NON is an ongoing series of experimental type systems that create abstractions in frequency, rhythm and form in order to explore the breadth of typographic expression. Created by The Letters director Mark Gowing as part of his personal artistic practice, NON does not conform to traditional typographic rigours nor seek conventionally useful outcomes. Experimentation is at the heart of NON. While NON fonts are made using regular alphabets, they rarely form regular language patterns, instead words, sentences and paragraphs present as rhythmic fields, creating outcomes that feel like text, but are altogether unique.
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Varied weight version
Assembled using a strict grid of perpendicular, diagonal and circular strokes, Fractional is about the divisions of whole units. While the characters are made up of raw assemblages of these simple units, each stroke is is a complete fraction of the letter’s whole, as highlighted in the varying weights of the 30/45/75/120/180 style.
Offsets is about solid geometric forms, their interplay with each other and the negative space around them. Each character is constructed using an assemblage of standardised blocks, circles and triangles to allude to basic letterforms, creating an overall feeling of spacial offsets.
Variable line weight
Elliptical is a pure expression of oval forms. The system utilises whole, half and quarter sections of ellipses, in combination with straight lines to form each letter structure. The strokes of each section fill the available height or width, and never touch, creating a definitive, rounded rhythm.
Infinitely scaleable
Constructed on a strict nine-point grid with three units on each axis, 3:3 Dot creates abstract reductions of letterforms using only the limited dot grid locations available. The system is executed with the same space between letters as there is between each dot, resulting in buzzing dot fields when typeset.
Components is a playful exercise in the contrast of both form and volume. The system is, as the name implies, made from components. Each character is composed from a strict combination a circular, semi-circular, corner and bar components.
Duplex employs a simple concept of pairing a limited set of modular corner units to create each character. These unit pairs are arranged either horizontally or vertically as required. As the space between each modular unit is equal to the space between each letter, the overall effect is a frequency field of equally sized corners when typeset.
Variable line weight
Overlapping consists of two abstract systems that create more conventional letterforms when overlapped. Each set of characters is constructed as lines on a strict grid, each line spanning the complete width or height of each letter. The resulting typesettings are frequencies of equal lines that are related via their spacial equality.
Leaning is about solidity in angular motion. Heavy, solid forms are sliced with angle portions, presenting relationships of characters that appear to move in a single direction. Leaning has been created in two styles that lean both left and right.
Volumes is about the contrast and relationship of large and small forms. Letterforms are made up of the minimum of rectangular units, with a preference for the largest block possible. these block units are also offset by a smattering of triangles that help to define the missing details in the truncated letterforms.
Constructed from rigorous combinations of pure forms, Shapes is exactly as it’s name suggests. Triangles, circles, squares and rectangles at consistent sizes are arranged in strict combinations to form bold glyph representations. As a typeset galley, these shapes become fields of expressive shape combinations.
Variable contrast
The Frequency family begins with the 20/20 style – a pure execution of a rigorous grid of vertical, horizontal and diagonal strokes of a single length and width. However, from there the family evolves through various stages of deconstructed and reconstructed frequencies due to an inverted interpolation method.
Variable line weight
Reflected Lines utilises vertical and horizontal reflection planes to create symmetrical abstractions that are reflections of a basic letterforms in each case. These individual networks of form combine to make blankets of frequency the activate familiar combinations in a unique way.
Dit-Dah is based on the Morse Code system of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, commonly know as dots and dashes, or dits and dahs. Dit-Dah is designed using an approximation of letterforms, each made from the quantity of dots and dashes used to create its Morse Code counterpart.
Variable line weight
Reiteration is an experiment in utilising familiar segments of letterforms and repurposing them in unconventional ways. Gridded letter structures are repeated, reflected and rotated in order to create their neighbours, and their consistent strokes touch and to run together. The frequency of linked lines is occasionally broken by the perfect circle of the lower-case ‘o’, being the only character to utilise a curve.
Constructed with a minimised grid of nine square units in a three by three grid, the glyphs creating Squares are an extreme reduction in form and legibility. The resulting field of units when Squares is typeset creates frequencies of seemingly randomised pixels.
Facets is a gridded type system constructed from solid forms that are defined by a limited set of related angles. When typeset, the solid forms run together to create new larger forms that cluster in islands among the frequency of parts.
Originally created for the covers of the Preservation Music Circa series, Iterations utilises a limited selection of geometric shapes and lines to form each letter. The forms and lines are spaced and scaled, creating idiosyncratic rhythms and textures when viewed in typeset galleys.
Outline and solid
Sections is constructed using an approximation of letterforms made with vertical, horizontal or diagonal dissections of triangles, circles and squares. These sections of base shapes repeat and contrast to form a rhythm of positive and negative form. Keylines are at the heart of Sections’ structure. The family consists of varying keyline weights, in both outline and solid forms.
Strokes utilises a minimal grid of whole and half square units in order to make basic letterforms. These forms share their adjoining strokes when typeset, creating an overall network of connected lines. The 3/5 style further enhances this concept via the addition of extra connected stokes that increase the density of the overall frequency.
The first experiment in the NON series, each character in Bisected Squares is constructed by four triangles arranged in a two by two grid. Each triangle is essentially half a square unit and each letter uses exactly four triangles each.