Hera is a font family in three weights. The family explores the motion and fluidity of the ball serif, in an evolution from its previous identity as a counterpart to the slab serif. The best of the classic slab fonts ingeniously used the ball serif as a means to terminate a stroke with rotational velocity. In this type universe the slab behaves like physics; the stroke hits the baseline and the impact pancakes it into the slab. As such, a stroke with rotational velocity such as the arm of the lowercase "r" terminates into a vortex, as if the ball serif were the roll to which the ribbon of the stroke was spooled onto. In Hera, there is far less slab, as the slab represents a physical byproduct of right angles and geometric form. Hera is informed by classical slab fonts like Clarendon, the wood type of
Vincent Figgins and the work of Herb Lubalin.
Hera is the product of my thesis project in the Parsons CD+T program, come see the exhibition at the 2 West 13th Street lobby in Manhattan on June 1st through the 6th, 2010.
