This is not your type but mine

A vague Mumford and Sons reference to get this post going. Hooray 

Font design is as I thought it would be a piece of cake. not. Font Design is not particularly difficult but at the same time it isn’t easy. It is an awkward middle ground. Font’s like Helvetica took a long time to make as they required manual redraws if you got a bowl wrong.

Type design has changed a lot. It has gone from wood cut, to letterpress, to photocopy to digital. This typeface you see above you as the header to this editorial spread. I call it “inverted” because the initial plan was to invert the serifs to what they would “normally” be. Click the images to see them closer

I initally started using courier as the typeface to base it on. I have always liked courier for some reason and I have have no idea why. I was told to stop liking it in first year by my lecturerer but I still do like it.

This all changed when I chose the method of creation. I knew what I wanted it to look like but how to make it? I was told to use Fontstruct a free font making website by FontShop.com. It was easy effective and saved a ttf file of your finished typeface. It took a day to make the first draft but has taken literally several redrafts and redraws and massive headaches to get it to the stage you see above.

I here you people cry, why oh why do we need another typeface to add to the pile of other fonts that the internet is flooded with? The truth is no, we don’t but in all fairness all of those typefaces you proclaim are out there, most of them are unuseable. Who needs stencil inverted superbold? Who needs acitevleh (reverse helvetica)? No one! thats who!

It was pointless remaking a pre-existing typeface just to change one letterform. Thats silly and most likely illegal so I just changed up one. To create a unique typefcae in these day and age is nigh on impossible because so many people are making them. This industry has exploded in the digital age with software and little know how you can make one. Give it away! Sell it! Make Money! Make more! But before you do here it is in action;

I hope that this is the first of many typefaces that I make because I really enjoyed the process. I am going to make this free to download for all of you lovely people via fontstruct. I have made three different weights and a little tip. I would not use this for body copy, with the X height being the same on all letters, the variation will be none existent and flow (which body copy needs) will not be achieved.

Download all three weights here