Firstly I am a graphic designer. One whose type design skills are almost entirely self-taught and honed in those precious hours between work and bed. I am dedicated to the process and craft of making beautiful and functional typography. As a result, what sleep I have is typically only sufficient enough to get me through the next working day.

Developing a font not only means drawing a beautiful group of letters,(that’s about 20% of the work) but also considering the metrics, diacritics, kerning, hinting let alone developing the visuals to promote the font. And after all of this, perhaps even making some money. In my case, it has been fairly nominal thus far, but that hasn’t stopped me believing in type and how type has shaped my ability to tackle work and personal problems.

It is a challenging process and one that demands a lot of energy, discipline, and patience. In this text I will guide you through my process of drawing letters, developing fonts and will end by sharing some tips for designers.

Ever since I attended an open calligraphy class at the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon led by Jorge dos Reis, calligraphy and lettering have always been a great influence on my work.

It’s been roughly 5 years since that class and ever since I have been practicing my calligraphic skills both on paper and on screen.

It is a tough process and one in which you need to invest a ludicrous amount of time to even begin to see satisfying results. Finding the right pens, finding the right stock and indeed uncovering the secrets of how best to trace letterings into beautiful vector shapes, are just some of the first things one needs to address.

Before I discovered calligraphy, I was already playing around with font development. Discovering the in’s and out’s of type can at first be very frustrating. Things such as defining the kerning and creating the right shapes in seemingly impossible letters. The challenge of the bumpy “S” (no pun intended) and inconsistent thickness, to name but a few.

“Stroke widths” by Ian Moore

And then you learn things like an optical illusion, and dive into the theory behind typography, its history, the legacy of masters such as Paul Renner, Tony Dispigna & Herb Lubalin and how many different voices a simple letterform can carry. And that’s why I kept and indeed keep going.

I could have done as most graphic designers would, and apply these ideas through brand guidelines, a logo or in motion graphics, but instead, I chose the painful path of kerning, hinting and OTF features.

“Film Classics” by Tony Dispigna

For my thesis, I challenged myself to develop an experimental font that aimed to question the Latin alphabet as we currently know it. To summarize: a font that didn’t carry a message, but a font that also serves as a tool for producing knowledge.

IVO font sample

Here’s what I wrote about it back then:

This typography project assumes that there is a graphic evolution associated to the Latin alphabet. With this assumption, the Ivo typography breaks the common graphemes that compose the Latin alphabet, elevating it to a whole new level of graphic formulation. It is upon this logic that the reader has an opportunity to learn a new graphic language, based on a reading process that is associated to the Latin alphabet (regardless of the language used.) Ivo Typography is an interpretation of the graphemes used in the Latin alphabet. Its aim is to focus on a good differentiation between letters and the building of a harmonious alphabet. Ivo typography aims to look for failings and flaws in the field of Latin literature. It enforces the notion that typography serves not only to facilitate the reading of the text but also to question and educate the reader about the alphabet being used.

In case you want to have a look at my thesis I can happily share it with you. Portuguese only I’m afraid!

In the meantime, you can always download the font for free (you’re welcome).

If you want to be blown away by the power of context, just apply the 3 levels of IVO [Level 1 for the 1st paragraph, Level 2 for the 2nd paragraph and Level 3 for the 3rd paragraph], and you will see how you can read something that just feels so strange.

At this point, I still couldn’t summon the courage to attempt a calligraphic font. Instead, the complexities of it made me want to practice on different styles.

This began with a Sans Serif and collaboration with Bruno Rodrigues. Together we developed BIG.

BIG sample

BIG is an elegant condensed display font created for strong and impactful headlines. It comes from a series of hand printed specimens taken from a wood type that reassembles an industrial Victorian style. This font has great OpenType features, allowing the user to compose the headlines in two different heights with matching punctuation and symbols.

Following this first approach to create a commercial font, I had the OpenType calling and felt the need to explore the world of swashes and ligatures. That’s when I created Memória.

Memória Font sample

Memória font was a great exercise on a production level. The modular structure of the letter allowed me more time to explore the complexities of OTF features like swashes. It is great to look back on a font like this and remind myself (and everybody) about the importance of kerning…and why there are so many free fonts… like this one! Download the font for free.

After I had finished Memória and while we were producing BIG, I started to work on another, no less challenging project: my own brand.

Creating your own brand, as most designers will know is far harder than it looks. You really need to know who you are and be aware of your impression in the world. Sometimes you have words, thoughts or even movements that help to define that. Even still, it doesn’t feel like enough material to visualize yourself. But if it is ample material for a client why shouldn’t it be enough for yourself?

At this point, it was pretty obvious to me that I had to develop my own font. That way I didn’t need to rely on the idea of a specific style to define myself. When I look at my portfolio, I don’t really fit in one style. I like to explore different media and styles, albeit with one consistent thread: the use of typography.