A Field Guide Font

A big part of my job as a book designer requires me to trawl through pages and pages and pages and pages...of fonts. 

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. 

Happy Christmas

This year I have been inspired by sprouts. 

Happy Christmas to one and all and here's hoping 2015 will be prosperous and creative...

From my sketchbook now and then

I've been trying to get out and sketch a bit more recently. London is looking as impressive as ever and I'm loving some of the new buildings cropping up such as The Cheese Grater squeezed in between The Ghurkin and the iconic Lloyds building.

Closer to home I stopped off at the South Bank Centre. Had a great view of the Hayward Gallery The Martin Creed exhibition was on which involved huge interactive installations including a room full of balloons...

These are obviously quick iPad sketches but this week, whist 'tidying' I came across one of my earlier drawings (2004). This one took significantly longer. It's a view of the Rodin Museum garden in Paris which is possibly my favourite museum outside the UK.

If Seville was a Pantone...

The thing that hit me straight away when I arrived in Seville apart from the heat, was the colour. Everything was so intense. The cloudless sky helps but Seville has its own colour scheme. I took loads of photos and as I scrolled through them on my computer when I got home I saw its colour stream through every photo. Here is a random selection to show what I mean.

Two overwhelming colours of Seville are a golden yellow and a deep blood red. In Pantone terms, which is generally how I like to think when it comes to colour, Seville is:

Pantone 1235* 

Pantone 180*

[*apologies for obvious lack of colour reproduction on screen!]

These colours are clearly reflected in Spanish culture, especially Andalucia and Seville in particular. The yellow is the sun, the opulence of gold in the thousands of Catholic churches, the stone and architecture, the oranges and all varieties of rich golden sherry. The red is the fiery passion and 'duende' seen during flamenco dances and flamboyant costumes, the blood spilled by the toro during the bull fighting season and the relentless intense heat. And of course the Spanish flag, I now realise, is red and yellow for good reason. An impressive place full of inspiration. I'm really falling for Spain.

Back to life drawing

In a bid to escape being stuck to a computer for most of my day, I've decided to get back to my drawing roots and have joined a life drawing class. There is something refreshingly primal about life drawing. 

Charcoal - paper - nude - DRAW 

I was a bit late and the session was in progress when I stumbled in, tripping over stools, trying to plonk myself on the first available chair that would cause least disruption, faffing around with paper, drawing board, apologising and scrabbling in my cycle bag for my new box of charcoal (newly bought from an art shop that brought back nostalgic memories of first term at art school) sweating as it was boiling - fan heater belting out to keep the model warm, fine charcoal - paper - nude....PANIC. 

Two things: 

1 - ohmygodthereisafithungnakedmanstandingtwofeetawayfromme

2-  ohmygodIcan'tdraw 

I don't care what anyone says - those two things (or variations of) will cross a newby life drawer's mind before charcoal touches the paper. But a deep breath and a series of 5 minute poses focused me and I racked my brain for the rules of proportion I'd learned at art college. 

It wasn't a disaster, moderately happy with a few drawings but I loved it. It's good to empty your head of daily dross and focus on something creative. I'll be back.

  

Watson's Toffee

Not many people know this but I have been perfecting a sea salt caramel toffee recipe over the last few years. I first made a batch in 2011 which I found in some dog eared back issue of Good Food magazine. 

Never ever to this day have I ever produced a batch that looked remotely like the picture in the magazine but what I did discover was that sugar, butter, cream and golden syrup are made to be together. Add a pinch of Malden sea salt and ...

                           BINGO!
                                      #confectionary heaven.


I've had many orders and filled armfuls of kilner jars and this Christmas, sorry to spoil the surprise friends/family, I'll be giving out my 2013 vintage. This year, I discovered edible glitter - YAY! 

But as well as creating a toffeetastic taste sensation I'm enjoying creating the brand. Its still in the early stages but my christmas batch is going to looking something like this.

a bit retro with a hint of pop art. 

Fancy trying a festive toffee for yourself? Drop me an email and I can pop a pack in the post.

Happy Christmas!

Two things...

I've been a bit busy. Um. But I have two things to share.

One:

The Serpentine Pavillion. 

Designed, this year, by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. It's inspiring and fun and clever and moving and I liked it. Go and sit in it and walk over it and run through it. It's only there till Oct 20th.

Two:

Did another quick iPad scrawl. Not finished but has shades of Mr McGregors garden.