Font ❤️ Friday and Other Designery Things #13

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Thanks for letting me into your inbox. I hope you find something you like in this 5-minute read.

Another thanks goes to all who entered the Font ❤️ Friday Issue 12 competition. Read to the end to find out the winner…

September marks a fresh start. Children go back to school, clients return from holiday. Everyone’s ready to work again. Hopefully... I’ve had the last couple of weeks off, and I read a LOT. I got through five books while on holiday in Turkey with my family! I like discovering new places, but I was pretty much a beach lounger loving tourist.

I had two business books but also read a few just for pleasure. I managed to switch off after a few days. But as a company of one, it was tempting to see what emails had come in. Have you had a Summer break? Did you manage to switch off from work completely?

I returned to my desk straight away to work on a yearbook for a school that’s just rebranded. Their new font is Futura, which always has me singing the Whitney Huston song ‘I believe the children are the futura’…get it? Ahem, sorry…

So, let’s look at the font:

Futura is a sans serif font, created by the German designer Paul Renner in the 1920’s. It’s based on geometric shapes; look at the circle dot on top of the eye, the tall ascenders and matching long rectangular descenders that form the letters below.

This font never looks dated. It looks contemporary now, even though it was designed in 1927. Almost a century ago! You can find out more and download it from Adobe fonts here. I look forward to using it in the new project.

FONTS

The writing is on the wall
BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) is the world's only print and online publication dedicated to sign painting.
I love sign artist Vic Lee’s work and have a couple of prints and books by him. Have you looked around the streets near you? Look out for sign/street artists. If you find any – take a pic and I’ll share it here. Do check out BLAG magazine too.

DESIGNERY THINGS

Easy as ABC
The pop-up book ABC3D by French graphic and book designer Marion Bataille is a very clever example of paper crafting. It’s also a fun way to introduce letters to children, though adults will also admire the clever transitions and paper tech.

There are various sellers online – do an online search to pick one up. But if those prices have you saying “sacré bleu!”, take a look at the video here:
How cute is this?

Digital pencils at the ready
If you’re a visual person, Sketch Wow looks like a fun app to use in meetings and presentations. It’s a little pricey but if it makes a presentation less dull it’s worth it, right?

Daydreaming of life before the keyboard
Tap, tap, tap, ping! Want to recreate vintage type nostalgia? Bring back Tippex
and ink ribbons, I say! Take a look at this collections of typewriters.

FREELANCING

I’ve recently added website design to my services. Did I mention that?! Gill’s book has come in handy as a guide*. I’ve always wanted to create sites, but time and html tech got the better of me. Squarespace is a great place to create a website and it’s easy for me to maintain sites for clients.

So far, I’ve created one for a designer teacher, one for a copywriter, and I’m about to begin one for a doctor.

Could you be next? I’m giving new clients a 20% discount for the first year. Don’t say I never give you anything! So if you or anyone you know is looking for a new website get in touch here:

*I’m not a copywriter but I know loads if you need one.

Skillfest
When I started learning about social media and business marketing, Google Digital Garage was a brilliant free resource. They’ve moved it along with other learning apps to a portal called Skillshop.  They say it’s “the one-stop-shop for every kind of learner who wants to succeed with Google professional tools and solutions.” It’s still free thankfully, check it out here.

Know (and charge) your worth
Opinion varies on whether you should charge by the hour or per project. Either way, you have to do what’s right for you. If you want something to base your fees on as a start, try this hourly calculator

Keeping on the subject of finance, check out the online Business Finance Tracker that Erin has created. You can customise it to your brand, but more importantly, you can track money coming in and going out of your biz

Back to the desk
Struggling to get that task done and need a few other freelancers to keep you on track? I’m hosting the Freelancer Magazine online co-working session on 6th September. Sign up here and while you’re on the site, subscribe to the magazine that I LOVE designing - Issue 10 of freelancer magazine is out now ;)

#FONTLOVEFRIDAY

Thank you to all the competition entries from the last edition – I’ll share your brilliant font and work suggestions in the upcoming editions.

Everyone else who entered will get a laptop (or typewriter ;) ) sticker. Hooray!

You know I’m always grateful for you reading this and I really appreciate all your lovely comments online. If you’d like to share to a friend or post about FLF online, please tag me in. I love to see it!

Have a great Friday and month ahead.

Ange 🌈

Thanks for reading!

I specialise in both print and digital graphic design. If you are interested in learning more about me and my services, take a look here.

*designery – I have made up this word.

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