52 - endstart

Woohoo! we're here! It's the end of the year - and the begining of another...
gabi and Phil would like to thank everyone who's taken the time to look, and a very special thanks to everyone who contributed to our year long project - we don't think we could have done it without you!

To celebrate the end of the project and the start of a new year - Phil has made a typeface based on a clock face. seriously abstract - but strangly readable... well, he thinks so!

Gabi and Phil will be continuing their creative output with other projects in 2010 - but we might just drop a few typefaces in TFAW here and there - but, we won't be doing it on a weekly basis in 2010!...

Thank you all again - and we wish you a fantastic 2010 in whatever you do.



You can download it here (endstart.zip 7.13Kbs). You can subscribe to the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces that will be available 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!

34 - Black Tie

We are very lucky this week to have another guest contribution to TFAW...

Glasgow based Chris MacFarlane has been plotting his typeface for a while now fitting in the production of this free font into his busy schedule (thanks Chris!).



Chris said:

" 'Black Tie' was born one day whilst day-dreaming and playing with a cable tie that lay on my desk. The nature of the design instantly leant itself to creating almost any letter or number (in truth it was a lot more fiddly.) To make the characters appear 'organic' each one was formed separately rather than simply piecing shapes together in Photoshop."

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!

33 - CuriousFiend (#1)

Well well well, roll up, roll up, roll up.
TypeFace A week have been graced with some amazing fonts for the new graduate, Mark Goss - creator of the Curious Fiend blog...
After Seeing Mark's work featured on the Creative Review blog we sent Mark an email enthused by his hand made type - and excellent style / application of typography... what a guy, just the sort of font work we're looking for!



Please visit Mark's blog - a fantastic resource for checking out what's going on down his way in Olde London Town.

We're so happy that Mark has got involved, and we wish him all the best for his future in the creative world, I think he'll go far...with his skills and energy, how could he not?

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!

31 - Caran

Gordon Watt (Morning Glass Designs) has contributed another font for Typeface A Week...this font was his "main mission" for our project - so, we are very happy to present - Caran...here's some words by Gordon on its origins...

Caran is based almost entirely on the lettering in a wonderful piece of modern calligraphy, Cara Wallia Derelicta ("Dear Wales, all buggered up"), by David Jones, the famous Welsh artist and former student of Eric Gill. It represents my first attempt at a "calligraphic" typeface, one which I imagine might be used to good measure in a medium like stained glass.

More information on the original text, and a smallish image, can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/lfb89t

And a piece of work inspired by David Jones' work, by another Welsh calligrapher, tegwen Jones: http://tinyurl.com/mxyej5


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!

30 - Gothic Door

Gabi and I were stuck in traffic this week - we're not used to that anymore...but, it's a great time to slow down and look around...and on the Kings gate (Aberdeen), I spied a really nice sandblasted typeface on a door - I didn't have my camera - and desperately tried to mentally note the Gothic / black letter-esque forms...

So, "Gothic Door" is an approximation, a guesstimate, a pastiche of the typeface I did see, perhaps it's more classical than this "retro futuristic" noodle I ended up with...I'll have to go photograph it for sure.

It kind of reminds me of a favourite 90's font (FF NewBerlin) I used to use a lot...but with a bit more "ostentation" about it? - check that "g" - doesn't that look like a road going no-where?! - perhaps it's all too subliminal... the Kerning is a bit squinky too... I'm going to have to look into the font creator upgrade!

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!

29 - untitled

This week's typeface is by a guest contributor, Mobius Engine... a force for mystery and restraint, Mobius Engine has sent us "Untitled"...

A Man of minimal (and very well chosen) words - no information has been sent - nor image to "showcase"... so we decided to add a simple 400*400 image (with his snazzy logo too!) and these minimal words to hopefully get you to dip your toe in the mysterious world of the Mobius Engine

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!

28 - paperpop

The long road to completion is still ongoing at Claypots... this weekend we were stripping some delightful, perfumed, mouldy wall paper from the bedrooms...whilst dirty and laborious, it's quite satisfying when you get a big strip off in one go, I am sure you know what I mean...


We've decided to make a typeface based on peeling paper / paper cut outs...there are two "Styles" to the typeface, the uppercase has a decorative wall paper pattern going through it, and the lower case / numbers / special characters are all solid.

It's a bold, Saul Bass stylee retro / contemporary affair, which I am sure there are many uses for... have fun!

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!

27 - Gerry Can

Another week at Claypots - the garden is turning into a monster, grasses, nettles, accursed bishops weed and bloody railway willows - all climbing higher and higher, fed and pushed on by the amazing sunny weather - followed by thirst quenching rain storms (perfect for growing rampant weeds).


SO! - we had a rake in the steading (farm building) and we've got two petrol driven devices for tackling rampant flora - a honda 4.5 lawn mower & an industrial powered strimmer (perfect!) All we needed was......petrol!

Hiding in the dust and bird plops was an old 10 litre Gerry Can - I've always loved the shape (and sound) of these military-esque objects - especially the lovely routing / indented shape on the front of them...so much so, I was inspired to make a font this week based on the elegant, rounded embossed shapes.

I've also downloaded fontCreator 6.0 - and really set to work on creating a whole range of kerning pairs - but, it's not looking like they are working... I'll need to investigate! Needless to say, it's still a working font - and you can tweak / push / pull the letters in your chosen graphics programs.

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!

