Join The Digital Currency Revolution: Custom Font for a Bitcoin Startup in Amsterdam:

BitcoinWednesday
BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
edited December 2019 in Job Postings

Dear TypeDrawers Community,

We're looking for a type designer to help us create a custom font.
  • Since 2014 we used our current concept for Bitcoin Wednesday as rendered below with the "Good Times" font, plus the adjustments to the capital "B".  See below.  We chose it because it's modern and recognizable and a designer donated it to us years ago.
  • Now we'd like a cleaner, more professional, as sleek as possible, yet classical implementation of this same concept.
More background info below.

Apply

Please send an email to hello@bitcoinwednesday.com with 3 of your best font development projects in PDF format, your best estimate for payment and once you start how much time you'll need to get us to the finish line.


Background

  • It should be a new, custom font, so that we have all rights (including rights to any future derivative work), although we only need the letters for "BITCOIN WEDNESDAY" and "BITCOINWEDNESDAY.COM" rather than the full alphabet.
  • Consequently the assignment must be considered work for hire and give us all rights.  We want to make clear that we would automatically become license holder with ability to restrict any use to the design or any derivative concepts.
  • The font should be inspired by "Good Times".  We're not looking for a completely new logo concept.  We're aiming only for subtle, artistic changes so that the improved refined essence, the Zen of "Bitcoin Wednesday" is distilled and brought out from its current form.
  • As we aren’t looking for dramatically different concepts, I imagine 90% of this work would be the craftsmanship of bringing out the most refined shapes and forms, with the result being an organic evolution more than a revolution.
  • For us the best way of working is very quick, rough sketches as early as possible and allowing us to see and give feedback as often as possible throughout the design process as often as is comfortable for you.

Thanks in advance for helping us.  Please ask anything else you might need to know either by sending a mail or by leaving a comment below.





Comments

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    So you're looking for a technically improved clone of Good Times that you don't have to pay Typodermic for? @Ray Larabie
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Hah, Good Timing is a good name.
  • BitcoinWednesday
    BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
    edited December 2019
    @Hrant H. Papazian please ask to avoid assuming the worst.  I should have added that @Ray Larabie was the first designer we asked to help us.  So Typodermic had the first crack at it, and I think we clearly stated we did not want a clone.  Is there any way we can make this point more clear?
    Last month we had a long and very pleasant discussion with @Ray Larabie about doing it via E-mail, but said he didn't do custom fonts, didn't want the assignment and didn't bid on it.
    "I never do custom exclusives and it's not the kind of work I'm into... you're asking me for a logo design and I don't do those..." Ray, November 2019
    He already suggested the graphic designer plus Good Timing direction to us, which we carefully investigated, but felt like a dead end for us creatively.  Also, we'd like our own exclusive font this time around.
    We ended up posting the assignment here at the suggestion of another great type designer and asked the moderators for permission before doing it.  I also think asking this community could help us avoid the issues you raise, so I hope it's okay now.
    Please see http://bitcoinwednesday.com/ to find out more about us.

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    edited December 2019
    I apologize for drawing a mistaken conclusion.

    Ray's confusion threw me off, but also I hope you can see that a detailed post with no mention of a previous attempt to give the original designer first dibs made it seem shady at best.

    Now with Ray's blessing, I might even take a shot at the commission. In any case, good luck.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,887
    I can see some use in having the logotype in font form. You can type it as text. Don't have to worry as often about resolution and scaling. (Then again, you do have to host the font if you want to use it on your web site.)
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,190
    Chiming in on the logo vs typeface aspect:

    Sometimes, a company will be interested in having their corporate branding incorporate a typeface that is also the basis of their logo or word mark, and there can be good reasons for this, notably if they have plans for or are considering specific product or subsidiary branding beyond the company name and wanting to have a consistent identity across everything they do or make. Even if this is the case, though, all Ray's points about logo design vs typeface design remain valid: the application of a corporate typeface to logos and word marks may and often should involve adjustments to spacing or proportions. In that case, the corporate typeface should be considered as a basis for the logo or word mark design, not as a technical implementation for production.

    Whenever a client approaches me about creating a custom typeface, I always have a raft of questions about their intentions and needs, and a secondary set of questions relating to technical aspects of font production once I've confirmed that it actually makes sense to make them a typeface.

