Week 8: Knotical
*and she never made a sans again*
Hiiiiiyeeeee!
This week I present to you a sort-of revival! It’s the font from the back of my parents’ sailboat and the origin of the name Type Du Nord. I grew up in Minnesota and spent summer weekends as a kid going up to our family boat on Lake Superior. It’s a modest lil thing but it’s holding lots of memories and puttering around the Apostle Islands as we speak. The name is hand painted on the back — I assume by a local sign painter. It’s a cutie little sans with a gold drop shadow. I’ve always adored it and this project has been on my list for a while!
The name of the boat is L’Étoile Du Nord, and it means “the star of the North” in French. I subbed in Type for L’Étoile and there you have it! I think at the time it was also a subtle Game of Thrones reference because I was OBSESSED. Don’t tell anyone that tho. The pic above is of my sisters and I on the bow trying to put our feet in the water but ultimately just getting soaked and screaming whenever we go over a wave (third sis’ feet at the bottom <3). If anyone with a sailboat ever asks you to go for joy ride, do it!
I feel like I’m going to be a broken record with this project because each week I’m like “this week was the toughest ugh”. But making sans are tough!! How come none of you told me? It’s painful because every little misplaced point is so noticeable, weight discrepancies are so obvious, and weird proportions stand out like a sore thumb. But here we are! We’re not perfect but we’re here! The hardest part of this whole thing was getting the weight of the round and curvy letters to match the straighter letters… it’s a lot off boopin’ points around. I used the Speed Punk plugin (for Glyphs) often and it really helped me pinpoint wonkiness in some letters. I highly recommend designing a sans, if only for the humbling experience.
L8r sk8r,
Libbie
P.s. — There’s a couple spots left for the Introduction to Modern Type Design with Kel Troughton (and TA’d by little old me) this summer. It’s on Wednesday evenings from 5-8pm Pacific Time from June 16th - August 18th. It’s a great way to learn about type design and make your own original typeface! Sign up here! It’s first come, first serve — sign up asap to reserve your spot!!