Linotype Rezident

Winner typeface from Linotypes 3. Type Design Contest (1. price text category) and from the Type Directors Club Type Design Competition 2001.
A display font of the TakeType No. 3.1.

Paul van der Laan about Linotype Rezident:
"The inspiration for this font came from numerous sorts of little things: flyers, title sequences of James Bond movies, typography on Formula 1 cars, Playstation games. They provided me the "mood" for this design. From a more "typedesign" point of view: the way that the contrast changes in the different weights of Zuzana Licko’s Senator typeface served also as an inspiration for me.
The name of the font comes from the game Resident Evil. One of the main characters in the game is called Leon and the typeface was initially drawn for a friend of mine called Leon. It also refers to the city of The Hague – where I live and got my education – since it’s often called "de residentie" because the queen and parliament are seated here.

To describe a formal concept for the font would imply that my design is very carefully thought over. But it’s not, actually. I was designing a businesscard for a friend and I had a certain mood in mind for the typography. I tried to capture this mood in a couple of sketches, drew a few characters directly onscreen and just expanded them into a typeface. Normally, I draw my typefaces on paper to a certain level of perfection before I start digitising. In this case I was experimenting with constructing a typeface on the computer by copying and pasting different parts. A lot of decisions in this design were made very quickly therefore.

The first sketches were made in July 1999 and in February 2000 the complete family was finished. I used Illustrator 8, Fontographer 4.1 and Fontlab 3.0 to develop the font."

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