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Skillshare

Building a Custom Typeface With Just Enough Personality

via Skillshare

Overview

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If You Are a Graphic Designer Looking to Get Into Building Your Own Typefaces, You Are in For a Real Sweet Treat.

Let's get into it. Thinking of Building a typeface can be daunting, but DO NOT FEAR. I am going to show you a workflow that will break things down into manageable bite-size pieces and show you that building your own custom typeface is not so difficult after all. I am going to build a few letters on screen and teach you what you need to know to build out the rest of them. I encourage you to follow along and pause rewind and rewatch as much as you need to to get it down. 

By the end of the class, you will have made your own custom font A-Z capital and Lowercase letters inspired by a quote you love.

Key Skills You Will Learn

  • Glyphs Mini Software
  • Type Anatomy
  • Type Design Workflow
  • Drawing Cohesive Letter
  • Giving Letters personality
  • Export Your Typeface

Resources

  • Type guide: This is an ebook version and a more in-depth version of the info covered in this class and more. There is a more in-depth look into letter spacing and step by step drawings for every letter. 
  • Typeface: I want to give you the typeface that I designed for this class as it stands up to this point.  Use it however you like and let me know any feedback you have about how to improve it. 
  • Project File: I  have included my glyphs mini file so you can get a closer look at what I got going on. 
  • Glyphs Mini Download: https://glyphsapp.com/glyphs-mini

The Beautiful thing about typeface design is that is is so subjective, with that in mind this class is not the bible of type design but simply a jumping-off point to get you familiar with drawing letters and creating a workflow. If you like what you learn here I encourage you to dive deeper into type design and always keep improving.

Harbor is a graphic designer currently working in branding and pursuing a master degree at The School of Visual Arts in NYC 

Other classes taught by Harbor 

Create Retro Style ASCII art portraits

YE Font Full Version

YE.otf + 5 logo templates on Creative Market

Syllabus

  • Welcome To Class
  • Class Project
  • Type Anatomy
  • Guides
  • Type and Personality
  • Choosing a Quote
  • Opening Glyphs Mini
  • Building Your First Letter
  • The Straight Glyphs
  • Letter Spacing
  • Shoulder Glyphs
  • Shoulders Part 2
  • Round Capital Glyphs
  • Round Lowercase Glyphs
  • Glyphs With Arms
  • Angled Capital Glyphs
  • Angled Lowercase Glyphs
  • The Oddball Glyphs
  • Fit and Finish
  • Set Quote and Celebrate

Taught by

Harbor Bickmore

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