    In this case, if I were interested in making a proposal for this job, I'd be asking the client for more details about why they think they want a custom typeface, how they're planning on using it, where they need it to work and at what sizes. And accepting the premise that they need a typeface, and not just the letters ABCDEIMNOSTWY as a basis for a single word mark, then I'd be trying to determine what their actual character set need will be: all uppercase? lowercase? punctuation? non-English diacritics?
  • BitcoinWednesday
    BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
    edited December 2019

    Thanks for chiming in, Ray.  Much appreciated, not to mention your insightful feedback.  Thanks again for the previous correspondence as well!
    ---
    Thomas, exactly.  Thank you.
    ---
    Hi John, the first paragraph of your post is a bull's eye for us in terms of our reasons.
    Just to clarify, it's all caps, just 14 glyphs (including the period as one of the glyphs) and the concomitant kerning info for the pairs we need in those phrases.  Of course we understand our application of the glyphs in a logotype may call for different spacing and proportions than a regular font.
    We're expecting the result to work across a full range of sizes and uses from small print to digital to large-scale banners and projections at events.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,887
    edited December 2019
    BitcoinWednesday said:

    Of course we understand our application of the glyphs in a logotype may call for different spacing and proportions than a regular font.
    We're expecting the result to work across a full range of sizes and uses from small print to digital to large-scale banners and projections at events.
    Ideal spacing for lettering, and even a logo, is quite a bit different for small print vs large-scale banner.

    That said, it can be hard to get the people who are using the logo to keep track of which version to use where.

  • BitcoinWednesday
    BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
    edited December 2019
    @Thomas Phinney You wrote, "Ideal spacing for lettering, and even a logo, is quite a bit different for small print vs large-scale banner."
    Ha.  Are you talking about the logotype's kerning?  I thought it was fixed.
    I'm ashamed to say we've been using the same logotype across all of the sizes and formats and didn't notice any issues.  Is there any reference website that shows examples so I can see and learn to make the distinction?  Or it a case of ignorance is bliss?
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Smaller sizes need to have looser spacing, greater apertures, bolder shapes, lesser proportion contrast, and greater overshoots. Basically, less drama.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,887
    edited December 2019
    BitcoinWednesday said:
    Ha.  Are you talking about the logotype's kerning?  I thought it was fixed.
    I'm ashamed to say we've been using the same logotype across all of the sizes and formats and didn't notice any issues.  Is there any reference website that shows examples so I can see and learn to make the distinction?  Or it a case of ignorance is bliss?
    Both, clearly.  ;)

    No, I am not talking about kerning, but (more or less) tracking. The overall spacing.

    As Hrant alludes to, there are many other adjustments one can make in scaling type. However, most of the other adjustments are not relevant to a relatively monoline sans serif, such as this one.

    For an introduction, this looks like a good one: https://www.typenetwork.com/news/article/inside-the-fonts-optical-sizes

    There has literally been a book written on the broad topic of optical size adjustments: https://justanotherfoundry.com/size-specific-adjustments-to-type-designs (worth taking a look at the page just for the images)
  • BitcoinWednesday
    BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
    edited December 2019
    So far the natural scaling and spacing that would happen with SVG or AI format has been good enough for us.  Maybe we don't have that much fine detail or shading effects to make it noticeable.  At least I haven't noticed a difference, so maybe it's not necessary.
    I hope that's not cursing in the church around here.
  • Claudio Piccinini
    Claudio Piccinini Posts: 681
    I am not sure what you mean by «cleaner, more professional, as sleek as possible, yet classical implementation».
    Ray Larabie's design is using basic geometry, to keep it as is all you can do is a fine-tuning of proportions, stroke widths, relationships between letter parts. Or are you looking for a complete redesign, maybe with more complex geometry?
    And yes, in the end you are expecting it to work as a logotype design made viable through typing. If you do not need the other characters, I would not call it a typeface, it fosters confusion.
  • BitcoinWednesday
    BitcoinWednesday Posts: 8
    edited December 2019
    Yes, just 14 glyphs (including the period), upper case only, just one weight and only kerning information we need for "BITCOIN WEDNESDAY" and "BITCOINWEDNESDAY.COM"
    I am not sure what you mean by «cleaner, more professional, as sleek as possible, yet classical implementation.
    Fair enough.  It's not necessarily just the geometry, though in some places it might be.  Words will never describe aesthetics as well as images. We'll include reference images with the final project description.
    I'd prefer to find a reasonable balance between "a complete redesign" and "a fine tuning".  It should be a natural evolution rather than a dramatic redesign, but it should also be distinct enough from Ray's work to be considered something new.
  • Joe Elwell
    Joe Elwell Posts: 34
    Just out of curiosity since I don’t see it mentioned; are you paying in Bitcoin or a traditional currency?

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