The Letter g: ideas-led design. Sara Chapman. Typography. Graphic Communication

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The g is the most beautiful letter in the alphabet … >

Chapman is a new typeface designed specifically for use in … >

Sara Chapman fell in love with typography … >

The g is the most beautiful letter in the alphabet. No
question. The other sounds more or less made up their
mind what forms they were going to take by the third
century; not the g. It started out as a C with an accent - G,
to make the hard sound ‘guh’ - and the tail has been posing
elegantly in indefinite positions ever since. Readers are
creatures of habit. We don’t tolerate change much (although
we allow the ‘a’ a little freedom) but when the g presents
itself we seem to relax, smile to each other and forgive the
new disguise. It’s our old friend again, playing g-games.

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Two ways of writing the same sound: small letter gs from typefaces Bureau grot 1:3 and Impact

Early G or accented C in roman mosaic floor at Ostia

“… the evolution of the lower case g from the roman original. As though the designer had said a pair of spectacles is rather like a g; I will make a g rather like a pair of spectacles.”
From Eric Gill, Gill: typography

G from Pouchés Ornamented types

Paul Renner’s early experiments for Futura
From Walter Tracy, Letters of credit