Miller Type Foundry

Concept

THE SPARK

Uniform started as a spark of inspiration one day while I was shopping at the store. I was looking at some typography on a can of dog food and the idea popped into my head, “What if there was a geometric typeface with a circular O that when condensed, the O became straight sided, instead of becoming an oval?”

I quickly sketched out the concept of Uniform and liked what I saw, the only problem was I was working full time as a graphic designer, and as a newly married husband, I didn’t have any time to make the extensive typeface.

Letdown

A year and a half later, shortly after the birth of my first child, my boss cut my hours in half. Although stressful, I saw this event as an opportunity to finally have time to complete the typeface I had in my head. I spent a couple months putting together a Kickstarter campaign, thinking it would be a smashing success, and I would be able to live off the donations long enough to complete the typeface. Wrong! The campaign was a flop and I was left discouraged and dejected, thinking that the great idea I had in my head would never become a reality...

Perseverance

At the end of the year, in December 2013, I decided to go for it and make this new typefamily no matter what it took. I began waking up a few hours before work each morning (getting only four hours of sleep each night) carefully crafting each individual glyph day by day. After nine months of hard work (and just about killing myself in the process!) in October 2014, I finally had a finished product ready to be released to the public!

Take a look below and see for yourself why I was so excited about this typeface that I had to make it a reality no matter what it took!

Execution

Design

The O of Uniform’s Regular width is almost a perfect circle, the O of the Condensed width is drawn around 1.5 circles stacked (with straight sides) and the O of the Extra Condensed width is drawn around two circles stacked (also with straight sides). All other characters were derived from this initial concept. This concept makes Uniform the only geometric type family out there that bridges the gap between circular geometric typefaces and condensed straight-sided typefaces.

Basic Characters

Font Styles

Uniform was first drawn starting with the Black weight, then the Light weight, then all weights in between, and lastly the Ultra weight. This careful process allows each character to look consistant and balanced throughout all weights. Many typefaces out there may look nice in the regular or bold weights, but when they are extrapolated to black or ultra weights, their form “breaks down” and they begin to look goofy as space becomes limited within each character.

OpenType Features

Old Style Figures

Although not technically true Old Style Figures (because they have no ascenders or descenders) these figures are slightly smaller than the cap height, causing them to blend in better with longer portions of text.

Tabular Lining Figures

These figures all have the same width, perfect for tables and charts that align vertically.

Superscript

Superscript numbers are smaller than all other characters and align with the Cap Height. If these are just scaled down then they will appear too light compared to the rest of the characters they are next to, so they have to be optically corrected to flow with the normal characters. Uniform comes with superscript numbers as well as other useful symbols such as currency symbols, # and %.

Ligatures

Ligatures are characters that combine two or more letters into one altered glyph. These are designed to reduce awkward negative space that is created by certain letter combinations.

Alternate Characters

These alternate characters give Uniform a different feel when substituted. To access them use OpenType Stylistic Alternates in Adobe Illustrator or OpenType Stylistic Set 1 in InDesign.

Extras

Sarcasm Mark

For centuries, typographers and writers have been trying to solve the issue of how to display sarcasm in written form. Many have proposed marks that seem awkward or outlandish. Keeping things simple, Uniform includes a sarcasm mark that looks natural, yet also is distinct from other standard punctuation marks.