Synopsis

Lobster is what I consider to be one of the more successful brush fonts. In comparison to Present, it has far more consistency in posture, height and ornamentation. However, it is also more mechanical due to the geometric, sans serif terminals. Almost all of the lower case letters have ligatures added in, and thus it seems to be kerned quite closely. As a general rule, Lobster seems to let the traditionally straight lines be straight, and adds brush strokes only in instances of terminals or traditionally curved strokes. Exceptions are the E, v, x, A, and a couple others. The s is particularly unique, as it’s the cursive s.


What Makes It a Brush Font?

For a brush font, the Lobster forms are quite geometric. There are a good number of sans-serif terminals. It’s the simple addition of a swooping terminal on the uppercase and strong stroke-width contrast that makes it seem brush-written. The slanted posture also helps to make it seem cursive. In the lower case, it’s as simple as having thin ligatures which smoothly link up to the thick letter strokes. The addition of curls on the f, g, j and y as well as round terminals on the r, v, w and x accentuate the curvilinear forms.



Potential Issues

Compared to Present, this font has few issues considering its likely use. However, it does face some awkwardness because of its ligatures and ornamentation. The word “sfumato”, for example, has strange ligatures. The ligature between the s and f interacts oddly with the curl of the f. Then the stroke of the f disappears into the ligature with the u, making it harder to tell that it’s an f. Also, there is also no good way to use Lobster in all-caps. The forms just don’t lend themselves to that kind of treatment-- which is acceptable, given there is never a good reason for cursive all-caps.