Ogg
— Designed by Lucas Sharp

Sharp’s interpretation retains much of the charms of Ogg’s lettering while refining it and making it repeatable and consistent. To do this without stripping the character out of the designs is a massive feat, and I think Sharp was successful in his efforts. Ogg is very easy to use despite how flagrant it is, and the contextual alternates smartly help typographers avoid dicey collisions with the more expressive letterforms.

His interpretation of the “e” is a brilliant summation of Sharp’s overall strategy in translating the calligraphy. The proportions were widened and the x-height balanced, the bowl still cramped in the upper half of the circular shape of the letter while having a larger counter to aid legibility and to prevent it from becoming a caricature. When you step back and look at the rest of his drawings compared to tracings of Ogg’s originals, you’ll see the same kind of adjustments made again and again^[5]. These tweaks are all in service of the proportions of the typeface to ensure it is pleasant and evenly paced and every effort is made to give the font large counters and breath air into the design, giving the letters a more inviting presence.

Another way to really appreciate the hand-drawn influences in Ogg is to compare it to an Old Style serif^[8]. We’ll use Quarto, designed by Colin M. Ford, Jonathan Hoefler and Sara Soskolne and based on Hendrik van den Keere’s 16th century design Two-Line Double Pica Roman (I think we’ve gotten a bit better at naming typefaces over the centuries, eh?). Quarto’s vertical strokes are heavier, even in its Light weight, there are more sharp edges in the heads of stems and the way characters like the “t” end in a point at the bottom (note the subtle bulge at the bottom of the “t” in Ogg, implying the naturalistic finish of a pen stroke) , and the brackets are just a little more subtle. There’s also much more emphasis in the shoulders compared to Ogg, which slivers off on those curves instead of thickening like an Old Style serif would. Ogg stands apart with its wide stance, calligraphic details, smoothed edges and exaggerated proportions. The quirks from the original calligraphy that Sharp retained make the font feel more naturalistic and expressive than something as classical and buttoned-up at Quarto.

I wish I knew more about calligraphy so I could communicate those aspects of the design more clearly, particularly about the Italic version of the font. I did find this diagram^[9] helpful in showing how the strokes of the Roman and Italic characters of Ogg would be drawn by a pen, and how the angle the pen is held affects the stress of both the Roman and Italic letterforms.

I think a few factors have contributed to the trend of using Ogg in this aesthetic. Ogg resembles some of the classic serif designs used in the 80’s in tech advertisements by companies looking to make computers seem warmer and more approachable to consumers who had never used one before^[12]. Since many of these posters draw heavily from 80’s-style coloring and use vague, abstract or 3D rendered textures and shapes that are difficult to immediately relate to, the choice of a similar but not too on-the-nose typeface makes sense. These posters need the warmth in their messaging in the same way early computers did. I think Ogg excels in these designs because it’s referential to all of these earlier designs but is “loose”(due to the calligraphic influences) and doesn’t feel self-serious or stodgy while still being classically beautiful. The wider proportions and smooth brackets reduce the impact of the vertical stress in the design, giving it a more relaxed feeling compared to Old Style or Modern serifs and evening the tone enough that it can pair against lower-contrast sans-serif fonts.

I can’t finish this section without addressing Ogg’s Italic. Its extravagant capitals and sharply tilted lowercase set give it significantly more dramatic flair than the Roman design. It’s a very formal calligraphic design that works well in the expected use cases of invitations and the like, but I’ve see it used in surprising ways as well. Joe Letchford mixed Ogg’s Roman and Italic in the same line for his Not Enough exhibition while studying at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design^[20]. The exhibition focuses on how digital technology has altered our experiences of natural landscapes, so the insertion of the Italic “N”, “E” and “g” into the Roman string mimics the effect of something being imposed or distorted. This same interchanging of Roman and Italic Ogg was used by Renald Louissaint in his intensive study of the colour pink and homophobia from the perspective of a straight black male^[19].

Ogg’s Italic has a looping, ribbon-like quality to it, and this poster design by Kristyna Kulikova makes an alteration to the letterforms that amplifies that ribbon aesthetic: she connects the letterforms of “lov” by extending the serifs and creates a lacing effect^[20]. The letterforms feel intertwined and a part of one single, rhythmic stroke. It’s a clever way to push the aesthetic of the typeface’s design from formal to experimental.

Ogg has contextual alternates that do a pretty good job of avoiding tricky collisions with the swashes and more ornate characters, but they aren’t foolproof. Characters like the “b”, “d”, “h” and “k” have stems that wilt to the right and can bump into other characters, and the contextual alternates catch most of these and will replace them with alternative that terminate sooner and cut back to the left instead. But sometimes things like the “di” combination happen that the contextual alternates won’t automatically fix. You can repair the problem yourself but simply manually swapping in the alternate with the shorter stem.

In conclusion, Ogg is a well-made and well-priced design that’s seen a rush of popularity amongst younger designers who value its price point and unique characteristics. As I’ve spent more time with it, I’ve been surprised by how often I find myself realizing that few things other than Ogg are going to get me the light, dramatic touch I often want in serif form without being harsh and jagged. It very nicely fills a need I didn’t know I had, and it seems a lot of other designers feel the same way.