Type design
Role | Type Designer
Type design
Role | Type Designer
Type design
Role | Type Designer
Type design
Role | Type Designer
Type design
Role | Type Designer
I’ve been interested in the discipline of type design for much of my life, but I finally got serious about trying my hand at it a few years ago, when I decided I needed a new challenge. After a long process of learning and revision, I published my first typeface, Arcas, in 2017.
Another, called Bore, followed in 2021. (I've made it available for free here.)
See below for more on both typefaces.
I’ve been interested in the discipline of type design for much of my life, but I finally got serious about trying my hand at it a few years ago, when I decided I needed a new challenge. After a long process of learning, trial & error, and revision, I published my first typeface, Arcas, in 2017.
Another, called Bore, followed in 2021.
Arcas
Arcas is a family of three weights, built with no curves — straight lines only. A lot of fonts with this characteristic have either a “sports” or “tech” feel, but I wanted to make something a bit warmer and friendlier, with some asymmetry and some subtle contrast.
About the name: Arcas was a figure in Greek mythology who was transformed by Zeus into the constellation known as Ursa Minor. Just as constellations are drawn with imaginary straight lines between a set of stars, straight lines connect points to form the letters of the font.
Bore
Bore is a bold, all-caps display typeface. It was inspired by some unusual mid-20th-century fabricated signage above the entrances to the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. (Each side of the tunnel is called a “bore.”) The signage’s letterforms—odd and wonky but pleasingly industrial—have fascinated me for years, and I enjoyed the challenge of regularizing them into something that would be useful as a digital font.
Learning to design type has been a great way to dive deeply into the subtleties of spacing, optical adjustments, and type’s needs at different sizes. It made me a better type user, and for that reason alone I’d recommend to any graphic designer that they give the process a try.
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