he worked as a typographer in the Netherlands. He was part of a team that produced laserprinter bitmap fonts, which he then studied to learn how low-resolution output affected the forms of typefaces.

Bloemsma also taught typography at the Art Academy of Breda and Arnhem. In addition to working as a designer, Bloemsma also was a photographer with concentration in panoramic architectural photography with a panoramic camera that he built himself.

He was an advocate for healthy lifestyle and was an avid recumbent cyclist. It was a shock to the design community when he died of heart failure in 2005 at the age of 46. Aside from his four typefaces, Evert Bloemsma is remembered for his original mind, weird sense of humor, enthusiasm, and sincere dedication. (http://typophile.com/node/10573)

FF BALANCE (1993):

The preliminary version of Balance was presented at Bloemsma’s design school graduation exhibition in 1981. His view at the time he began designing Balance was that “there was no place for serifs” in the new technological age. Despite his fascination with Swiss typography, he admired unconventional design, particularly Antique Olive by French Designer, Roger Excoffon.

Bloemsma incorporated Antique Olive’s top-heavy characters and inverted stress into Balance. He felt that the top-heaviness would have a “positive effect on readability” because readability essentially rests on the top half of most characters. Also supporting readability is horizontal stressing, or “inverted stress”, which tries to make up for the lack of serifs. (Dutch Type by Jan Middendorp, page 237)

Bloemsma tried several times to sell the first versions of Balance to some well-known international foundries, including Linotype, Monotype, and ITC. In 1986 While working in Hamburg at the German type foundry, URW, Bloemsma digitized Balance by using Ikarus, the type design and production software that was developed by URW, for converting existing typefaces and logos into digital format. URW did not end up publishing the font. Years later in 1993, it was published by FontShop, but it would take some time for Balance to become a well-received by other designers. Today, it is primarily used by European designers and has unfortunately does not seem to have had as much use in the US.

Cocon (1998):

Attempts were made with the first sketches of Cocon to “erase every trace of handwriting”, but after an unsuccessful experiment with straight terminals, Bloemsma added “asymmetrical rounding” to the terminals of the stems. This rounding of the terminals is effective at smoothly moving the eye forward from left to right. Bloemsma defined Cocon as a “serious typeface” which is relative to the hours he spent designing it and the range of possibilities for its use. This typeface has been used more frequently in Europe and has been used for a few American brands you might recognize. (Dutch Type by Jan Middendorp, page 237)

FF AVANCE (2000):

When Bloemsma was designing Avance, he went back to a more traditional approach in typeface design. He was known to have said, “In our trade, tradition acts as an inescapable magnet” and there is “no point” in ignoring those traditions. The trick, Bloemsma said, is to “deal shrewdly and creatively with tradition”. A restful, regular appearance to words is possible through serifs, which guide our eyes along the text. In addition to creating a typeface with serifs, Bloemsma knew what he wanted to avoid. Lack of ornament and decoration, asymmetry, and a non-finished appearance were his cleaver ways of keeping with tradition. He also wanted it to be as spatially economical as Times Roman without having the same high contrast.

FF LEGATO (2004):

Legato is a music term that means to play evenly and smoothly without any pause between the notes. Bloemsma used this idea to visually connect the characters in his typeface by way of improving the unity of the word with “internal tension”. The resulting typeface is one that builds better word images and improves legibility by using diagonal stress. The interior curves of the counters oppose the exterior curves, which may sound like a strange way to accomplish unity, but instead makes the characters clearer and more interesting. Legato has been awarded twice: once in 2004 by Typographica (a review and commentary of typefaces and typography books) and once by Letter.2 (by Association Typographique Internationale) in 2011. This was Evert Bloemsma’s last typeface before his untimely death in 2005.

MY T-SHIRT

I chose Legato as the typeface for my shirt since it was the only of Bloemsma's fonts to win awards. The major objective of this typeface is to improve readability and many professional typographers seem to agree that it succeeds in doing so. I chose that fact, plus Legato's award-winning status to create the statement on my shirt that reads "improving legibility & winning awards since 2004". I used all weights in the Legato family (except bold condensed) for the statement.

MY SKETCHES (previously posted)