Honest question, since I'm still "young" (read: NOT full-time) when it comes to doing typography-related work professionally:
- For those of you who do it full-time, how are you able to provide for yourself and your family?
Follow-on questions:
- How much of your income, percentage-wise, comes from custom, commissioned design work and how much comes from your own type/font projects?
- When seeking out those commissioned projects, how do you gain more exposure (or do your clients just come to you)?
- What have you found that does/doesn't make a difference in being able to do what you do full-time?
- What other kinds of work do you do to make-ends meet?
- What else should someone like me know?
I'm seriously reconsidering my current career choice and would appreciate your advice.
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Comments
If you aren't a full-timer, how much of your time does fall into this line of work? Does it provide a significant (i.e., half or more) portion of your income in spite of not being full-time?
By the way, I realize questions like my original are a different way of saying something like, "Hi! I want to be your competitor! Any advice for my success?" I'm not sure I'd go so far to say I want to best anyone, but I understand my questions can be taken that way. I'm pretty sure it will take me a while to even come close to the accomplishments many of you have already achieved, so I wouldn't worry about me for a while.
Another by the way, did you all go to school in graphic design/typography?
The number of people doing type design full time is very low. Probably in the hundreds globally.
I support myself solely from retail fonts, which is unusual. Not only does it require skill, it also depends a lot on luck. If you want to follow this path, release lots of stuff, but keep your day job. If you get lucky, it might become full time.
Other ways I haven't tried:
Get a job with a company that has in-house type designers. This seems to be a frequent path for people studying type design at Reading or KABK.
Do commissions as well as retail fonts (with primary income from the commissions) is probably the most common model for independent type designers. Better odds for success than only doing retail. I can't advise on how to follow this path since I haven't done it much.
As far as school goes, I studied commercial art for two years back in the seventies, but as a type designer I am mostly self-taught over several decades. Better to take a course if you're in a hurry.
And thank you for the candid response about your situation and what you have seen in the industry. I can understand that there is a bit of timing luck involved in being successful enough to allow you to be a full-time type designer. What would you say helped you the most to get where you are today?
Excellent. Luck noted. Until that comes along, I'll work on my skills
Another by the way, did you all go to school in graphic design/typography?
http://typedrawers.com/discussion/1671/coming-from-where-at-what-age#latest
The design itself was handled in-house. But I was brought on to help them select their new typeface palette, advise on sizes/weights/leading for key typographic elements, oversee character & paragraph stylesheet definitions, and overhaul their hyphenation & justification settings (as well as train designers & copyeditors in the application of same).
I have done similarly for other publications over the years.
Incidentally, as it turned out, I also served as a type designer on the TIME project when the decision was made to have me develop one of my works in progress to become their new text typeface.
By the way, I'm continually amazed at the all the places everyone here has done work for. It is an honor to be among so many accomplished typographers and type designers.
I have been a free lance for decades. Over time, as my interests and experience shifted, the typographic jobs have supplanted others.
- What percentage of time do you spend on supporting your published fonts, vs. designing new ones?
For example, do you find that, after releasing so many fonts, you inevitably end up addressing support requests / publishing revisions / releasing new weights and styles, more often than publishing new designs?
I don't look for commission work...it comes my way once in a while.
The commission work is interesting but I doubt that it adds up to more than 1 or 2% on my income.
Commissions can get expensive if I spend too much time negotiating. I can probably make and release a whole new typeface in the time it takes me to work out the details of a commission. And there's usually little in the way or long term monetary gain.
Long term projects, while fulfilling, have sometimes been detrimental to my income. When I feel like I'm headed for a boondoggle, I try to wrap it up...maybe change the scope to get on with something else. I try to be careful not to sink too much time in any one typeface.
One strategy that some people do that lowers the risk is to do fonts on commission with a limited exclusivity period. That way, you are guaranteed to make some money for it. Once that runs out, you release it to the retail market. If it was used prominently during the exclusivity period, there may even be pent up demand for it.
Would anyone say that commissioned fonts a regular thing for you? I know they don't happen every day, but in the grand scheme of things, does anyone done here have this kind of work on a regular basis? Or do most folks who do type design find that they come less frequently and find it more than necessary to do personal design projects (like Ray)?