The Zee's typeface, step by stepListThumbs

The Zee's typeface, step by step

January 22, 2007

In 2006 we renewed the brand of our company, Zee. One of our goals was to create a really unique typeface, I mean a custom face that couldn't be bought or easily found. Thinking about that we had two options: modify an existing typeface or create one from the scratch.

After some search to fonts we decided to follow our second option and design a font from nothing, or barely nothing, because we had some thoughts about what we wanted.

The idea of the font is really basic, a module that we could repeat it as many as possible to create the whole alphabet. That was what we did.

For the module we chose a circle and picked a quarter of it.

For the module we chose a circle and picked a quarter of it.

With the module choosen we started creating some characters, in our case, many characters were just the rotation of a font such as E, A, 9, 6.

9, 6, A, E are the same character rotated or mirrored. The same happens to C, L, J, O...

9, 6, A, and E are the same character rotated or mirrored. The same happens to C, L, J, O...

There were some characters that needed more attention like the V, W, T, K.

The V and W are cool while the T I think needs some improvments

The V and W are cool while the T, I think, needs some improvements.

The main goal of this typeface was to be the ZEE' logo, as the name has basically 2 characters and with the E done, the Z was the most complicated one. It had to be different and cool.

The Z took a lot of time to be done, it's a mix of the A with the 8.

The Z took a lot of time to be done, it's a mix of the A with the 8.

The whole alphabet was created, however there are some issues like kering, spacing, and a lot of special characters to be created if I want to distribute it as a font, though I'm creating the TTF file with what I have done so far, and as soon as I finish it I will put it here to download.

There are some letters that still need some adjustments, such as the Q,Y, and 4.

There are some letters that still need some adjustments, such as the Q,Y, and 4.

Despite the fact that the alphabet is not totally done, this font has been used since last year as the ZEE's logo. One thing that the font really needs is a name. Please if you have a suggestiong let me know.

Zee's website and its logo with the zFont.

Zee's website and its logo with the zFont.

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About the author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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18 Comments

anaquaisia06/10/2009

how can i upload and design a pic???

z.johnson06/01/2009

excuse me! where can i download this font for free?

Ariel07/06/2008

Has the *tiff* file been posted. I would love to use this font.
Keep ideas growing!

Frank03/15/2008

Wow that is a cool effect with letters!
Frank

vinyl siding

payday loans 03/11/2008

oh the font is so cool
which makes the design so awesome
good job sir

Pitrus Design03/09/2008

Are you Going to Upload the TTF file?? it is gorgeous! LOL
Bye..Pitrus

earn money online03/02/2008

thanks for sharing the steps
makes it quite easy to do
but tell me in detail can you

penny stocks list 02/25/2008

thats nice piece of info
thank you for sharing it
good job

penny stocks list 02/25/2008

thats nice piece of info
thank you for sharing it
good job

Jenny02/15/2008

I really like the font!!!Are you going to upload the font?

josé01/22/2008

My english in not good so this is my question...
In what program did you made the fonts please?

Richard07/04/2007

How about Zee Type? Or Zee Gothic... it is *almost* gothic :-)

James Powell06/11/2007

Awesome font, could you e-mail me it at jamespowell100 @gmail.com (you need to remove the space) really cool, keep it up.

abduzeedo02/20/2007

When I created the Zee's font I was looking for something like the Madredeus, though, that font wasn't exactly what I was wiling to use for the logo, I wanted a clean typeface and really simple and modular, but of course the madredeus has the style that I used as inspiration.

abduzeedo02/20/2007

Yeah I think I will name it Zee but maybe 2.0... actually there is a zee font that I had created back in 2002 for the ZEE's first logo...

Thanks for the comment!

sticky!02/20/2007

maybe you followed the first option modifying an existing typeface. sticky

Anonymous02/20/2007

sorry but this Zee reminds me spookily one of my favorite typefaces, Madredeus

whitey02/19/2007

Hows about you name the font zee.....seems the obvious name to me.

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