Ask Mel #1

Question: Hey Mel! Are you able to talk through and explain how you made your own typefaces? I’d love to have a go but no idea where to start or what software programmes are needed :)

Disclaimer: I don’t consider myself a type designer, I don’t know much about this (learnt a bit in art school + reading books about type but that’s all). I only make typefaces for fun, they are far from perfect or how “they’re supposed to be”!

Answer:

Hey there! Thanks for your question. I have been loving making typefaces lately…although it’s a really time-consuming thing to do! But if you have time on your hands, I do recommend giving it a go…especially since it’s not that hard to get started. To make my typefaces, I use a software called Fontself. It basically is an extension to download which you will then install to Photoshop and/or Illustrator.

Fontself isn’t free, it’s either £29 for Illustrator or £45 for Photoshop and Illustrator.

You’ll be able to create both Vector fonts and Bitmap fonts. They actually explain everything really well on Fontself’s website. They also have lots of guides and tutorials to help you create your first typeface.

My process:

When it comes to designing typefaces (so far) I’ve always started with pen and paper. I play around with ideas and shapes and figure out what kind of typeface I’d like to create. Is it going to be round and playful or bold and striking? Will it be serif or sans serif? Once you know that, it’ll be easier to start drawing each letter and make sure they all fit with other in terms of style.

After drawing/painting each letter, I scanned them all and vectorised them in Illustrator. That was important as I knew I needed to import them into Photoshop as shapes and not smart objects or pictures. So technically, you could also design your letters directly in Illustrator and then add them to Photoshop as shapes…

Anyway, I could talk more about the process of making a typeface with Fontself but I feel like they have amazing guides and tutorials on their website…so I reckon there is not much point in me doubling down on this (especially since I’m still figuring it all out too :) I hope this helps a little bit though!

Again, Fontself has a really helpful FAQ which you can visit here. Let me know how you get on! I’d love to see your beautiful typefaces.

P.s: This isn’t an ad or a sponsored post. I genuinely love using Fontself!