Type West Online, Term 1, Spring 22
Starlight
Daniela López
Starlight is a type revival of Morris Fuller Benton’s Sterling, published in 1923 in the American Type Founders Specimen Book & Catalogue. The letterforms and their delicacy first caught my eye and decided I wanted to translate that hand quality feel of the designs into the revival and optimize them for uses in small to medium size texts.
Sterling’s revival was quite a challenge because I had to explore how the pen influenced the shape of the letters while I was working on the digitalization. I had to break down the strokes into gestures and considered the ways that a wrist move resolved the transitions between them. These gestures can be seen in the diagonals and the unions between the arms and stems of the letters, as they follow the soft stroke of the pen as it was drawn. This was essential in order to preserve the hand quality feel to the letters in the revival.
Different adjustments had to be made in order for the face to work in smaller sizes. In terms of color, I reduced the contrast, took special attention to the thick and thins and optical adjustments were made. Whilst working in the rhythm of the typeface, specially the letter’s proportions, the uppercase seemed too big for the lowercase, so I reduced their height, scaled the x-height up and shortened the ascenders and descenders to make it more text friendly.
Daniela López
Daniela is a graphic designer by day and type designer by night. She is passionate about amplifying diverse voices in type. Living and working in Mexico City.
