© 2011

Published By Stephen Pisano

Stark Created ByStephen Pisano

At first when I began to think

about how to create a new

typeface I started looking at the

world around me. I thought about

the past events in the last couple

of years, and to me, the most

significant was the stock market

crash followed by the bankruptcy

of many banks. I went out and

researched how the logos of the

banks that crashed looked and

the surviving banks as well as

many of the companies that run

Wall Street. I then realized that

many of these companies were

using sans serif typefaces that,

although looked modern, did not

give off the impression that those

companies were trustworthy

and strong, two characteristics

that needed to be present in the

aftermath of the stock market.

J.P. Morgan’s logo is one that gives off that sense of modernness without any strength what so ever. The Logo uses a sans serif typeface that says “Hey we take your money and then make extremely poor decision.” J.P. Morgan is a bank that definitely needs to show strength in its logo since they were one of the many banks that were “bailed out” by the government.

Goldman Sachs is a national investment banking and securities firm that took a huge hit after the stock market crash. Their logo although weighted quite boldly, still does not give the customer that sense of openness and authority that many people are looking for in a bank. The people around the world want to be able to trust the people dealing with their money.

Dow Jones is the leader in news and

business information worldwide. They

are the people the inform the rest of

the world an average amount of money

being traded between 30 of the larg-

est companies publically traded in the

United States. Their logo, much like J.P.

Morgan’s, is in a sans serif typeface that

attempts to look modern.

To fix this problem of the weak, closed logos that are being used by some of the biggest business and resources on Wall Street. I decided to create a type face that was strong, open, which still had a modern feel. To do this I began to look at several different serif typefaces for inspi-ration. The serif typeface shows authority and business, and I wanted to express that idea for these different companies. I looked at a plethora of different faces such as Hoefler Titling, Bembo, Caslon and Times New Roman. All of these are very strong serif typefaces but did not have the different types of forms I wanted to base my face on.

Then I looked at Bodoni. Bodoni had a variation of weights throughout the face, and the letterforms themselves were very strong simply standing alone. But there was one problem that I was ready to try and fix with this typeface. The letterforms were

very heavy because it is a very old typeface and dates back to the 1700’s. After noticing this, I began to experiment with different ways of making Bodoni a more open, welcoming face that still showed its strength.

To open up Bodoni, I started to think about all things New York City. The one thing that stood out to me while thinking about New York City and Wall Street was the Empire State Building. I remember hearing the story about how the top of the Empire State Building was physically built inside the top of the building then raised up to hid its presence in the plans for the building. Then, when raised, the Empire State building became the tallest building in its time. I myself have stood next to the building just staring up in awe to the monument that was sitting right in front of me.

I began to think about the building as a whole and the top of the building stood out the most to me. So I used the angle of the top of the building to use as the template for my majuscule A which also became the set with of many of the other letters and started the creation of my typeface Stark.

Stark is the new typeface of Wall Street. Stark is very open and thin but still shows its stability and essential characteristics of any financial firm in the times we are living in right now. The letterforms themselves hold their own when compared to each other and each is equally strong. This typeface is perfect for any company

trying to rebrand their company with a typeface that is both inviting and strong. If Stark were to be used on Wall Street, it will allow the companies to gain more customers that are trusting in the abilities of those companies and the customers will look to those business men for the best advice when it comes to their finances.