Nice to meet you! 「SD November」
A New Collaboration with Typotheque, 「SD November」
Sandoll has been releasing comprehensive multilingual font families through various collaborative projects with Typotheque over the years. The first collaboration project 「Sandoll GretaSans」* and last year's April release 「Sandoll Lava」 have garnered much love from users since their launch. The strength of these global collaborative projects lies in the fact that characters in each language are handled by experts from respective countries, resulting in a high-quality family designed as one cohesive unit.
*「Sandoll GretaSans」 Article (link)
「November」developed by Typotheque, is a practical and highly readable font family. Designed for road signs and information delivery systems, it is suitable for long texts and excels in readability even in small body sizes. For this purpose, it includes various informational glyphs like pictograms.
「November」 by Typotheque (link)
Before initiating the comprehensive collaboration project, we discussed various expansion possibilities of 「November」 with Typotheque's director, Peter Biľak. This was because 「November」 had the potential to expand into multiple styles.
From the rounded version 「October」 that spins off from 「November」 to 「November Compressed」 and 「November Condensed」, which reduce the width horizontally, the family inherently offers nine basic weights. Considering the full range available, it was clearly evident that it could be called a super family*.
* A font family refers to a collection of fonts that are variations of one basic font. Each family may differ slightly in composition, but typically includes light, regular, and bold weights as representative styles. The term "family" is used to describe a set of fonts that maintain a common overall concept while each possessing its own style.
Of course, applying all styles to Korean may pose challenges, but with these attractive possibilities in mind, we began the work on 「SD November」 the Korean version of 「November」.
Handling Multilingual Projects
There are many considerations when adapting Hangul to Latin characters. Apart from aligning the design consistently, there are many aspects that can vary depending on the physical placement, size, and spacing of the family's nature. Characters from entirely different countries carry historical and cultural contexts of each nation. Therefore, it was crucial to maintain an impression like 「November」 while not deviating from the context commonly used in Korea.
Before starting the full-scale work, we collected and analyzed all information about 「November」 and held a kickoff meeting with Typotheque's Peter Biľak and several collaborative designers at Typotheque. During the meeting, we were able to share various insights from designers who were already working on 「November」 versions in other scripts such as Kana for Japanese and Hanja for Chinese characters.
Although there are many differences, the characters of the three East Asian countries commonly referred to as CJK (China, Japan, Korea) also share many similarities due to their close relationships. Through this meeting, we gained several hints regarding the direction of 「November」 Hangul work by reflecting the context of each country's characters and their visual characteristics.
Based on the hints from the kickoff meeting and the analysis of 「November」 materials, we conducted a workshop to define the direction of 「SD November」 across three main themes: purpose, design scope, and impression.
For the purpose, we deliberated on the actual mediums and environments where 「November」 would be used, and established appropriate uses for each weight. We also identified common features of Korean sans-serif fonts, considering characteristics such as width, structure, and the placement and size of glyphs. We specified a visual scope that wouldn't surprise experienced users too much, and analyzed the form of 「November」 to uncover visual traits that could be applied to 「SD November」.
Additionally, to ensure that the Korean drafts of 「SD November」 evoke a similar impression to 「 November」, we extracted impressions felt from 「November」 itself.
By setting appropriate directions for each theme, we commenced the Korean draft work of 「SD November」, aiming to reflect the visual characteristics of 「November」 effectively.
Part of the Proposal for 「SD November」 - Keyword Extraction
The prominent visual features of 「November」 identified by Sandoll were ① the design of vertical and horizontal stroke endings, ② the 'O' design in track form, and ③ a relatively narrow width. While fully reflecting Latin design characteristics in Hangul is nearly impossible due to the contextual differences between these scripts, appropriately integrating these features is precisely the task of the font designer.
① Vertical and Horizontal Stroke Endings
「November」 features a visual characteristic where all stroke endings, known as terminals, are cut vertically or horizontally. This creates open inner spaces and contributes to clean sidebearings, ensuring high legibility across various media and sizes.
While this design feature is common and widely accepted in Latin scripts, it is not typical in Hangul. Generally, characters like 'ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ' end diagonally to follow the flow of strokes naturally. To adapt this feature as much as possible, several drafts were tested. Characters with diagonal endings were designed symmetrically with branches so that vertical endings do not appear awkward. This terminal design imparts a mechanical impression, yet the curves are smoothed to prevent an overly mechanical look, ensuring it blends well for body text purposes.
In fact, while terminals enhance readability in Latin, in Hangul, they are simply reflected as visual features. Therefore, 「SD November」 complemented these aspects by precisely adjusting spacing within individual characters and controlling stroke thickness to optimize readability.
