Font

Introduction

I created my own font using various applications and tools. I first had to do some brainstorming before I found what style I wanted to use. I also included some pictures to explain some unfamiliar vocabulary related to fonts.

Description

alphabet

Brainstorming
The first step toward creating my own font was to become inspired by other fonts. I typed "interesting fonts" into Google and scrolled through the images. When I came across a style I liked, I drew a little sketch on my tablet to remind me to try and incorporate it into my own font. After I gathered enough inspiration, I started sketching by using the "SCAMPER" method, which stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify or magnify, put into another use, eliminate, and reverse or rearrange. I opened Microsoft Onenote on my tablet to brain storm since it was easy to sketch and save images without tons of eraser marks. For each letter in my name, I substituted something, combined different elements, etc. For example, I decided to magnify the top part of the letter "e" and "i," but I also put those letters into different uses: a summation sign in math and a balloon, respectively. After I completed my scamper sketch, I chose a few of my favorite fonts to finish writing my name. I really like the my "adapted L" font, so I decided to imagine my name written in that style as a background wallpaper. I drew thorns coming out of my name, and then I wanted to draw a bird perched on the thorn branch, so I just wrote the word bird. However, a spark went off in my head when I saw the word "bird," so I decided to write my name in that style and add it to my collect of favorite fonts. Since I would have to finish my project in Adobe Illustrator, I decided to start drawing my favorite font, the "adapted L" font, in Illustrator. Despite my love for that font, it took too long to create; within one class period I was only able to finish the letter "e." I knew this font 
was a little impractical and over complicated. 
Instead, I decided to expand on the "bird font."

Creating the Font
After my experience using Illustrator to create my "adopted L" font, which has smooth lines, I decided to create my alphabet in Onenote on my tablet instead. It was much quicker since I could make precise lines because it was as if I was drawing on a piece of paper instead of using the pen and/or pencil tool with my mouse on a desktop. I first created a few lines, the top, cap, mean, base, and beard lines, to guide my font. Then started drawing my letters, numbers, and symbols. I first start off with a skeleton by quickly drawing the character so 
the line is fluid instead of choppy. Then I go back and make certain lines thicker than others. For example, I quickly drew an "n," but then I went back with my pen and made its shoulder thicker. Besides my repeated 

steps to creating a letter

feature of fluid lines, I also include the contrast between thick and thin curves. Another theme I included is open counters; as you can see from my alphabet, my "o," "a," "g," etc. are not completely closed or connected. Similarly, I did not connect other lines, such as the crossbar to the strokes in my "A" and the bowl to the stem of my "p." Also many of my characters' descenders and ascenders purposefully extend beyond the cap, mean, and base lines.  

After I finished drawing my alphabet, I saved each character as a jpeg using the screenshot button. Then I 
imported the pictures to Illustrator. I used what I learned during last project and converted the images into was workable lines with anchor points and handles by clicking on image trace, expand, and ungroup. Then I deleted the background color, which I set to mint green (as seen in my scamper sketch) so it would be easy to see what I needed to delete, so I could just manipulate the lines. From there I regrouped the lines for each character and arranged them in alphabetical order on the same lines as before, top, cap, mean, base, and beard. When that was done, I magnified my screen so I could see the details of each letter so I could alter what I needed. I enlarged a few letters so they would touch the cap and base lines, and in some cases I used the anchor points and handles to make the curves smoother. However, since I did import pictures, image trace already created fluid lines since it uses the general shape and ignores the little imperfections, which were also not captured using the screenshot button on a zoomed out screen. 


Anatomy of Typography
After I finished my font, I went ahead and figured out the different features of my font, such as the strokes, connectors, terminals, holes, and other aspects, generally colored blue, green, red, orange, and black. Below are some of the different features of my font.

Reflection

I enjoyed this project. Figuring out what method to efficiently use to create my characters was the toughest part of this process. It took me a whole class to draw the intricate "e" from the "adapted L" font, so I knew using the pen and/or pencil tool on Illustrator was not a realistic option for me. However, once I thought of using my tablet to draw letters, then save, drag, and convert the characters in Illustrator, the rest of the project came easily. I worked well with manipulating my lines with anchor points and handles. When I was creating my "Anatomy of Typography" picture, I found it usefully to copy the letter and paste it on top of itself, color it, then delete anchor points to condense the letter to highlight just the feature. I will remember that deleting anchor points may help me accomplish my goal, for it was something I never thought of doing before but is very helpful. I learned so much about fonts, from the vocabulary to how they are formed. I would have never thought twice about how many different strokes there are; it is interesting that there are even several lines to help guide a font. I would rate this project as a 3.5/10 for difficulty, but I believe my performance is worth a 10/10 for all the extra hours I put into making sure my font, as well as its anatomy, were flawless.

Next Step

After completing a font by using a computer, you can try transforming your own handwriting into a font of its own.