Letter forms have fascinated me since I was a child. I remember using Crayolas at the family dinner table and meticulously replicating the logos of professional baseball and football teams. The overlapping “LA” of my favorite team, the Dodgers, was perfected, as was the haloed “A” of the California Angels and the “NY” of the New York Mets. Also done to precision were the hated Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A’s. Little did I know that this was the start of a lifelong interest in lettering. To some people, letters are mere symbols used to communicate information. To me, letters have personality and expression that extends well beyond their symbolic representation.
Since those days of Crayolas, I’ve continued to sketch letters, although It’s been some time since I’ve drawn a team logo. Recently, a random sketching session produced the word “AUTO” in a boldface deco style. It seemed a good candidate to be “constructed” in Adobe Illustrator. If it looked good, then it will be added to my experimental typeface library.
The original rough sketch. Yes, very rough.
The sketch was scanned into Adobe Photoshop. Next it was imported into Illustrator. On a separate layer, the type was constructed using various shape tools, including align and pathfinder. The type was dressed up with lines inside the body. This was done using the pathfinder tool and joining overlapping shapes on a separate layer.
The basic paths are cloned and variations are explored. The lines inside are looking nice.
Four letters look nice. How about 26? Why not? Let’s create the entire alphabet. It’s just a matter of adapting various shapes from the existing four of “AUTO.” The T reversed 180 degrees and chopped off on the left side becomes an L. Or that T becomes an I, or a J, or an E, etc. Some letters are more challenging than others, such a B or G, but it’s also fun to give certain letters a nuanced quirk. Often times two versions of a letter will be tested, as with the C and X.
Now that the alphabet is created, it’s time to start spelling words. The real fun begins as color is explored. So far I like it. This font will definitely be added to the library.
And here’s a good opportunity to put it to use. Deep within my semi-completed images folder, there has been a rough sketch of a steaming espresso cup. The font works perfectly. It looks nice in the two tone blue. Hmmm, those two blues in the word Cafe. They bring me back to the boyhood days of drawing Kansas City Royals and Houston Oilers logos on the family dinner table.
