I love a font, don't get me wrong. If I had the time I would peruse font websites and blogs till the cows come home. When I am out I will be scouring the billboards, the flyposters, the mag racks, the shop signage, the speakeasy cocktail menu...
A font is a powerful design tool. Get it wrong and it can trash a perfectly good cover or make a mockery of a serious message and generally trounce your design career good and proper. Get it right and it turns a cover from good to unique or mid shelf to table top display.
I suffer from font blindness when I have to quickly find one thats just going to 'work' so I am looking into making my own. I usually have a sense of what's required in a book I'm working on. But finding it is just.... argh! We have a font folder of over 2000 licensed fonts at work which I can wade through. It makes me want to stick pins in my eyes after 30 seconds.
There are some very talented font designers out there and very occasionally a book may have a budget to pay for a license but its rare. So I'm checking out some simple font making software. I've just discovered a seriously simple but fun app for the iPad called iFontMaker Serious font designers, look away now!
I'm not pretending its going to make the most carefully crafted font by any stretch but it's great for that handwritten naturally uneven look. Recently I was working on a book which we branded as Field Guides and I needed a handwritten child friendly look and I created my Field Guide font in a relatively short space of time and its mine, its unique and easily editable. Below is my style sheet (not the book).
And you can download it here
It needs tweaking and a whole heap of glyphs but for my first font I'm quite pleased! When the book is nearer to publication I'll post it here and you can tell me if I did a good job..or not!
I'm currently busy creating a few more. If they are worth publishing I'll let you know.
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