26 - Blether

What's that noise?... that'll be the birds chattering in the dawn - being at 57 degrees north - we get a lot of light in the summer...and the birds seem to think the day starts at 5am...

We're waking up to all the birds on Selbie Drive having a good morning chat - so Gabi has made a typeface dedicated to all the chat from our avian friends...

It's a lower case font - but the upper case is "hollow" and the lower is "solid" - so you can overlay them.

PS...Blether is a Scottish word for "talking" (excessively!)


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!

25 - atatat

Gabi has been having some more fun with her Dell mini 9 - running the dark and mysterious (to us non geeks) UBUNTU ("Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others" - how humorous of the LINUX people who can see the matrix and think everyone else can / should!)

This week, she somehow pressed a few tiny buttons together...and she changed her keyboard layout, unbeknown to her...until she tried to write an email! Trying to type in the @ sign kept dropping in the good old " (quote)... she fiddled, she poked...she called up the help files (written in "you should understand this, 'cos I did when I wrote it, mr Anderson" script)...

Anyhoo - according to Gabi - without knowing how, where or why, the keyboard somehow managed to fix itself (boy, boys, boys... don't ask).

This typeface is a tribute to that missing at sign... A fun, hand-drawn typeface, part of the "small stories" set Gabi is working on...

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!

23 - Maple

Last week, was a hectic week... I (Phil) have been concentrating on getting the NEOS (North East Open Studios) booklet off to print...and there was the small matter of going to the Gray's School of Art Degree Show on Friday night & Saturday... and we've been neglecting doing our demolition duties at Claypots - so TFAW was taking a low priority...





SO!... as we want to use typefaces to relate to our week's events... I thought "better late than never" - and in true fashion of "pulling it out the bag" - I've decided to upload an old font (CHEAT!) but - it was designed for the band I used to be in (Maple)...and fittingly, we recently got back together for a special benefit gig - and it all went swimmingly (much to Scot, Al, Murray and myself's surprise.)

The typeface is a mash up of metrostyle & times...if I remember correctly! It's a bit clunky, a bit unfinished and a bit prickly...yes, just like the band.

I've included a video of one of our performances for you to take stock of....enjoy (?)...




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!

21 - Handwrought

What a week! We're soooo busy at the moment, we (Phil & Gabi) have finished our type classes with Craigielea! What a fantastic time we had with the pupils & teachers. We've been asked to come back when the school gets back after the summer holidays! so that's fantastic news. Again, Gabi and I would like to thank Craigielea School, The Pupils and Peacock Visual Arts (Nicole & Adam) working for the Creative Identities project.
We've also had a lovely email from Gordon Watt (Morning Glass Designs) with our second "guest" font! Gordon is also working on a more stylised typeface based on a welsh typeface he's seen used in stained glass. We're loving the submissions and appreciated the time and effort everyone is taking to submit work to the project.


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!

20 - Craigielea (multipack!)

This week, we have four fonts for you to download in one package.

Recently, we were asked to run a course for Craigielea school in Aberdeen, giving the opportunity for the pupils to express themselves with handmade / personal type forms.

We gave the pupils the task of creating typefaces from found objects within the art classroom - and we had a fantastic time thinking about letterforms and how they can be used...

We'd like to thank Fraser, Georgia, Robbie and Ryan for being excellent pupils and taking the project on and running with it. We were particularly please to see the guys light up when they saw the possibility and application of their work - really satisfying knowing that they are thinking about how to use type & words together... I wish them all the luck for the future!


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!

19 - MySexy

This is a special day! We've had our first submission to the typeface a week 09 project, by the fantastic Jo Gannon. Illustrator, Printmaker, and now "got the bug" type designer... here's a snippet from Jo's rather excited email -

"...the font / typeface is basically the first one i ever tried to design and is based on my own handwriting. it's called my sexy because it's my sexy writing. now that i have designed one font i canny stop!"



We're so happy that Jo has submitted her font, and found the project inspirational (I can hear her Kerning already!), thank you! - If you'd like to join in, please let us know!

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!

15 - late!

Ahhh! Is it just me – or are things speeding up? Becoming more hectic? I think the theme of this week undoubtedly is “being late” – deadlines, meetings, places to be in general.



I’d decided to create a typeface that embraces the art of running late – not quite getting there in time – zipping in and apologising in sort to present itself as best it can! I am not painting an accurate picture here, I’m not always late – not always rushed – perhaps I am too rushed to post this blog to “explain fully”…ho ho…Phil.

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Douglas Adams

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!

14 - Feathers

And they are off!…. the geese are heading home – this means one thing…summer is round the corner!

Gabi’s new font (Feathers) is inspired by the flocks of Geese that rested in the fields surrounding Claypots and the migration they embark upon.

It’s a delicate font – it’s rather illegible on smaller scales, so go BIG! GO BOLD! When using it…

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!

13 - Christopher Smith

We now have the keys to our new home (Claypots)...but it's in a bad state of repair - and full of the previous owners "junk" - gold dust to us! We are currently wading through boxes of 70's & 80's toys and zines...so much inspiration!

As a mark of respect & "homage" to their owner, a young "Christopher Smith" - we thought it would be fitting to kick off the Claypots inspired work with the handwritten typeface, created from scanning Christopher's old school books...we hope he likes them! (if he ever finds this randomness on the interweb!)

We will no doubt be creating new work for a long time - based on our finds!...We should probably start another blog just for the rummaging!...nahhhhh....

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!