How I Designed A Typeface From Hand Lettering
Here are three lessons I learned from designing a typeface, first, share your sketches and ideas with other people because they will see something you don’t see, second, see where your project takes you, and finally, settle in and enjoy the ride because you have nothing to lose.
Here’s the story about I how designed a typeface from hand lettering. Like I did most evenings I sat in front of the TV with an iPad and Apple Pencil in my lap. That particular night I drew a few marks and shapes. I was making a rainbow, maybe, I don’t know. Somewhere along the way I converted the rainbow into a letter A. I couldn’t leave the letter to a lonely life so I designed two more letters. I rotated the letter A ninety degrees to get the letter C. I duplicated the letter C, reduced it, copied it, combined the smaller letters, and added a stem to create the letter B.
For about a year I attended a type nerd event in San Francisco called Type Thursday San Francisco (TTSF). We met monthly to talk about our personal and professional type, lettering and logotype design projects. TTSF met at the San Francisco Center For The Book. The place was loaded with all sorts of equipment to make books and folios. Big work tables filled the space. During an event each table was covered in Kraft paper by TTSF. Piles of pens and markers sat in the center of the tables. We were encouraged to draw. I saw cool hand lettering because that’s what type nerds draw. I know photos of them are floating around somewhere out there.
I presented sketches of a display typeface I was exploring (photo). I got solid feedback. A few months later I shared my progress. One of the designers in the group had thoughts. He roughed out a possible direction on the Kraft paper covering the tables. It was a helpful sketch.
Sketch that started my journey to turn it into a typeface.
Alex presents Red Alphabet to Type Thursday San Francisco.Toward the end 2019 I finished the typeface. I used Fontself, an extension for Adobe Illustrator, to convert my vector based letters into a working a true typeface file (TTF).
I didn’t get the chance to share it with the designer who gave me input. At the time I couldn’t attend the monthly meet ups thanks to my whackadoodle work schedule. When we went into lockdown in 2020 I learned the designer succumbed to COVID. The news broke my heart. I’ll never forget his generosity.
Sample letters from finished Red Alphabet typeface design.Red Alphabet is dedicated to August de los Reyes. Without his experience, knowledge and guidance Red Alphabet would remain a sketch.