A custom typeface gives your brand its own distinctive voice, consistent typography and freedom from recurring licence fees. If you’re considering a custom typeface, often as part of a wider branding project, two of the biggest questions are: How much does it cost? How long does it take? The answer to both depends squarely on the scope of the project. Here, I’ll break down the main factors in a…
Reel: Bold Headlines Without the Shouting Bold condensed headlines are everywhere: film titles, posters, book covers, sports graphics, tabloid front pages. Designers return to them time and again because, when set in ALL CAPS, they do two things exceptionally well: command attention and form neat rectangular blocks of type. There is a trade-off, though. These dense blocks of ALL CAPS typography…
New branding… with a little help from my friends I didn’t plan to change my logo I was fairly ambivalent about my previous logo. I’d simply used the ‘J’ from my first typeface, Brim, and placed it (carefully) in a red circle. It was a decent placeholder for years, and though I always thought I should create something better, it felt like a luxury I didn’t have time for. Last year, I decided it was…
Pioneering the art of the book cover Margaret Armstrong (1867–1944) was a book cover designer whose intricate Art Nouveau-style bindings are the pinnacle of early 20th-century publishing. She designed over 270 covers, blending flowing botanical motifs with her own understated lettering. She was part of the first generation of designers to treat the book cover as an art form in its own right. Her…
How not to take 10 years to design a typeface I’ve often heard type designers speak about the many years spent crafting a typeface. With awe, I’d think, 'Wow, that must have been challenging – it must be exceptionally well-crafted and groundbreaking.' Now, I’m here to tell you that my last typeface, Nave, took an astonishing 10 years to complete. This wasn’t because I spent the time…
In summer 2023 I heard a talk about AI and type design by Filip Paldia, of LTTR/IN K . Filip presented some of his PhD research in ‘Making Aesthetically Acceptable Fonts by Deep Learning Methods’. The idea of AI creating typefaces wasn't shocking at first, but it gradually made me think deeply about the type industry's future. After reading the insightful posts on TypeDrawers, especially…
Matching fonts to food is often nuanced and subjective, but it’s also creative and fun. Sarah Hyndman, the founder of Type Tasting , has published academic studies about our responses to typography and food, so there’s certainly some science to it too. Rather than feature a photo of a single dish on the cover of a cookbook, Art Directors often choose to commission an illustration that will more…
After 12 years and 228,317 followers, Type Worship on Tumblr is coming to an end. But the journey continues – I’ll be sharing my thoughts and insights here instead. But before I move on, I wanted to take a moment to look back at how Type Worship began, how it grew, and the unexpected ways it shaped my career. I started the Type Worship blog back in 2011 while still working at my digital agency. At…