50 - ratmnumberone

woo hoo! rage Against the Machine got the number one slot over the usual turgid ballad we all come to expect at christmas from the x factor programme...and that man that runs it / owns it / profits from it / tell stupid people what music is...

well, we've all heard the "RATM are signed to Sony too" - so what... at least their music is written by them , made by them, played by them - they got where they are with hard work, integrity and the ability to write a bloody good tune. Oh, and a fantastic campaign by Tracey & Jon on facebook...lots of lovely money for Shelter too...nice.

Anyway - I've decided to celebrate this event by making a typeface made up of photos of RATM... I hope that's cool witht he powers that be!



This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk. If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

24 - Inevitable Alphabet

Last week, Gray's School of Art opened its doors to the public to showcase the work of all the graduating students of 2009... a fantastic date in the North East cultural calendar if ever there was one!

Gabi and I were particularly taken by the work of Tracy Gray (BAHons Graphics) - We thought that her "inevitable alphabet" project would work perfectly with Typeface A Week... and being the dedicated graduate - managed to make her way to look after her show on the Saturday morning (apres Graduation Party). We spoke, exchanged blogAddys and bing - she got back to us, very interested to participate. So thank you Tracy, well done for getting your BAHons, and thanks for wanting to share your work with us. Over to you:

"The ‘Inevitable Alphabet’ is a journey consisting of large posters with hand-drawn imagery and photography, with objects typically associated with the elderly e.g. Z = Zimmerframe. My aim is to break through stereotypical ideas of old age in order to encourage younger people to mix with the age group."

Check out http://peachplumpear-tee.blogspot.com/ for her blog

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

22 - Perspex

Claypots again!... the builders are getting on great guns, the chippies are working so fast, it looks like they might set fire to the wood they use! and the plumbers nabbed all the copper. (They didn't think we'd want £200 worth of scrap metal)Anyway!... in praise of the stripping of the walls and making new framing & insulation - Phil has constructed a typeface called "perspex".

The type can be used as readable text - but it can also be used for construction purposes too...We'd love to see people's illustrations made from this! send them in if you do make anything!



This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

18 - Pebbles

Last weekend we took a visit to Banff & Macduff for the launch of "Pushing out the boat", a fantastic publication featuring creative writing and art for the North East of Scotland. During our visit to the beautiful coastal town(s) - we stopped off at the beach for Poppy.
Gabi was particularly taken by the pebbles on the beach and has based this week’s typeface on those stones.

The font comes in two levels, the UPPERCASE font contains the “pebble” shape and the lowercase has only the alphabetical characters – but these have the same width & kerning, so you can easily overlay the two to create solid letters + background (see picture below).


It’s a limited set of characters again, so it’s designed purely for headlines & small phrases. Gabi will also be unveiling the "building wrap" as part of the COAST festival next weekend - so if anyone is thinking of headding up to Banff & Macduff soon, make it the weekend of the 16 & 17th of May! - you won't be dissapointed.

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

11 - birds

In conjunction with our new exhibition - "Avian Constructs" (at Limousine Bull - March 20 - 29th) Gabi has prepared 26 illustrations to be used as a "typeface" for the typefaceaweek project.

We thought it would be good to let everyone see that a typeface, doesn't need to be "A B C"...and hopefully this will inspire and open the ideas up from our potential collaborators. We are still looking for creative people join in with out project - so if you want to get involved, or know of someone that you might want to get involved, please send us an email! (or leave a comment below!)


During the production of the work for the show, we had also filmed this rather wonderful snippet of footage -


Isn't it wonderful how everything appears to be related...I swear that crow is pinching a bit from January's "twigtype"...

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

10 - Ammonites

To keep dipping into the theme of Darwin (it is his 200th anniversary this year peeps...) We've produced a decorative typeface inspired by ammonites. This is typeface only has upper and lowercase letters - no numbers or punctuation...I guess they evolve at a later stage ;)

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

07 - Worms

Now the snow has gone...we can get back into the garden! Poppy was digging this week and she found her first worm of 2009 - so gabi has celebrated that fact and has produced a lovely typeface based on worms.



This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

03 clouds by g-r-a

Gabi was particularly inspired by the Cumulonimbus this week - big puff snow jobbers hanging in the sky. With a twist of "small stories" this typeface was designed for Gabi's jewellery and cards.

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

02 Rover216 - inspired by Haynes Manuals

Rover 216 was inspired by the Haynes Manual for the Rover 213 & 216 (1984 - 1989).

Each character in the typeface is an unadulterated element of part of the technical drawings (bar two, which needed "slight" tweaking to make them work). The means that each and every letter is "as is" from the book - minus their surroundings. A difficult task indeed, quite a challenge to find letterforms in such detailed drawings. Not all letterforms are truly representative of the characters, but within the context of "a font" - the eye & brain start to make sense of the abstract.

I have enjoyed using the font for background elements / subtle touches to designs, I hope you find a suitable use for it too!

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.
If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!