Week 25: Cruz Control
Inspired by Santa Cruz and tropical vibes
Hey y’all!
I’m coming to you live from the beach where this weirdo typeface just washed up. I don’t know where it came from but the vibes are siiiiiiick.
Was that the cheesiest thing I’ve ever written?? Probably. This week, I really struggled to decide what direction to go. My first idea was a little wild and definitely wasn’t working after trying to design a test word. After procrasti-cleaning for a bit, I grabbed my sketchbook to start doodling a new idea and an old typecooker fell out. It must have been from one of the TypeWest classes that I TA for. In order to embrace serendipity, I decided to digitize it and see where it would take me!
Fortunately for me, it worked out. I realized right away that making a variable font for this one would be really fun. A really bizarre light version was too cool to resist! I struggled a little bit to make the round shapes feel cohesive because this font doesn’t really have a clear contrast model. It’s somewhere in between reverse contrast and no contrast. I leaned into the reverse contrast aspect and it definitely feels like the right direction. To me, the heavier style gives off really beachy vibes and then the light version feels more out there and modern.
In a dream scenario, I would definitely use this for anything tropically themed, estate sale street signs, or branding for a cute coffee shop that also sells vintage clothes. I hope you all enjoy the fact that I can’t design anything “normal” and if you make something cool with any of these fonts, please share!! I’m dying to see it.
5 things I’m into this week:
I am almost done with the book Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone. It’s a really suspenseful story and very Stephen King-esque.
This week, I went to two live shows!! It was the first time since pre-covid that I’ve seen live music. I saw the band Whitney and Devendra Banhart. I obviously recommend both.
Also, I definitely recommend watching Devendra’s house tour on youtube.
This is apparently a Victoria Rushton fan newsletter now because she released another amazing font on Future Fonts. It’s a variable swash font that could easily be mistaken for lettering. It’s called Lovegrove.
I’ve been feeling the halloween vibes this year and watching some halloween movies. I watched The Love Witch last week and I have no words. You just have to watch it.
Thanks for hanging!
Libbie
P.s. — In case you missed it, you can still help me decide what I am going to make next week by going over to my instagram (@typedunord) and voting in my stories! Today is the last day but it will be the most fun parameter of them all!!
P.p.s. — Tommi Sharp gets full credit for the name of this week’s font!