entries Tagged as [design]
Designing fonts: Shaping, kerning, tools
I’ve been drawing some form of type since the 1980s. And have been teaching type for several years now.
It’s hard to ‘go digital’ when introducing typography, since letterform history goes back hundreds (and thousands) of years.
So I still use 15th century era handtools in my introductory type courses.
Good fonts still contain elements from long ago – and today, all we really do is recreate what was once done with broad pens – using digital tools.
font games!
To get a taste of how ‘us professionals’ render type these days, check out Mark MacKay’s brilliant Shape Type (pictured above) and Kern Type. Both are nutshell adaptations of today’s process – kerning being a majorly overlooked, but necessary typesetting skill.
digital type tools
Fonts today are vector-based, so a mastering the basics of Adobe Illustrator is the start.
Beyond this, there are a bunch of applications on the market for drawing fonts. FontLab is the big one, Fontographer is the old one with the easy interface – and TypeTool is a barebones student-discounted alternative. Unlike Illustrator, these font tools take into account how letters are drawn, with built ins that make it easy to adjust edges. Karen Cheng’s Designing Type is also a must resource to have.
And I do all my logo drawings directly in FontLab – after multiple sketches in pen and ink. It’s just easier that way.
Shape Type found via Mark Nutini
Champagne Valentine
The work of Amsterdam-based collective Champagne Valentine.
Reel features Stefan Hattenbach’s first typeface, New Global.
A World Without Type . . .
‘Screen-printed in Tokyo on beautiful, red Plike paper with gold, white and black inks.’
Just released: Limited edition typography poster designed by Swedish type designer Stefan Hattenbach, set in his own Tarocco Bold.
Available here.
Titillation
‘Designed by Suomi Type Foundry, Titillation is a rounded, tall and modern styled sans’
Tomi Haaparanta’s Titillation font. Available here.
Sasha in Vuitton
Sasha Pivovarova in Vuitton, photographed by Mert and Marcus for Vogue Paris, October 2011.
Found via Booted Up!
‘Love Boot’
‘Exciting, Neue, Romance! Adventure!’
‘Love Boot’ prints, cards and postcards.
Vintage, repeating playbill poster design featuring type and boot dingbat from my Jeanne Moderno fonts.
And . . . Save $10 on your order of $35 or more at my store. Restrictions apply, go here for details/to get the discount.
(The prints come out really nice too)
handpicked posts
a piano falls in old manhattan
tetro and typography
it’s typography: film, song and dance
ghosts of gustov klimt
the great times new roman controversy
picking fonts
kapitaal
defining terms: design is not decoration
garcia's 'pure design'
'enhance that image!'
magic highway remixed
the cynic
rad anthem
Brought to you by man dom-
buy my fonts
go shopping
mehalloreads
Divinely Elegant: The World of Ernst Dryden
Jozsef Pecsi: Photo and Advertising
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Collage: Assembling Contemporary Art
Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art
Gaberbocchus Press: An Experiment in Publishing, 1948-1979
Advertising Art in the Art Deco Style
Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
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