Meilin – a typeface designed utilitarian for both body text and display.
When thinking about typefaces that “look Chinese” it is hard not to picture swingy, triangular stroked letters. Due to today’s heightened vigilance towards discrimination, it can be perceived as culturally inappropriate to use these typefaces in order to create Asian-looking designs, especially when they are created and used by people with no personal tiesto any East Asian culture. Therefore, the aim of this bachelor thesis is to break the stereotype of “Asian-imitated“ fonts through the means of a modern, sans-serif typeface that is designed with considered features of Chinese typography in a reduced manner. Alternative letters with decorative features have been included to provide diverse application possibilities.
A font against standardization
For this type design that was created as part of a bachelor thesis, the goal was to create a modern, versatile sans serif typeface for both display and body text. The unique design of Meilin should showcase calligraphic features of Chinese typography in a minimalistic way. Most importantly, Meilin should serve as an example against standardized “Chinese-looking” fonts.
Inspired by SimSun
The Chinese font which Meilin is based on is called SimSun. It is a simplified Chinese font with a decent serif stroke style created by Beijing ZhongYi Electronics Co. from 1995 to 2003. Horizontal and vertical lines are aligned in 90-degree angles while horizontal lines are thinner than the vertical ones. The lines are evenly thick with the exception of the parts where brush strokes are imitated in a geometrically reduced manner.
Created as part of Bachelors thesis
