Laura Silberberg

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The Griffon typeface is an elegant, condensed serif typeface, specially design as part of the identity of the Griffon building, a prewar condominium dating back to 1924 located in Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill Historic District in Manhattan, New York, designed by Margon & Glaser. The design for this project was inspired and based on the corporate metal letters of the façade of this building.

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The departure point was the examination of these letters, specially the R, E and G, because there were the only reference and there weren’t any lowercase letters. In fact, most of these kind of letters from this period are only designed in uppercases.

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After this analysis some decisiones were made as the following: modification of the structure, just a little bit, in order to adapt it to a more classical and humanistic one. For this reason, a new cap-hight was defined, as well as a slanted axis. All these characteristics were considered as the basic structure. The contrast remain moderate, as in the original letters.

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After these considerations were made, the x-height, as well as the ascenders-hight were stablished. The lowercases were designed first and later the capital letters. In between the Roman a Monoline version was designed. In between, the italic also was designed, and it was base on the broad nib pen and adapted later to the structure of the romans.

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The Griffon family is composed by three styles: Regular, Italic and Monoline version. The Roman style has four variants in weights: Light, Semibold, Bold and Black, that was the result of interpolate the Roman with the Black.

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Some words about the TypeParis Programme, even though I have learned a lot during the process I still feel that I know so little about it. Designing fonts it’s so hard, and during this programme I’m questioning my self about everything. It’s a quite powerful experience.

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I also would like to mention that I have learnt so much from the teachers specially Marc, Matthew, Malou and Gina who have dedicated me time and guidance. The idea of having guest critics I think it’s great because it brings a new vision and energy to the project. Personally I would like to thanks Martin Majoor for his guidance in a critical moment and for show me how to see and consider certain fundamental aspects of typographic design, as well as David Březina and Toshi Omagari who explained me basic concepts in a moment of a lot of confusion. And special thanks to Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer for his lessons and good vibre.

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Finally I would like to thanks Jean-Francois for his lessons and and all the staff, teachers and guests of TypeParis 2022.

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