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FONTLOG for OSP-Crickx ------------------- This file provides detailed information on the OSP-Crickx font software. This information should be distributed along with the OSP-Crickx fonts and any derivative works. Basic Font Information -------------------------- Copyright (c) 2011, OSP (http://ospublish.constantvzw.org) OSP-Crickx is a digital reinterpretation of a set of adhesive letters. The Publi Fluor shop was situated in the northern part of Brussels, Schaerbeek, and founded by the father of Madame Christelle Crickx who was a trained letter painter. In his day he is—it seems—the first to propose fluorescent colors for shopwindow signs. It proves so difficult to paint letters on site with that kind of unstable coating that he develops a technique based on vinyl that he fluo-colors and cuts by hand in the workplace, then sticks at clients shops. Around 1975, his health degrades quickly and his daughter is forced to step into the business. Starting to cut letters with the rounded and skilled cardboard templates drawn by her father, Madame Crickx slowly morphs the shapes by analysing how typographic niceties confuse her non-trained clients and leads to bad letters placement. She progressively removes the optical compensation of rounded tops and bottoms, straightens sides, and attaches accents for less floating parts. Those moves add a very specific orientation to this otherwise quite common bold italic sans serif display typeface. During about fifty years these craft lettres have spread across the windows of shopping streets, more and more, and after the closure of the shop in the early noughties, they seem to still hold their own to the assaults of vector vinyl cutting technology. In 1996, Pierre Huyghebaert and Vincent Fortemps started to working for the cultural center les Halles de Schaerbeek and for a series of events linked to India, were interested to mix local and distant vernacular shaped. Those letters spotted on schaerbeek's shopwindows years before seems to fit the job idealy. After a few wandering in the streets nearby, the small lettershop at the bottom of the dull Avenue Rogier shining with its fluo shapes, was finally spotted as the origin of these typographic waves... And the inside of the shop was even more amazing. First contacts with Madame Crickx, the first poster typeset letter by letter, then Pierre Huyghebaert pays other visits and it became obvious that these letters deserve more that a one-time usage, as Madame Crickx work deserve more that simply buying some letters more. For the following Halles stuff, after a quick-and-dirty vectorisation with Fontographer, called the Crickx Rush in reference of the time constrains that caracterize that kind of operation, Crickx font was heavily used. When Jan Middendorp, then Editor of the Belgian fontshop magazine Druk, order an article on the letters, it was the occasion for Pierre to try to investigate and understand better the process described herebefore (astonishingly, shortly before the magazine stops, a poll seems to have elected the article as one of the most favoured by the readers...). When Madame Crickx followed the retirement of his postman husband, the studio Speculoos (where Pierre worked) bought the whole stock of letters and dingbats and vinyle for a symbolic prize, store it in their basement of Saint-Gilles but use it for some of their funkiest windowshop displays. In 2010, Ludi Loiseau and Antoine Begon redraw letters outlines the produce a more complete and less trashy version (Regular), explore the non-italic more rare one (Droite Rush and Droite) and extend it with lower cases (SharkCut). Finally, the Crickx's cabinet regain a better place at the new Constant Variable place, Rue Gallait 80, less than a kilometer far from the original shop place... More on http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/foundry/crickx OSP-Crickx currently provides the following Unicode coverage: Basic Latin: Latin-1 Supplement: Information for Contributors ------------------------------ Copyright (C) 2011 OSP http://ospublish.constantvzw.org. This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. See the project website for the current trunk and the various branches: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/foundry/crickx/ ChangeLog ---------- (This should list both major and minor changes, most recent first.) Acknowledgements ------------------------- If you make modifications be sure to add your name (N), email (E), web-address (W) and description (D). This list is sorted by last name in alphabetical order.) N: Pierre Huyghebaert E: pierre@speculoos.com W: www.speculoos.com N: Ludivine Loiseau E: hello@ludi.be W: ludi.be N: Antoine Begon E: ant.begon@gmail.com W: begon.antoine.free.fr
