Having a custom font created for a youth-focused Anti-Bullying Charity

Rob.Benn-Frenette

(I am hoping I posted this in the correct Category)

Good afternoon everyone:

BullyingCanada is reaching out to the Typed Drawers Community to see if someone would like to volunteer their time to create a Custom Font based on my cursive writing.  

Further information about our Charity: 

Registered charity BullyingCanada (BC) is unique. It is Canada’s only organization that resolves bullying situations by directly facilitating communication between bullied kids, their bullies, parents, teachers, school boards, social services and police.

It was launched on December 17, 2006 by 14-year-old Katie Thompson (Neu) and 17-year-old Rob Benn-Frenette. Both Katie and Rob were victims of extreme bullying. They sought help but could not find a charity or social service to intervene and help to stop them from being relentlessly tormented. So they created BullyingCanada to help kids in pain, like them.

As Co-Executive Directors, Katie and Rob worked tirelessly for the first five years as unpaid volunteers. Often working up to 7 days a week, Rob now takes only minimum wage as a salary. Katie continues to work on a part-time basis as a volunteer. 

Rob and Katie created a 365-day-a-year, 24/7 support network that communicates by phone, online chat and texting with youth, parents, educators and the general public. With a team of 212 trained volunteers from across Canada who work from their homes, BC supplies support and intervention to prevent and stop bullying, and offers information on the topic of bullying.

Their support service is unparalleled in Canada. Going far beyond anonymous counselling offered by other charities, on an average day BC handles 1,090 calls, texts and emails from every part of Canada. In 2017 alone, BC helped 74,825 individuals.

Trained in providing support, suicide prevention, mediation and problem-solving, Bullying Canada volunteers identify problems, and solve them, to stop bullying and prevent it from reoccurring. They do so by talking about the specific issues with bullied youth and their families; to bullies and their parents; to teachers, guidance counsellors, principals and school Board staff; local social services; and local police. Their end goal is to ensure bullied kids feel safe, and get the follow-up care they need to heal. 

Typically, BullyingCanada proactively remains involved for 2-3 weeks, but more complex problems can take as long as 7-8 months to resolve.

If you are interested, please reach out via Private Message, or via email: Rob.Benn-Frenette(at)BullyingCanada(dot)ca

Thank you,

Rob Benn-Frenette, O.N.B

Rob Benn-Frenette, O.N.B | Co-Executive Director / Co-Founder | BullyingCanada Inc. 
Head Office Mailing Address: 471 Smythe Street, PO BOX 27009, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 9M1
P. 1-877-352-4497, ext. 203 | F. 1-866-780-3592 | E: Rob.Benn-Frenette@BullyingCanada.ca | W: www.BullyingCanada.ca
Charitable Registration Number: 829917897RR0001

Vasil Stanev

Please check Your mail.

Thomas Phinney

Seeing a sample of your handwriting might help some people decide if they were interested. Besides it being a worthy cause, knowing what it is going to look like might be helpful.

Rob.Benn-Frenette

If anyone is interested in seeing my handwriting.

AbrahamLee

Rather than a font-ized version of your handwriting, I wonder if a sample (a picture perhaps?) of your real handwriting would be more indicative of the task.

Christian Thalmann

Sounds like a great cause, but is a custom font really going to make a measurable contribution to the success of the campaign? If you're going to ask for pro bono design work, I'd say a redesign of the website and logo would probably be more effective.

Thomas Phinney

Agree with Christian—at least, as a first few steps.

John Hudson

I think the idea of a custom typeface to establish a distinctive visual brand for the organisation and its services is a good idea, as well as being the sort of story that can generate significant media attention on the organisation. However, I think basing such a typeface on your handwriting is a less good idea: while it has a personal touch, your writing isn't visually interesting or attractive enough to be a strong, memorable brand element. There are some features of the writing that could be reflected in a custom typeface, e.g. the long exit stroke of the e, but this involves interpretation and application to a more visually strong style of type, rather than making a handwriting font per se.

Thomas Phinney

One thing that would make a very powerful story might be to consider some bullied teens who are no longer with us, and pick one with interesting/useful handwriting, and turn that into a font. I will bet that would get more attention.

That, I might help with.

Nick Shinn

What Christian said.
For instance, the grey type on your web site is a hard-to-read light grey: this is an accessibility issue which is more important than branding or publicity.

If you think a custom script font would be a good idea, it should be developed as part of a redesign, so that everything works together, in all media.