Font ♥ Friday…and Other Designery Things #4

Hello!

Thanks for Subscribing ♥

Good begets good. No, I’m not going all biblical on you. But I do believe if you spread good out into the world it’ll eventually find its way back to you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a perfect science. There’s no guarantee.

But have you ever had that feeling when you meet a person and think “wow, they’re working hard to make someone else’s life better”? That’s how I felt after speaking to Steve Pugh from RoadMap MBA. He’s making a difference, putting good out into the world.

Steve’s developed a course for people who can’t afford a traditional business and marketing MBA course. You know, the kind that cost thousands of pounds. When someone buys one of his courses, Steve gifts a course to a person who doesn’t have the means to buy. How generous is that?

Last year Steve sent me the book that accompanies the course. It’s really well designed, with an easy-to-follow layout. And (you know me) I noticed the typeface immediately. It really suits the clarity of design. He used the font Ambit. The font has a few interesting details so (you’ve guessed it) this newsletter is dedicated to the typeface:

FRIDAY FONT

AMBIT

CoType says: “Ambit is an eccentric and unique sans serif* font inspired by early grotesques but adapted for the 21st Century. It’s most striking details are the curly ‘f’ and ‘r’.”

I like the kink in the ‘y. It’s these little details that make a font stand out.

*if you’re new to fonts – sans serif means it doesn’t have fiddly bits.

You can download a free version here or purchase the family for commercial use from CoType.

Do check out RoadMap MBA. Steve’s doing awesome work and I’m sure he’ll welcome you if you give him a follow.

Also, if you want to have a listen (shameless plug but it’s my newsletter so why not?), Steve interviewed me for his podcast. You can hear us discuss growing up, education choices and my career journey here.

DESIGNERY RESOURCES

Here are a few designery things I found useful in the last few weeks.

FONTS

FINDING A FONT

Check out Font Brief, a font discovery tool for branding and editorial projects. I went down a rabbit hole looking at fonts from various designers and where they’ve been featured. It’s a great site for learning about font history and finding new inspiration.

LOGOS AND TYPE

A brand is not just the logo, but it helps.

After the last newsletter graphic designer Emma White sent the new Boden (the fashion company) logo over to me. Quite a step away from their last logo. The last one evoked a friendly feel, as if it was written just for you. The new one is an emerald green colour and very bold. After 30 years they obviously felt it was time for a change! Interestingly they say it’s the original logo from when the company was founded 30 years ago. Swings and roundabouts.

The website Velvet Shark has a piece on brands favouring sans serif fonts. One reason they suggest why a lot of companies have adapted their logos is accessibility. A few changes over the years…

Image from Velvet Shark

Have you seen any more logos that have had a radical change recently?

Add some font love to your coffee table or that Zoom show-off shelf

Check out ‘The Year Book of Type - The Movie Edition’.

It’s a beautifully designed book by Slanted publishing, which contains a collection of typefaces by designers around the world. It’s presented with the typeface on one side of the page and the movie illustrated in type on the other. It comes with a link to a micro site that sends you to the designer/foundry directly for more info.

Slanted Publishing say: The Yearbook of Type provides clarity in a world of constant streaming, scrolling, and aimless browsing. Find the typefaces you’re looking for—and maybe even the right movie for the evening!

I say: Would also make a great Christmas present for a friend or graphic designer *ahem*.

FREELANCING

October 10th was World Mental Health day

Emma Cosy is a freelancer training expert. I subscribe to her newsletters as she offers weekly tips on things to make your work/life easier and more manageable.

Recently she asked freelancers how they manage their mental health. I took part and a few other freelancers added what they do.

Have a listen here. It might inspire and help you.

Freelancer Magazine Issue 7 - The Business Edition is out.

And for the first time it has a split cover design. Which cover will you get? Eman or Howie? Subscribe and let me know. I love designing this magazine!

DESIGNERY THINGS

MOCK IT UP

Do you need your products to stand out? From booklets to bags, ‘Place it’ by Envato has thousands of mockups where you can add your own unique designs to templates. The first design is free (without water mark). If you want more there’s a subscription for $7.47/month which gives you unlimited downloads.

INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS

Do you have a data-driven article you need to bring to life? Take that dull data Excel sheet and represent it visually on screen with the powerful and creative software ‘Flourish’. Once designed, you copy the code and embed it into your article. It’s free for personal, educational or evaluation use.

IMAGES

FREE IMAGES

Check out the site Gratisography. I particularly like the Whimsical section. Very random, but you never know when you’ll need a pic of a girl eating Wotsits, or a human dressed as a giant bunny.

PORTFOLIO LOVE

Behance is a site to swoon over designs and look for inspiration from designers around the world. It holds the portfolios of all sorts of creatives, from illustrators to photographers. You can customise your feed to your preference.

#FONTLOVEFRIDAY

Comic Sans gets a bad rap

Well hopefully that got your attention, because it did mine.

Glad I put this at the end, or you might have stopped reading by now. Or thrown your phone/laptop across the room in disgust.

Over on LinkedIn land I commented on a post by Alice Holt about comic sans. It was a flyer from her child’s school about headlice. I said it deserves its own appreciation group. And guess what? It does have a campaign (not the headlice but comic sans). I say in jest but comic sans does get a bad rap.

But did you know it’s actually an accessible font for people with dyslexia? October was National Dyslexia month and the charity Dyslexia Scotland created a campaign ‘There’s Nothing Comical about Dyslexia’.

I’ll be honest, most clients want their work to stand out. I doubt I’ll ever get asked to use comic sans but as a designer I have to be aware of accessibility criteria.

Check out the campaign and poster here.

You never know I might sneak it in one day. And not in a school PPT presentation on headlice!

Happy Friday people! 🌈

Ange

If you’ve found any fonts on your searches that you’d like to share, I’d love to know. I’ll feature you and the font in my next edition.

*designery – I have made up this word.

P.S.

Still here?

OK – a couple of things. The links in the newsletter aren’t affiliate links, I just hope they’re useful. But I would like to shout out Alice. She has a Kofi shop where you can buy her crafty creations and some useful free PDFs. I have downloaded a few, go check her out.

P.P.S.

Honestly, last one

On Friday 14th October I won an award. I was named Graphic Designer of the Year 2022 by Digital Women. I also came runner up as Freelancer of the Year 2022. I know it sounds cliched, but I really wasn’t expecting it and I feel truly blessed. One of the best parts of the day was meeting the other finalists that I have met online over the years and we celebrated together in person. You can see more here.

So, thank you to everyone that sent kind words, cards, messages, plants, flowers and champagne ;). I really appreciate it and I’m sending a gazillion thank yous your way.

Image by Mooie Fee Photograpy

I’ll say it again, have a beautiful day and a spooktacular weekend!