The typeface is an early work of Nils, whose approach to design, then and now, is undogmatic, direct and powered by research, perseverance and exploiting the latest font technologies. Meret, like Pensum Pro, is the fruit of this approach and was first developed as Nils’ dissertation project on the Type]Media course at the KABK in the Hague.

If you want to read Nils’ many thoughts on his design, see early sketches and the research methods he used to make Meret a well-fitting and economical newspaper typeface get yourself a coffee: this is the article for you!

Idea and progress

Establishing the basic concept

Let's start with the very beginning: In general I consider that the journey is the destination … But of course there is always an image of the goal on your mind.

At the start of the hardcore Masters class at KABK, you are already afraid of the final project because it should be awesome and something special. For Meret, there was this initial sketch, which describes the idea of a mixture of two writing models: broad nib, and pointed pen. As you can see, Meret does not look like this first idea: nine months and lots of exercises between the first sketch and final result means that some (or, to be honest, nearly every) details changed

During these exercises I lost my first image and started a little experiment to find the origin of Meret’s shape. Therefore I set up a little project which started with three similar but different calligraphic exercises. A classical pointed pen, broad nib pen and a version between. This last ‘transition’ version was inspired by combining those two nibs and was pushed to get the basis for Meret.

While working, I mostly concentrated on using the round shapes and the 30° broad nib as a contrast to the stable vertical stem of the pointed pen. Have a look at the following sketches to understand my obscure thoughts.

Researching newspaper conditions for Meret

Before continuing to work on the typeface I did some research on typical newspaper faces and the use of type in different newspapers. My research was based on practical test analyses: learning by doing. Beginning with a collection of newspapers from different countries (The Guardian, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Welt, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, sme Kultura, De Pers Nederlands Dagblad, De Volkskrant, svd Kultur and Stockholm City Helg), I started to analyze them by comparing general paper sizes, columns, character of the typefaces, line-spacing and how weights are used.

Since I wanted to make a typeface that would work really well in German, I had a special look at German newspapers. They have a rather large format of 400 to 570 mm. On this format I made some tests with different typefaces. I analyzed the use of the columns, point size and line spacing plus compared English to German and a lot of typefaces on the same grid to see how many characters fit on one page. I did this with the same point size and another test where I adjusted all x-heights to the same level.

Another analysis compared the x-heights of several typefaces. For newspapers, the most used had a rather large x-height which was between 470 units to 540 units.

The second part of my research was testing the prototype typeface I had created during the shape studies in real newspaper conditions, and then making it even more economical. Superpolator (a tool to automatically interpolate versions between the two extremes) was the best tool to create different versions of this early version of Meret to get the perfect x-height and width. Going extreme, printing, testing, printing again and testing different tracking settings helped to find the perfect proportions to start with. The x-height got slightly higher, the spacing tighter and the shapes more open.

Finalising the KABK Meret

Inspired by the broad nib and pointed pen, I had a clear idea of what Meret was going to be. A narrow lowercase with consistent proportions and high x-height to work well in tight columns like newspaper or magazines. Small and narrow caps to give enough space for possible accents and to be as economical as possible; and wide small caps to set elegant headline.

Overall, the typeface would have a clear and rationalized look. Strong, straight and simple serifs combined with round ball terminals to bring silent power. I just had to expand this into a working typeface. And speaking of ball terminals and simple serifs …

Consistency and details

Consistency played an important role in my design process. In a way I wanted to build up a very consistent typeface family but I also wanted to break this consistency in some points.

To break the rules I started to make four different terminal endings without destroying its charm in working well together. Terminal letter shapes are for instance the a, c, f, g, j, r, s and y.

Consistency is also visible in details like the ink traps and the endstroke of a, d and u compared to the italic letter shape end strokes.

Would four text weights be too many?

Newspapers are often a short-lived product and that means they are usually printed on poor quality paper with a super fast printing technique. Normally, Meret’s regular is strong enough and works well, but on some papers it might need more power. Therefore, along with all the other weights Meret would need for complex typography, a Book weight was needed. As text sizes and lining space also play an important role in perceiving page colour, there is also a light and a medium weight.

With eight consistent weights from ExtraLight to Black incl. four text weights and three bold weights, this straightforward roman needed a simple and modest italic for gentle emphasis.

Italic: the long process

The italic was more difficult than I first thought. In its 26 lowercase shapes there was another complex typeface at least. It was all about finding the right shape to work with the upright: fluent and minimal. As it developed, the angle of the italic changed from 15° to 9° which was very helpful for spacing some problematic letters like the lowercase r for example. Sharing similar serifs helped connect the roman and italic.

Are the figures too big? Where are the serifs?

In newspaper settings, figures need some extra power and I wanted to design them strong for text and clear for tables. Therefore I drew the standard figures a bit bigger, a height between the uppercase and normal oldstyle figures. To stay simple in tables I decided to cut off most of the serifs and terminals of the figures.

Meret’s almost serif-less figures come in five styles, each with matching tabulars. For tiny text sizes, I drew the default figures slightly taller than the x-height; making them strong enough for tricky conditions and unobtrusive enough that they do not distract. And, of course, there are also lining figures and (for romantics) classic oldstyle figures.

Naming the typeface

I wanted the name for my typeface to be short and silent but with a kind of power in it. I decided to use only the vowel e because this is the most used vowel in most languages. This made the name silent. The power came from the letters r and especially t in the end. The name starts softly with its M but ends strongly. All these features in the name can be transferred to the typeface. It is a silent or minimal typeface with a lot of power in its consistency.

From 2011 to 2018

Since starting TypeMates in 2015 and diving into marketing typefaces, I have been dreaming of having Meret come to my own foundry. Finally at the end of 2017, after eight years of flexing its muscles at the fabulous OurType.com, I took the chance to republish Meret at TypeMates.com. With that chance came the opportunity to remaster Meret.

But how much can you improve the shapes, spacing and features of a design that is so tried and tested? I made a comparison between the early KABK master Meret, the 2011 OurType Meret, which had a lot of valuable improvements already, and the idea of Meret I now carried in my head.

For the e, I came back to a shape from my very early design. The weight spectrum was extended with the addition of the initially planned book weight. Some more letters like s or c got tiny improvements, in particular the diacritical marks and punctuation were redrawn. Further the capital ß — as endorsed by the Council for German Orthography in June 2017 — was introduced to Meret, as well as nice discretionary ligatures.

For the figures I decided to change their default encoding: the enlarged oldstyle figures are standard now. All other variants are easy accessible via OpenType features. Additionally the tabular figures were tweaked to improve their fitting in all weights.

And last but not least, as I do in general with my latest releases, some arrow variants, ornamental quotes, geometric shapes were added to provide a palette of helpful icons.

So Meret got an overhaul, but not a massive one. It matches the qualities of its initial release: keeping the tried and tested design, but improving what has to be improved.