Hand Drawn Typography

Working with typography has always been one of the best parts of designing. The typography on a project can make or break the project. Pair the greatest photography, or illustration, ever with bad typography and finished product is nothing more than average in the end. There are so many possibilities with typography that there is no reason for this to ever happen. If you can't find a font that suits your needs, create your own. I have done this before, and although a little time consuming, it always ends up giving your work it's own unique style. You can honestly say that no one will have that exact font and no ones work look like your work.

I am a fan of creating hand drawn fonts. Not only do they add that something extra to your work, but they can also be a source of inspiration. Smashing Magazine recently posted an article about hand drawn typography. It is a short article explaining hand drawn typography, and how it can inspire designers. They article also suggests altering existing fonts for a hand drawn look. The article features 40 different works that used hand drawn typography. Each piece also has a link. I have looked through all of them yet, but most of them take you to another page where you can see how the font was used. In one instance the poster that was shown in the Smashing Magazine article was a part of a larger marketing campaign that included signage, posters, stationery, envelopes, etc.

I really liked this article because I get very inspired by these hand crafted elements. The typography inspires not only the type for something I may be working on, but the entire direction that the piece moves in. The positive and negative forms of the hand drawn type can inspire. There are many different aspects of this kind of typography that can be looked at. Everything from the hand-crafted look, the positive and negative shapes, the flourishes, all of these things create a beautiful typeface, and also inspire the designers that see it.