The Making of Rosarian

While shopping for lettering supplies, I came across a Pentel Waterbrush which I thought might be interesting to experiment with. Different brushes, no matter how similar they may look at a glance, can create different effects, so even though I had plenty of brushes already, I went ahead and bought it. It was not expensive, so I wasn’t concerned about being too hard on it. I have a couple of other pointed brushes that I have to be very gentle with, so it was nice to be able to do whatever I wanted to with this one. I found myself pressing down hard on the strokes, flipping the brush around from one side to the next, then pulling up quickly to go from a nice plump stroke to a hairline thin one. Interesting forms came to life through the manipulation of the brush. The curvy stems on the letters a, g, u, for example, was a result of looping the brush around to create the down-stroke rather than lifting the brush off of the surface to join two strokes together. Instead of attempting a consistent contrast, I put a little more emphasis on the bottom part of the stroke to keep the look lively, playful and a bit retro. I also added a bunch of alternates and a few ornaments for the sake of variety.

Overall, I stayed pretty true to the original lettering. I wanted this design to have a friendly, approachable look, to be round, bubbly and playful. The letterforms were originally more narrow, so I made them wider and put more emphasis on the contrast to bring out the look I wanted to convey. I experimented with whether or not to make it a connected, semi-connected or unconnected typeface, and decided on the connected version as it added more detail and interest. I created an unconnected version as a stylistic set which is also used for contextual alternates. I like for the connectors on the letters to be shorter before a space or punctuation, it just looks cleaner that way. Plus, it makes the design more versatile and provides a more casual option.