Week 41: Clay Class
Maybe I want to take a ceramics class again?
Happy Friday y’all!
This week I’m bringing you wonky, weird, and overzealous ligatures!!
I’m not really sentimental for my high school years — being a weird art kid in the mid-2000’s wasn’t a cool thing to be. But I did have a really stellar art teacher who was encouraging and steered me in the right direction. It’s because of her that I studied graphic design and am where I’m at today. One of the things I remember about her, was her handwriting. It was really wild and interlocked in interesting ways. Like her K’s would always have the next letter be tucked into the little nook of the angled strokes. It was definitely the coolest handwriting I had ever seen. Unicase and super wacky. I always tried to copy what she wrote on the board into my notebook exactly how she wrote it.
If you haven’t already guessed, this font is inspired by her handwriting. It’s obviously not a 1:1 copy but it is as much as I remember. I created a bunch of ligatures to demonstrate how she tucked in letters and design irregular forms to convey handwriting. There are alternate letters and ligatures in the lowercase and the weight of it is related to the weight of chalk on a chalkboard.
I would use this to jazz up a syllabus, for a hand out about how to make a pinch pot, or a poster with classroom rules on it. It could probably be subbed in for a normal sans wherever flare is needed. I hope you enjoy using this lil guy!! Make sure your ligature settings are turned on when you use it.
Lastly, I have a fun activity for us to do together. I am going to add a Q+A to this newsletter every week for the rest of this project (and probs beyond if there are enough submissions). So if you have a pressing type design question, or just any question that you’d love for little ol’ me to answer, submit here! I’ll make sure to include the submission link every week.
5 Things I’m Into This Week
Right now I’m reading This Is Marketing by Seth Godin. It was recommended by James Edmondson in a talk he gave recently and it’s giving me a motivational kick in the ass.
Awhile back, I mentioned that I’ve been using OmniFocus to keep my tasks organized. Well now I’ve switched to Notion. OmniFocus is great for task management but I need a different set up for some projects and Notion is a little more customizable. If you’re a Notion lover, please send any helpful youtube vids!!
The song Grumpy Old Man by Remi Wolf.
My partner got me some Chunks hair clips for Christmas and they’re the best!!
One last reminder for the Type West graduation! It’s next Thursday at 12pm PT. Sign up here!
C U L8R!
Libbie