The One Where I Digitized a Vintage Font

Font Design

Tempo
Tempo, created by Robert Hunter Middleton, is a digitally-lost typeface created in the 1920s. There are currently limited versions available online for computer usage and I was given the vintage specimen that is created through letter blocks. To develop a better understanding of typography and the process of making a typeface, I decided to digitize Tempo.

The Process
I began by meticulously measuring each letter from the vintage specimen to understand the overall ratio and the different relations with the x-height. Afterward, I redrew all 52 letters (upper and lowercase), scanned them to Fontlab, and carefully rendered each letter. As a final presentation, I made a specimen book.