My first attempt in type design

tobiascastro

Hi everyone! I'm happy that I just discovered this community as it seems to be all I'm needing to improve my activity in type discipline. I'm a visual communication student in Argentina and here type design community is quite small and elitist, so I'm basically self-taught type-wise (through some books I bought and online resources). At the beginning of the lockdown I decided to start my very first font project, since I felt I had some basic knowledge. I started sketching and I took a historic local reference (from the train station here at my city), which I decided to 'corrupt' or modify as a political position taken to that so eurocentric art-nouveauish feeling the station has, that I felt so alien and imported in a way. The goal is display-only, not text.
I'm not that happy with the result but I've learned a lot in the process. I learnt mostly how chaotic could be to start from a calligraphy sketch and translate it into a font. Anyways, I'm not going to take more time on this attempt but I'm looking for some advice from more experienced people for forthcoming projects.

I drop here my instagram account in case someone wants to check more of my work (mostly lettering and 3D). 
(Website in process). https://www.instagram.com/sai.bot/

Thanks a lot!

PD: Drive link to more images about the "calligraphic sketches" I mentioned before. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I4AO96nNbBsKIb4CixP8yZXZqLBWu1-7?usp=sharing

Daniel Calders

Hi Tobias, and welcome to the forum.

I'm a beginning type designer myself, and I can recommend the (spanish) courses on domestika:

https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/121-diseno-de-una-tipografia-digital-de-la-a-a-la-z by Juanjo Lopez, who also uses Glyphs app.
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/578-reinterpretacion-digital-de-tipografias-clasicas
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/20-tipografia-construye-tu-palabra
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/70-del-rotulo-a-la-tipografia

There seems to be a sale for the moment, so most courses are 10 EUR (about 870 peso).

As to websites, I regularly read:

https://www.unostiposduros.com/
https://www.rayitasazules.com/

And lastly, the Don Serifa newsletter by Pedro Arilla: https://donserifa.substack.com/

Hope this helps you on your journey!

Good luck,
Daniel

Nick Curtis

A very impressive first effort. I can see it as a bold alternative to stereotypical steampunk or arcana faces.

Thomas Phinney

The book Como Crear Tipografias is incredible. At least, the English translation is great, so I assume the original Spanish is as well!

tobiascastro

Daniel Calders said:

Hi Tobias, and welcome to the forum.

I'm a beginning type designer myself, and I can recommend the (spanish) courses on domestika:

https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/121-diseno-de-una-tipografia-digital-de-la-a-a-la-z by Juanjo Lopez, who also uses Glyphs app.
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/578-reinterpretacion-digital-de-tipografias-clasicas
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/20-tipografia-construye-tu-palabra
https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/70-del-rotulo-a-la-tipografia

There seems to be a sale for the moment, so most courses are 10 EUR (about 870 peso).

As to websites, I regularly read:

https://www.unostiposduros.com/
https://www.rayitasazules.com/

And lastly, the Don Serifa newsletter by Pedro Arilla: https://donserifa.substack.com/

Hope this helps you on your journey!

Good luck,
Daniel

Thanks! I've been reading a few books and seen some courses on linkedin courses + youtube, but I'll definitely take a look over those you dropped. Nick Curtis said:

A very impressive first effort. I can see it as a bold alternative to stereotypical steampunk or arcana faces.

Oh that's nice to hear!  It wasn't the goal but well it's probably the results of breaking things apart hahah-. Thank you!

Thomas Phinney said:

The book Como Crear Tipografias is incredible. At least, the English translation is great, so I assume the original Spanish is as well!

Thanks for sharing that resource! Unfortunately, seems that there aren't new editions available in the market :`( (At least not here in Arg.) But I'll check for it at libraries for sure.