About Disturbance

Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966. Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.

Disturbance sketchbook [open/close]

With Disturbance™ the primary concern was rhythm and how to extend the possibilities within the accepted current structure of the alphabet. Tschichold pointed out that poor rhythm in type destroys legibility and readability. The failure of some of the early attempts in single alphabet design is with a lack of rhythm and harmony; the concepts were too often clouded in the modernist ideas of the time.

Ligature ideas [open/close]

The 26 letters that comprise the Disturbance alphabet were chosen for maximum legibility. These letters were then harmonised and ascenders and descenders added. This increases the vertical movement within the type and together with the many ligatures, creates new word shapes and a new rhythm.

Fonts

Live sample

Sample