The Typocondriac Newsletter S01E02
Hello friends,
Thanks again for subscribing to my newsletter. I must say that the feedback after the first issue was amazing. It gives me the energy to continue and give more quality content. I tried to get more lettering news and inspiration, but I don't know how you feel about it, but for me, lately, nothing really amazing came out? Has the lettering ended? Or is it on the down side? Don't hesitate to give me you view on it!
Personal news
On my side, I had to find the time to write a blogpost. I finally find it last week! I wanted to write something about my growing love for type design lately. It is really important for me to share how I grow in the letterforms environment. And as I said above, I am these days a bit bored by lettering stuff. I am also more and more bored by Instagram which does not bring anything new to me. So I moved progressively to type design, for fun but also to find some motivation. Here is the whole article.
My Love for Type Design is growing... fast!
So, as you can imagine, I work a lot on fonts lately and I have a lot of fun! I am not sure if I will make money with them but we never know and also I really want to increase some passive income in my revenues, so it is one of the ideas. Last month I talked about Creative Market. I did launch Farandole there but did not make any sale yet. And to be honest, I am not sure yet how to deal with these distributors. CM takes 40% of a sale. Also, you have to fill some US tax forms in order to not pay US taxes, which would take another 30% of a sale. I don't know if it is the same with all distributors, like MyFonts for example. But I really have to think about it and find a good strategy. On that point, I did read a nice article from Stephen Coles on how to sell your fonts. It is a bit old but still relevant.
That discussion brings us to another one which has been in my mind since some time now, which would be to offer a course for graphic designers on how to create a font, probably on Fontself. An online course I think. Would you be interested? Also, for my coming fonts, I am going to create videos about how to use them, with ligatures, alternates, and more...
Staying in the training environment, I launched a new workshop which will take place in my studio, at the border between France and Switzerland. It is on the 21st and 22nd of March and places are limited. I love more and more having small groups, max 8 people. So if you are interested, don't wait too long. Here is a special code for you to get 10% off: WORKSHOP10.
I also have another one planned with Pyramyd in Paris, beginning of April. The main difference between these 2 workshops is that the one in Paris can be used on your training program in your company and paid by your OPCA, if you are in a french company or a french freelancer. Don't hesitate to contact Pyramyd if you are interested and don't know how to proceed. They will be happy to help!
For the coming weeks I plan to launch Basalte, my next font. I will write a case study about it but also on how I plan to sell it.
Inspiration and News
Ok, so what happened in the letters world since last newsletter?
- Let's start with Lettering Legend Ken Barber who has big announcements for 2020. First of all, he is going to be giving a workshop in Barcelona in July. Yes, in Europe. First time probably? Lots to be excited about! Also, and probably the biggest news of the month for me, he is going to publish a Lettering book, with everything you need to know about the craft. It will be out in April, but you can pre-order it.
- For the second news, let's stay with another lettering star, Martina Flor, who launched a new tool, called Lettering Maker. Last month I talked about Type Cooker. Here, the principle is the same: you go on the website and you create yourself a brief with constraints. And you create a lettering artwork, depending on that brief. There are different levels. It is a fantastic way to practice with rules, constraints. It will for sure take you to unexpected zones.
- After having worked for a long time at Comicraft as a font designer, John Roshell just launched his own foundry, Swell Type. John worked on many movies, comics, space industry, and more. I designed the logo of Angry Brids or Daredevil for example. I really love his work for display fonts and I really wanted to share it with you because he is someone you won't see much on social medias. He also just published a video on YouTube on how to create a dozen logos with one variable font. Really fun! Hope you enjoy!
- The website for Typographics 2020 is out! And I love it. I went to the first edtion in 2015. That is where I met Ken Barber and had the chance to learn lettering with him in a one-week workshop. The particularity of that conference is that it is not only for type designers. Talks are mostly not about Type Design. It is about people who use type and fonts. So you will find a lot of talks about designers and how they use fonts. And that is what I really like about it. Also, there is a fantastic book fair and many workshops you can attend. If you can be in NYC in June, don't miss it!!
For this edition, they used Minerale from Thomas Huot-Marchand, a french type designer. I love that font, but if you follow my work you won't be surprised as I love to play with shapes ;-)
- Marie Cathering Pflug, from Monotype, shared, 2 weeks ago, the results of her yearly study "Font Purchasing Habits". As usual really useful insights for type designers but also interesting for any designer to see how his/her colleagues buy fonts. As a becoming type designer, I learned many things about how to sell fonts, which distributors have more impact, what customers are looking for, etc.
- This month I had to talk to you again about James Edmonston. He just launched Cheee, his last font, and as each time he does, he writes a nice and long case study about his process. Each time it is a real pleasure and as this is a display font, there are many ideas you could apply to lettering for example. So James' work is a perfect bridge to me between type design and lettering, and could possibly give you the idea to create a font soon? It did work for me ;-)
In this case study, he explains his process, of course, but also, from one style, he could develop many other styles, with different shapes. Lots of inspiration for me!!
This morning I discovered that beautiful work of Rob Clarke on Instagram, and I really wanted to share it with you because it is a perfect example of how a good lettering piece can make a great logo with an also great branding. The type is some kind of funky to me, playful, with a strong identity. And each day I try to show and convince clients that could be a good idea, instead of choosing a sterile sans serif font. Lettering is far more than just inspirational quotes! (I think I am going to write an article about it...).
Nick Misani, a fantastic lettering artist, moved to Paris few months ago and he is going to teach a workshop on the 29th of february in collaboration with Type@Paris. So if you are around and interested, don't hesitate, I think there a few places left...
That is all for today :-) I hope you did discover some nice stuff here. If you have ideas about things you would like to see, don’t hesitate to reply to that email to let me know. I am always open to new ideas!
And if you like this newsletter, please spread the word and share it on social networks!! <3
See you next month ;-)
Francis