Buttered Crumpet, a custom typeface for Wallace and Gromit(jamieclarketype.com)
201 pointsby tobr6 hours ago15 comments
  • rda25 hours ago
    It’s cute, and I’m trusting enough to believe them when it says 100% home made, but square images with a strong yellow tint will forever be associated with ChatGPT 4o image generation in my mind. Unfortunately, this might become something like the em-dash—where artists start tweaking their work to look less like the AI’s that are copying them.
    • presbyterian5 hours ago
      The cheese pattern and the green teacup pattern after it are obviously AI generated. The weird curve of the wedges, the fuzzy edges to the cheese holes, the artifacting around the edges of the teacups, the fact that neither is a perfectly repeating pattern. It's 100% AI, even if the font may not be.
    • Stratoscopean hour ago
      > Unfortunately, this might become something like the em-dash—where artists start tweaking their work to look less like the AI’s that are copying them.

      So true! (And yes—I see what you did there.)

      It's even happening to photos now. A few months ago I posted a "Bot alert!" on Nextdoor warning people about the latest scambot.

      One person replied "It's funny to see a bot reporting a bot."

      I asked how they discovered I was a bot.

      "It's your profile photo. The facial expression is too good, and the smoothness of the background is too perfect. Has to be AI."

      For the curious, it's the same photo as on my LinkedIn:

      https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgeary/

      What they didn't know was how I took that selfie. I set up my Micro Four Thirds camera on a tripod in the front yard, with the world's best portrait lens: the Olympus 75mm f/1.8. I stood some 10-15 feet from it (this lens is equivalent to a 150mm lens on a full frame camera, i.e. a moderate telephoto) and used the remote control to take a few dozen shots as I let my face relax into various expressions.

      I picked out 4-5 favorites and asked a friend about them. She said "This one. It has gravitas."

      I don't even think it's that great a photo. But I suppose the "gravitas" makes it look like AI.

      For a photo that really shows off what that 75mm lens can do, check out this one of our late dog Brownie, titled Pumpkin Brownie:

      https://geary.smugmug.com/Pets/Dogs/i-dNMQW2v/A

    • parpfish5 hours ago
      In 15 years, the youths will become obsessed with that strange yellow cartoon style. They will crave that “vintage ChatGPT aesthetic”.
      • mbo3 hours ago
        I've seen nostalgia expressed for the CLIP guided diffusion aesthetic of 2021!
      • trial34 hours ago
        yeah, in the same way we all revisit our studio ghibli family photos from time to time
        • rustystump3 hours ago
          My back breaks in cringe anytime i see an ai ghibli picture. It is an instant negative for me.
    • manIliketea41 minutes ago
      100% Homemade is just a stock phrase that they are using to display the type-face. I don't think you should take that to mean anything more than "Feathers McGraw."
    • henrebotha3 hours ago
      > this might become something like the em-dash—where artists start tweaking their work to look less like the AI’s that are copying them.

      Literally how art has always worked

      • IAmBroom2 hours ago
        ... right up until July 9, 1962, when one Mr. Andrew Warhola upset the tradition.

        And pretty much ever since, too.

  • hamburglar5 hours ago
    Is it intentional that the baseline vertical offset doesn’t seem consistent? Text set in this has a sort of up-and-down sloppy effect. Otherwise I love it.

    Edit: it mostly seems that capitals appear higher than lowercase. It feels like there’s more inconsistency though, like the designer didn’t pay attention to eg the perceived “bottom” of curved characters vs flat-bottom ones.

    • inanutshellus4 hours ago
      IMO for a cartoon like W&G a little wonkiness and skew is entirely on-point.
    • crazygringo3 hours ago
      It seems intentionally cartoonishly irregular.
    • stronglikedan5 hours ago
      I was just coming here to say, it looks like each letter is about to fall over backwards.
    • fwip2 hours ago
      Doesn't seem like a ton of attention has been paid to kerning, either. The 'he' pair seems especially noticeable to me, which occurs several times in the "somewhere where there's cheese" image. I don't know enough about font design to guess whether the 'bad' kerning is intentional for the typeface, though - so I could be off base.
  • afavour6 hours ago
    Really feel like this ought to have been named Wensleydale.

    (this is awesome)

    • Night_Thastus5 hours ago
      EDIT: I'm wrong
      • Jarmsy5 hours ago
        Wensleydale is a place in Yorkshire, and a style of cheese, not specific to any one brand, so you could.
      • 4ndrewl5 hours ago
        I'm not sure it's a brand name so much as a type of cheese.
  • xnorswap6 hours ago
    Was the crumpet buttered with "I can't believe it's not butter"?

    ( The typeface looks a lot like https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/i-cant-believe-i... )

    • undecisive5 hours ago
      It's interesting; I'd imagine very similar design briefs (friendliness, breadliness, etc)

      The ICBINB font is almost a semi-serif, almost like a sans serif that's slightly melted, whereas I'd say the crumpet is fully serif. The "e", "L" and "v" are pretty different. And I'd say the ICBINB font lends itself better to tighter spaces, whereas the crumpet font seems to beg for more space.

      But certainly, I could see one being used to replace another in a pinch - but I'm not a font specialist (graphologist? Is there a word for a person who studies fonts?)

    • pverheggen5 hours ago
      Nice find! That looks like Cooper Black, which the article cites as inspiration.
    • danesparza5 hours ago
      Ah, a British convergence! That phrase always makes me think of this now (from the Vicar of Dibley): https://youtu.be/37ficiqoE6U

      RIP Emma Chambers

    • shoelessone5 hours ago
      There are a lot of similarities. You must either have a great memory for fonts, or eat a lot of butter alternative spread, either way good eye!
  • bloomingeek4 hours ago
    I watched S1,Ep2 yesterday. When Wallace took down a picture of a pink pig to open the wall safe and then took out a pink piggy bank, I almost lost it. Classic!
  • ordu4 hours ago
    When I look at the text on the whole it seems that individual characters are not aligned properly, or maybe not vertical enough, or something like this. But when I look at individual characters to confirm it, I don't see any misalignment. How does it work?
    • kraftman4 hours ago
      Yeah they looked like they were wobbling while I read them until I focused on them more.
  • imnes6 hours ago
    Is there a nerdfont variant?
  • chihuahua2 hours ago
    It's halfway between Comic Sans and the 1970s "Groovy" font.
  • shrikant5 hours ago
    That's beautiful, I'd love a monospaced variant of this to replace Comic Mono in my IDE/Fira Mono in my terminal. IANA font expert though, would that even be possible?
  • cush5 hours ago
    Fonts are such an underappreciated art form. Love this
  • zabzonk5 hours ago
    Shouldn't there be some holes?
  • k_kiki4 hours ago
    It's quite round and looks pretty good.
  • unicorn_cowboy6 hours ago
    Very cute and charming!
  • barcodehorse5 hours ago
    There's a miniscule dent on the top of the capital B that's really bothering me. Idk, I know everyone's a critic, but it just doesnt sit right with me
    • shermantanktop4 hours ago
      I clearly don't have refined appreciation of visual typographic nuance because I do not see this at all.
  • maximgeorge5 hours ago
    [dead]