19 October 2012

Fonts similar to Klavika

Edited 25 May 2013
 
I don't know about you but I think Klavika is a stylish display font! It definitely makes #5 on my top 10 list of display fonts. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any fellow FG/CLs who have it. I might have to buy the suite and CL it myself actually. Until then though, there are a few types that can do in place of Klavika.
The first is Neo Sans. It's what I've been using primarily as a Klavika substitute mostly because it has so many weights. Light, Bold, Black, and Ultra. I like Neo Sans Bold especially :) It's like #2 behind Ubuntu Bold. And talking of...
Ubuntu is also very similar. Plus the best thing about it.... it's free! Compared to Neo Sans which costs 54 quid/individual TTF on MyFonts. The best things in life are free right? :P
Aller is another free one from Dalton Maag (maker of Ubuntu). It and Klavika both have a double-storey lower "g" but some of Aller's vertical strokes don't connect (i.e. R K and X -- Klavika's K doesn't connect either).
Ruda has quite a few similarities to Klavika and might even be indistinguishable in a few applications. It's the nearest free substitute that I've found so far.
If you're not doing a serious logotyping design or you want to make fun of Facebook or something then Banksia is a decent Klavika-like typeface. I think it's sort of like a Cachet/Skia hybrid.
Cuprum is a bit narrower and more humanist than Klavika, but it does contain a few of the same design elements. It kinda makes you wish there were a Klavika Narrow, doesn't it? And talking of...
Economica is like the Klavika Narrow that never was. Actually, even if there were one, this free typeface by Vicente Lamónaca would probably work a little better. It's a little narrow for main text, but it works famously for section headings.

10 October 2012

Erbos Draco goes viral!

This is a screenshot of http://countdown.depechemode.com. It clearly shows the use of Erbos Draco Open NBP! Cool! I'ma have to listen to them now.... I think they did some Simlish stuff for The Sims 2.
So even though this is only the second time I've ever seen one of the fonts I made in use... they used the OLD VERSION! Like last week sometime I redrew a few characters in the Erbos Draco family to make it less similar to other LED screen styled types on Fontspace (like LED Phone and TPF Display). Plus, I drove past a real actual LED sign that had been there for years that had the exact same upper G as Erbos Draco has. So that's why I messed with it. Then, someone points out to me that Depeche Mode is using v.1.0 (version ONE-point-freakin-ZERO!) @_@ So I decided that, since its being used now, I'd bring back ED Open and ED Regular from the old version. And I did. Because I'm a nice guy :)
Well anyway, it's cool that somebody out of the 2100+ people who've downloaded it decided it was nice enough to use for something. 

So what exactly is DIFFERENT about Erbos Draco from other LED types on Fontspace?
For one thing, there are symbols and lowercase letters. The lower letters don't go below the baseline (because there isn't a "below the baseline" on a scoreboard display). Most other uppercase Rs look like Arial or Interstate. ED's looks more like Univers or Helvetica. The 7 is based on Akzidenz-Grotesk.

You can o/c download Erbos Draco from Fontspace.
http://www.fontspace.com/total-fontgeek/erbos-draco-monospaced-nbp

Oh FYI. The name "Erbos Draco" has nothing to do with dragons. It's an anagram of "score board" ;)
Let's hear it for pixely LED styled typefaces!

BTW I had an interview today for a graphic design position at a local advertising agency so you might see alot more typefaces of mine showing up in places!