It’s flattering to know that some of my typefaces have influenced other designers. Except…

.. now and again I see a new face that feels uncomfortable. I still draw letters, but most of the younger designers go straight to the screen. More often than not, they open an existing font and play around with an outline. Which is a good exercise, very much like me tracing over a print in a specimen book, as I did when I first started drawing type 30 years ago. Through constant sketching, eventually without the old original in view, you acquire your own shapes. Working on screen, however, you can hardly ever get rid of the original. Even if you touch every point, the feel of the underlying data will always be there. They ensuing ‘new’ typeface may look different, but anybody with a bit of experience will know what it was based on. Check this specimen and judge for yourself.

This is Textra, released by Linotype.

And this is good old FF Meta, designed almost 20 years ago by myself. I’ve been accused of having put too many silly details into it, like an oblique top terminal on some of the caps, like the E. Now look at Textra’s E.