Part of the Proposal for 「SD November」 - Design Draft
② Track Shaped 'O' Design
Reflecting the track-shaped 'O' design in Hangul posed similar challenges. Unlike the Latin 'O,' Hangul characters like 'ㅇ' and 'ㅎ' vary significantly in width and height, narrowing horizontally or vertically. Addressing this required meticulous handling of paths and points, which consumed considerable time for adjustment. The key was to adjust to ensure that as the height decreased, the straight-line representation of vertical strokes did not become too prominent.
③ Relatively Narrow Width
Compared to the Gothic references commonly used in Korea, 「November」 exhibits a consistent width, giving an impression of uniformity and compactness. Therefore, the Korean width settings for 「SD November」 aimed to maintain this impression. Considering future expansions like 「November Compressed」 and 「November Condensed」 mentioned earlier, we set the width within an appropriate range to ensure it does not become excessively narrow.
Another point of concern during the production of 「SD November」 was how to adjust punctuation marks for Hangul, Latin, and punctuation aligned with Latin. Since 「SD November」 was Sandoll's third multilingual collaboration project, we could refer to previous projects such as 「Sandoll GretaSans」 and 「Sandoll Lava」.
Hangul and Latin have different baseline standards. Particularly, Latin punctuation marks are aligned based on the baseline, x-height, and cap height, which are more rigid compared to Hangul. If you are an extreme alignment enthusiast, this may give you something to ponder over.
In contrast, Hangul punctuation marks do not have a clearly visible baseline alignment like Latin. The position of punctuation marks varies from font to font, and they may appear similar or different. Could this be because most punctuation marks used in modern Hangul are not originally native to Hangul? Perhaps they have become relatively free from baseline constraints, leading font designers into deep contemplation.
Difference in Baseline Between Latin and Hangul
In 「 GretaSans」 and 「 Lava」, the punctuation marks originally designed for Latin were modified to suit Hangul. Additionally, 「Lava 」 includes separately designed punctuation marks commonly used with Hangul, incorporating localized forms that can be used in Adobe programs.
*Localized Forms (link)
However, 「SD November」 had various expansion possibilities, and we aimed to maximize versatility by minimizing additional features. Therefore, for Hangul and commonly used punctuation marks, we readjusted their length and position to fit Hangul standards. For Latin and numerals, as well as frequently used punctuation marks, we tried to maintain them as much as possible in their original forms. Working to align Hangul with the cap height helped make this approach less awkward. Multilingual projects like this can be seen as interesting endeavors with no definitive answer, as they branch into multiple directions depending on what designers consider, highlighting the complexity and creativity involved.
Like Farmers and Chefs
Like farmers nurturing crops and chefs transforming them into exquisite dishes, the relationship between font designers and designers from various fields is a mutually indispensable one. Perhaps most font designers remember the moment they discovered the first use case of their font after its release. Collecting real-world usage cases is as crucial to font designers as creating the font itself. Sometimes, insights are gained by observing unconventional uses in unexpected contexts.
Therefore, at Sandoll, we conduct close beta tests before font releases to request usage tests from designers actively engaged in diverse fields. Even before its release, 「SD November」 underwent close beta testing to gather feedback on its usage and ideally collect real usage cases to showcase upon release. Thanks to the participation of various beta testers, we could anticipate how 「SD November」 would be used in real-world environments and prepare to showcase diverse font applications alongside its release.
Nice To Meet You! 「SD November」
「November」 supports over 270 language variations including Korean, Latin and its extensions, Greek and its extensions, Cyrillic and its extensions, and notably includes Sandoll's first Devanagari characters. With the addition of italic and Sandoll's first variable font, this font family offers a total of 20 styles, promising exceptional versatility and usability.
Rather than dryly reciting facts, one could say that 「November」 represents a versatile family of 20 members capable of fluent conversations with locals in over 270 locations worldwide. We hope you look forward to seeing how this family continues to grow. It was a pleasure meeting you! See you next time!
「SD November」 Type Kit For Multilingual Support!
To celebrate the release of 「SD November」, we've created a Type Kit that includes a sampler and goods where you can directly experience the diverse charm of November. You can apply for the 「SD November」Type Kit by clicking the link below.
*After the initial stock runs out, applicants will be selected via lottery for distribution.
*Type Kit: sampler, poster, passport case, luggage sticker, and a 1-month font coupon
Apply for the 「SD November」 Type Kit
Author: Sandoll Product Planning Team, Kim SeulKi