Sunday 31 May 2009

21 - Handwrought


What a week! We're soooo busy at the moment, we (Phil & Gabi) have finished our type classes with Craigielea! What a fantastic time we had with the pupils & teachers. We've been asked to come back when the school gets back after the summer holidays! so that's fantastic news. Again, Gabi and I would like to thank Craigielea School, The Pupils and Peacock Visual Arts (Nicole & Adam) working for the Creative Identities project.
We've also had a lovely email from Gordon Watt (Morning Glass Designs) with our second "guest" font! Gordon is also working on a more stylised typeface based on a welsh typeface he's seen used in stained glass. We're loving the submissions and appreciated the time and effort everyone is taking to submit work to the project.


This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!
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Sunday 24 May 2009

20 - Craigielea (multipack!)


This week, we have four fonts for you to download in one package.

Recently, we were asked to run a course for Craigielea school in Aberdeen, giving the opportunity for the pupils to express themselves with handmade / personal type forms.

We gave the pupils the task of creating typefaces from found objects within the art classroom - and we had a fantastic time thinking about letterforms and how they can be used...

We'd like to thank Fraser, Georgia, Robbie and Ryan for being excellent pupils and taking the project on and running with it. We were particularly please to see the guys light up when they saw the possibility and application of their work - really satisfying knowing that they are thinking about how to use type & words together... I wish them all the luck for the future!


This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

Sunday 17 May 2009

19 - MySexy


This is a special day! We've had our first submission to the typeface a week 09 project, by the fantastic Jo Gannon. Illustrator, Printmaker, and now "got the bug" type designer... here's a snippet from Jo's rather excited email -

"...the font / typeface is basically the first one i ever tried to design and is based on my own handwriting. it's called my sexy because it's my sexy writing. now that i have designed one font i canny stop!"



We're so happy that Jo has submitted her font, and found the project inspirational (I can hear her Kerning already!), thank you! - If you'd like to join in, please let us know!

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

Sunday 10 May 2009

18 - Pebbles


Last weekend we took a visit to Banff & Macduff for the launch of "Pushing out the boat", a fantastic publication featuring creative writing and art for the North East of Scotland. During our visit to the beautiful coastal town(s) - we stopped off at the beach for Poppy.
Gabi was particularly taken by the pebbles on the beach and has based this week’s typeface on those stones.

The font comes in two levels, the UPPERCASE font contains the “pebble” shape and the lowercase has only the alphabetical characters – but these have the same width & kerning, so you can easily overlay the two to create solid letters + background (see picture below).


It’s a limited set of characters again, so it’s designed purely for headlines & small phrases. Gabi will also be unveiling the "building wrap" as part of the COAST festival next weekend - so if anyone is thinking of headding up to Banff & Macduff soon, make it the weekend of the 16 & 17th of May! - you won't be dissapointed.

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

Sunday 3 May 2009

17 - Idea (from Ikea)

17 - Ikea Idea
Well well well...what fun we had this week...a trip to Ikea. A rushed trip to Ikea. An "impromptu" trip to Ikea, you get the idea.... and this trip gave us an idea for the typeface for this week.

It seems that Claypots is seeping into everything we touch (rightly so...it will be our new home once we make it!) - and Friday's mission - was to purchase a Kitchen.

We've been looking for a while, B&Q, Magnet, Homebase etc...all nice, all more expensive (and probably the same quality) as our good friends in Ikea.


There's always a sense of cheating or "joining the masses" when you say you've bought something from the Swedish Box... I will not be Jack's silent scream...

One wonderful thing that Ikea provide a "home maker" is the ability to create a 3d impression of your room / home with this neat little free program (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/splashplanners.html ) not only can you drag and drop Ikea things onto a blank canvas, you can save the model and open it in Ikea for an assistant to point out that you need 8 more bits (that cost at least £100) - bit's you won't see - but are essential... Anyway - this wonderful tool gave me the opportunity to make our first typeface for May.

It's a simpleton - a restricted set of characters. Read into that what you will (and 'scuse the pun).

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!