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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

17 - Idea (from Ikea)

Well well well...what fun we had this week...a trip to Ikea. A rushed trip to Ikea. An "impromptu" trip to Ikea, you get the idea.... and this trip gave us an idea for the typeface for this week.

It seems that Claypots is seeping into everything we touch (rightly so...it will be our new home once we make it!) - and Friday's mission - was to purchase a Kitchen.

We've been looking for a while, B&Q, Magnet, Homebase etc...all nice, all more expensive (and probably the same quality) as our good friends in Ikea.


There's always a sense of cheating or "joining the masses" when you say you've bought something from the Swedish Box... I will not be Jack's silent scream...

One wonderful thing that Ikea provide a "home maker" is the ability to create a 3d impression of your room / home with this neat little free program (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/rooms_ideas/splashplanners.html ) not only can you drag and drop Ikea things onto a blank canvas, you can save the model and open it in Ikea for an assistant to point out that you need 8 more bits (that cost at least £100) - bit's you won't see - but are essential... Anyway - this wonderful tool gave me the opportunity to make our first typeface for May.

It's a simpleton - a restricted set of characters. Read into that what you will (and 'scuse the pun).

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!

16 - pocket saw

Claypots haul again... we'd found a "survival saw" - folded away, rusting in a leather pocket...and a large spider to boot! Needless to say, as this odd looking coil of metal and teeth unfurled we had an idea that it might work as a typeface constructor. There is one slight problem, it only bends one way...

Being Experimental - we've decided not to "cheat" - photoshopping bends that the saw can't do...so some letters are more "obscure" than their traditional brothers and sisters in the real alphabet!

If you are a nasty, rusty saw - built for survival - of course you are going to be rugged and uncompromising...honest.

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!