I joined Fontstruct to get special fonts for greeting cards I made. Over the years I have learned a lot from seeing the incredible variety of fonts created by members who are using just simple bricks, artistic experiments and a lot of patience; when cloning is allowed I can see and understand fine details to help me develop further, increase my confidence and stimulate my imagination.
I love to design and make fonts for family, friends, for special occasions, and to replace some of those more 'usual' basic fonts on my computer :)
Fontstructing since | 15th July, 2011 |
Fontstructions | 299 shared, 21 staff picks |
Shared Glyphs | 39211 |
Downloads | 3502 downloads made of this designer’s work |
Comments Made | 2832 |
Designed for those members who want inspiration, it could guide them when they need ideas on which to base a font.
Use this like a font: close your eyes and type a 'word' with at least 7 letters.
If you can touch-type: forget it; you'll need to be quite unstructured in order to get a good variation of letters every time you want inspiration ;) If you want some uncertainty -bad spelling will be very helpful here;)- you could write the 'name' of the minute when you decided to get inspiration for a new font , inUpperCase ... then follow this with one of your names in LowerCase. But for fun and better chance at not getting the same word every time you need inspiration I suggest you just hit different keys and then look at the line of glyphs ;)
Just remember: use UpperCase to write the first part of this word, the LowerCase to write the other part of the word. Look at the [second or] fourth and the [penultimate or] third before last letter of your 'word'.
The UC will give you an 'image'. Your font will transmit the meaning illustrated by this letter (in the widest sense).
The LC gives the type of look your font should have. You now have 2 guides/ideas/starting points which influence the kind of font you make.
Remember that the UC should make you look at concepts, invisible messages and your own experience or lack of 'ken', as well as the visible things in the images I drew.
To express that differently:
Your font design is guided by a main theme (based on the UC) and a way to present it/a style of expression (based on the LC).The font will be influenced a little or a lot by each UC 'image'; you adjust the look of your font according to the "feeling"/a memory/a dream or wish/an experience/lack of familiarity that you have about what that which my playful pixel illustration represents.
The presentation of the font, the style, how the eye slides across to absorb information or spends time to investigate the beauty or quality of every glyph, is determined by the LC. Combine these two aspects from UC and LC, that"s what your font will convey through the shapes of th glyphs.
In my 'comment' below I give you a few ideas of what could be linked to each of the UC letters; it's up to your areas of study, experience, interest, and the time you want to use for designing and building your fonts, which -if any- of the proposed words and concepts I mention will be the one(s) you want to combine with the type of presentation you found in the LC letter.
Choose a good name for your font, it's probably a good idea to have a name that isn't the keyword I gave in the UC list -- I can imagine that those key words have long been taken by font designers for their fonts.
Note: the "INSPIRED FONT" is still in development; when I have more illustrations for objects, situations, feelings etc or styles of presentation (I am open to suggestions!) I will try to find a suitable design to add to the glyphs as there are still a few empty slots in the Basic Latin set ;)
..:*:.. Have fun ..:*:..
My 'serious' entry for the LoveComp 2016. The dents and hollows in the lines are intentional, the unevennes is an illustration. Love is not a "simple straight-edged neatly tidied" feeling nor a life-long dream-manufactured perfect experience. Every Love has those swirling and rambling sensations and discoveries as well as some uneven blinks-of-an-eye like those dents and bumps in this font, when things and feelings are more like each person involved: complexity needing learning and understanding, uncertainty requiring thoughtfulness and cooperation to smooth things out. Over the years of learning about each other we discover that those uneven areas are part of Nature's magick called Love. We discover that there is only one person like this unique one we love because of what and how they are ......... The name is Spanish ;)
This started elegantly thin with rounded corners and the name 'memoire', but it developed some electric sharpness through parallel angled lines ;) demanding that I remove curved corners. Work in progress, one of these days I'll add Polish or very basic Greek glyphs .
I recently saw a type face with bits missing and thought "Looks interesting, can I do something with this idea?". I used one of my older sans designs but soon discovered that I needed serifs to get logic to the gaps ;) So I started work on a good serif design to use as the base. Here is my interpretation of what I saw, it looks rather different from the one that inspired me.
Spiky shapes and sticks that point in all directions: just take a twilight walk trough a forest in the fog.
The name is Hungarian as we have Hungarian connection in the family and among friends. It means my forest spirit.
I love the look of this style. The name is self explanatory ;) if you know French.........
UC, numerals and some symbols have one line thicker than the others, LC only has the thinner lines. LC can be used on its own if even thickness of lines is desired but it is 3 px shorter than UC which will show clearly when using Basic Latin LC in combination with Hebrew, numerals, some symbols and some punctuation marks. Cyrillic and Hebrew added. Latin1 will come eventually ;)
Artsy kind of font. The name comes from: 1 thick line, 2 thin ones, another thick one, and letters are all lower case. One of these days I'll add Czech and Polish. There were a few challenges regarding heights but I think the balance is fine now and the glyphs legible.
I Fontstructed my way through a difficult period, the holes have quite a story to tell....... A weird design and not totally necessary, I was told. That'll be OK for me ;) All letters are on Lower Case. There's an alternative 's' on 'S'. No Kerning.
Inspired by a video showing a hairdresser creating a wig for a play........
Many LC glyphs are an alternate to corresponding UC.
I haven't mastered creating good joints between FS bricks and the compos I need to make ""to join"" the two types of brick. Trying to get them to flow into each other produces more or less untidy joining in many places which I find frustrating. Maybe I have to sketch out simpler designs for easy Fontstructing.
Looking at the caron I wonder if the center cross-over brick needs replacing with the one that dips downwards? See the two different bricks in the caron of E and e.
This is a cloneThis font was inspired by crockery decorated with a name which I saw offered in a car boot sale. My font's UC has delicately decorated glyps, visible before food is placed on the plates; LC shows plates after the meal, with food remnants covering/filling parts of glyphs ;)