How to begin a commissioned font project?

Scott Biersack

I am very new to the idea of landing typeface design gigs for clients...When you get approached to create a commissioned typeface, what are some general questions I should be asking to help understand the end goal? Obviously, character set seems to be first and foremost but are there other things to be aware of? How does pricing differ among these specific things as well? 

Appreciate any guidance you all can give me!
 

SiDaniels

I'd imagine they'd come with a design brief and rough idea of character set, weights, and styles. Beyond that the next most important thing would be the rights they need - are they buying the design outright or would it be some kind of license? Then I'd ask to see the contract details and review what kind of guarantees, warranties, and indemnification they require.

John Hudson

Try to develop as detailed a technical brief as possible before providing a price quote. Very often, a client won't have detailed technical specifications or understand all the options and issues involved, so be prepared to ask a lot of questions and explain a lot of things to help them understand what they need (which is often different from what they think they need when they first contact you). Find out how they plan to use the font(s). Determine what format is appropriate (typically TTF or CFF OpenType these days, but you might also encounter clients needing legacy formats, bitmap fonts, etc..). Explain the benefits and costs of the different formats. Determine whether and what kind of hinting might be required for target uses. Find out what languages or character sets they need supported. Determine the kinds of OpenType Layout features and variants they require (e.g. do they need smallcaps? what about super- and subscripts? etc.). Will they be able to use OpenType Layout features to access unencoded glyphs, or do they also need PUA assignments (to be avoided if possible, but sometimes necessary).

Once I have answers to most of these questions, I create a glyph set spreadsheet which serves as documentation both for the price quote and then for font development. Doing this work up-front makes it easier to come up with an accurate price that corresponds to the amount of work involved.

Discuss ownership options with the client. They may ask for price quotes for different options. Options we've used are:

1. Work-for-hire. The client owns all rights to the font(s) (we usually contract to retain the right to be identified as the makers of the font and to show the work and talk about the project publicly). Sometimes the client is willing to license the font(s) back to us for distribution.

2. Open source. We retain the rights to the font(s) but agree to release them under an open source license agreement.

3. Split distribution. We retain the rights to the font(s) but grant the client distribution rights as well as perpetual use rights. In our case, this typically involves the client distributing fonts under a no-fee non-commercial use license, while we sell commercial use licenses.

4. Perpetual use license with limited period of exclusivity. We retain the rights to the font(s), but grant the client a perpetual use license and guarantee them a period of exclusivity during which we will not license the font to other customers (typically 3 years with an option to renew for a further 3 years).

5. Perpetual use license without exclusivity. We retain the rights, granting only a perpetual use license to the client. In this scenario, the client is just paying us for our time designing and developing the fonts.

Scott Biersack

@SiDaniels
Appreciate the response! Agreed, the licensing is key – thanks for the guidance!

Scott Biersack

@John Hudson
Thank you very very much for the detailed response, I truly appreciate it! That's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for and it's extremely helpful for someone like myself getting started. 

As for the glyph "spreadsheet" do you provide a visual spreadsheet since some clients may have no clue what certain glyphs are by just reading the name? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks again for the help!

JoyceKetterer

A few things John didn't mention that I always ask:

1.  What do you love about the fonts your company is currently using?
2.  What do you hate about the fonts your company is currently using?
3.  Are there any technical problems you are trying to solve by commissioning a custom font?
4. Are there any brand problems you are trying to solve by commissioning a custom font?
5.  What mood are you seeking from this font?
6.  Are you planning on using this font for the logo?

Often a company seeks a new font just because they have a new design head and that person is trying to make the brand theirs, but not always.  Even when that is the case there's almost always some rational around the change.  The first two questions get at this.  Often the answers are directly useful - there's stuff you want retain (if possible) and stuff you want to change - but even when not they give insights into the potential client that are very useful.

Not everyone will have an answer for the third question but when they do it's really important.  We've gotten commissions from folks who needed a font that will do well in embroidery, LED screens (art installation), transitions between screen sizes, and so on.  You'd be amazed how often something like this is a motivating factor but they forget to tell you if you don't ask!

You don't usually need to ask four, to be honest, cause this is likely what they will lead with.  Five, is similarly something they are often going to volunteer without being prompted.  I just included these to be a completist.  

If the answer is no to six then the questions are, "if you're keeping your current logo, how do you want this new font to interact with it?" and "if you are making a new logo but not using this font can I see it?  And, how do you want this new font to interact with it?"  This can be revealing.  It gives you an idea of their tolerance for change and goals for the project that even they may not have realized they have.  It will also help you to understand if this is a rebrand or not.  It's easy to assume all projects where a font is commissioned are rebrands but that isn't the case.  Sometimes companies just want a new font but do not want real change.  

Thomas Phinney

I wrote about this on Quora, and then Dave Crossland and I edited that answer more for Crafting Type workshops... see Google doc here: http://goo.gl/z8kkig

Covers a lot of the same ground mentioned elsewhere in this thread, with a bit more detail in some areas (except licensing/pricing).

John Hudson

As for the glyph "spreadsheet" do you provide a visual spreadsheet since some clients may have no clue what certain glyphs are by just reading the name?

Most of my clients tend to be fairly Unicode savvy because they're either in the tech sector or are publishers dealing with multiple scripts and languages, but you're totally right that this isn't going to be the case for all clients. I typically include one or more columns of representative glyph shapes in the spreadsheets, using existing fonts, but that might not cover all variants such as smallcaps, etc.

[For complex scripts, I tend to include columns of full input character sequences for the target glyphs, even if I don't have existing fonts that represent those sequences in the way we intend in the new fonts. This then becomes the first level of shaping testing for the new fonts.]

JoyceKetterer

You can see right away that having different customer bases effects this process.  Most of our clients are companies seeking identity fonts.  

Scott Biersack

@JoyceKetterer

Thanks so much for adding your thoughts as well! Those are excellent questions to consider with new clients. Thank you very much for the guidance, seriously so helpful!

Scott Biersack

@Thomas Phinney
Appreciate you sending over the link to that – it's perfect. This thread and everyones comments have given me lots to consider with new projects so thank you again for the help!

Scott Biersack

@John Hudson
Ah that makes perfect sense regarding the spreadsheet. Thanks for the follow up answer – I need to do the same with new projects. Cheers!

JoyceKetterer

@Scott Biersack I just reread your initial question and realized none of us responded to the part about pricing.  The reason for that is that it really isn't appropriate for us to tell you how to price.  That's for everyone to decide for themselves.

That said, I can give you a rough outline of the questions to ask yourself: 

1.  There can be a difference between the price you get from your tables and the price you end up charging.  I usually give the client the first and then display a transparent discount to the second (if applicable). Do you want to do it that way or just give one price?  The amount of the discount is determined by a combination of client budget and how much you want to sweeten your offer.
2.  Do you want to have a flat rate per style/master or do you want to get more specific about the project? 
3.  Do you want to calculate the cost based on the hours for labor?  If so, it's often still the case that you will translate that into a project fee for the client.
4.  Do you want to split labor from licensing in your fee?

Scott Biersack

@JoyceKetterer
That's okay! I know pricing is certainly a difficult thing to account for especially since it's a case by case basis. 

That's certainly helpful to allow me to decide which direction I'd like to take commissioned projects. Never thought about a per style rate. Interesting!

Can't thank you enough for all the time and guidance you've given me. Greatly appreciated!