Project Codename: EKJsenSans
EKJsenSans will consist of one to three typefaces designed by me from the ground up, and a typographic art booklet and/or multimedia presentation showcasing the finished product(s).
EKJsenSans, as my first foray into the world of type design, will involve a good deal of research and preparation as I attempt to learn what goes into the design and creation of a typeface or family of fonts. I'll be reading blogs and spending time browsing the portfolios of typeface designers, watching films about type design, and trying to talk to as many people who have firsthand experience with type design as possible. I will familiarize myself with at least one piece of professional font design software, and brush up on my vector illustration skills while I'm at it. I'll be keeping a sketchbook and filling them with ideas, random drawings and shapes that I'd like to incorporate into my designs. I'll have a blog which will serve a similar function, but also allow me to pull other designers and art into my inner creative dialogue.
Once I'm familiar with the tools and techniques of font design, and i have a good idea of what i want my typefaces to look like, I'll forge ahead and begin the process of converting sketches into vectors, and vectors into characters. Midway through the creation of my typefaces, I'll review the process and the product and make it available for personal critique through the special projects meetings and anonymous critique through the blog. After taking into consideration the criticism I receive and deciding upon the final look and feel of my typefaces, I'll revise the products, finish them out and create files that can be dropped into any modern operating system and used within any creative software. As a final step I'll use my newly created typefaces to produce a typographic art booklet or 'zine and perhaps a multimedia presentation or simple website to display as a finished product, or 'physical evidence' of the struggle.
Technical and Research Issues:
While I could go about this the old fashioned way and cut letters out of blocks of wood or tin, I think I'll be taking the modern digital approach to font creation. This means brushing up on my vector drawing skills and learning at least one piece of font design software. If I can budget it in, a professional tutorial on font design from a leading software education provider could be very helpful here.
However, familiarity with the software alone does not a typeface create, so I'll also have to glean some ideas about how to go about creating a unified design for my fonts. This could include learning how professionals in the business approach their designs, i.e. whether they start from an existing typeface, what letters they work on first, and how they relate the shapes of their characters to one another (including punctuation and numbers). To this end I'll be reading blogs of type designers and reading books on typeface design.
Products of study:
Two to three complete typefaces (characters A-Z, numbers 1-0, at least basic punctuation) discrete enough in style to give a variety of experiences in the creative process, yet with enough unity in style to incorporate them into a coherent design.
A physical manifestation of the work, in the form of a typographic art booklet and/or multimedia presentation.
Project Timeline:
October 5th: A late start, I introduced my ideas to the class verbally
October 8th-13th: gather inspiration, web and printed resources, start sketchbook and trawl portfolio for embryonic typeface ideas
October 14th: Finalized project proposal, Blog up and running, start working with Fontlab to gain familiarity
October 18th: have at least two-three web resources such as type designer blogs to follow, secure access to printed resources such as character design guidebooks, and make sure to watch some design documentaries as well
October 22nd: have at least one rough draft on paper or in digital form of starting characters for a typeface, have basic proficiency working with fontlab
October 28th: have one set of characters complete in vector form and available for in-class critique, have complete control of the tools in fontlab and have a good idea (rough draft or thorough character sketches) of where a second typeface is going in design terms, decide on viability of pursuing second and third fonts to completion.
October 31st: have a spooktacular halloween!
November 8th: have the first typeface finished and ready for peer review on the blog.
November 14th: Second typeface well underway and in vector format and available for criticism, not necessarily fleshed out in fontlab.
November 18th: 1st typeface revised to final product, second typeface finished and ready for peer review
November 20th: End stages of typeface design, begin to create a final physical product (zine, booklet, typograhic art prints, etc)
November 24th: typefaces finished, final physical product available for critique online
December 1st: Deadline for completed physical product, consider an additional multimedia product and whip it out if deemed viable.
December 6th: Happy birthday me, final critique, wow peers and professors with amazing work
This should be fun and interesting! Here goes nothing...
I'm starting to feel like I've got a direction now. It's taken considerably more effort to decide on a style than I thought it might, but maybe I am too uptight about it. I guess when I started I thought perhaps I could just scrawl out a page of characters and whip it into a font, but after immersing myself in the world of type designers I might have taken on some of their obsessiveness. I'm leaning towards a humanistic interpretation of the 'Times' typeface.
I have always loved the way it looks and I think to bring it off of it's pedestal and into my world would be fantastic. I'll be making sketches of each letter and then vectorizing the sketches, so the end result will be a Times font which retains the messiness and warmness of the hand-drawn look. I'll avoid tracing as I really want there to be a human signature in the final font. More to come.
