Etude Typeface

Inspired by the study of type design and experimental music techniques, the name “Etude” comes from the French verb “étudier” rooted in the meaning of “study.” True to the name, Etude is a study of the broad nib pen, the history of handwritten music notation, and the influence of Jean-Pierre Rousselet’s constructed stencil forms into three distinct weights. As the family cascades from Light to Bold, the weights become a crescendo from soft and delicate to loud and more prominent on the page.

Released with Order Type Foundry
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The beginning of Etude started with the design of a translation contrast text typeface for sheet music notation. Typefaces and glyphs that are specific to music notation typically follow the expansion contrast model, exemplifying thicks and thins that are more vertically oriented. 

Functionally, the combination of the broad nib and music notation felt at odds, until I came across two examples of translation contrast music notation by Hermann Zapf, that started to justify the existence of Etude.. Hans Baumann’s Der Helle Tag is an example of Zapf’s musical notation calligraphy in 1938-39 named, Alkor Notenschrift. In 1942-43, Zapf also designed Musica Roman, a typeface for Ludwig Voggenreiter Verlag, a prominent music publisher at the time. 

The calligraphic influence of the broad nib was evident in both of these examples. As I looked deeper into the history of music notation, it was clear that some of the first handwritten examples of music utilized the broad nib. The more remarkable examples of handwritten stencil music notation are by French Illuminator and Scribe, Jean-Pierre Rousselet from the early 18th century. Rousselet’s liturgical manuscript for King Louis XV in 1719, demonstrates stenciled forms that are defined by exposed calligraphic exit and entry points.

The beginning of the sketching and digitizing process was spent on developing a construction logic, which would extend across the entire typeface. The overarching conceit became quite simple in that thin entry points would start at the top left and move clockwise, and thick entry points would also start at the top left and move in a counter- clockwise direction. It was important that this stencil celebrated the entry and exit points of a stroke, and that the movement of the pen would be evident in each letter.

Etude distills influence of the broad nib pen, the history of handwritten music notation, and the influence of Jean-Pierre Rousselet’s constructed stencil forms into three distinct weights. As the family cascades from Light to Bold, the weights become a crescendo from soft and delicate to loud and more prominent on the page.

Inspiration of hand-stenciled letterforms, and stenciled brass cuts were drawn on to create a custom drafting stencil plate. The core shapes of the Etude typeface can be used to draw the full upper and lowercase Latin alphabet.

Etude Typeface

Typeface designed by Emily Atwood
Released with Order Type Foundry
Promotional Materials by Emily Klaebe

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