51 - frost

This week - the temperature plummeted! We'ev been driving around (according to our car's thermometer) in -8 degree temperatures! We've heard that up in Nethybridge that it's got to -16 or so degrees... cold cold cold!

It's been snowing on and off too - and it's lying, so that's great news for us snow lovers! - up the hills soon - and off sledging with Poppy - just what you need for Christmas time!

Anyway, enjoy this last font from Gabi....



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!

46 - webbing (TPYF)

TPYF (Their Past, Your Future) is a project for schools to explore the history of the armed forces.

Gabi and I were luck enough to be asked by the Gordon Highlanders to help them create workshops and activities to look at the GH history with artistic eyes.

We particularly liked the webbing / uniform typeface the class of Riverbank Primary School came up with... it was fantastic to see how they pupils looked for shapes and form within overyday objects to create letterforms. They'd really got the idea of using everyday objects to create new forms.

Gabi and Phil would like to thank all the schools & pupils involved in the project, and a special thanks to Aurelie Bureau for asking us to participate and plan projects with her at the Gordon Highlanders.

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!

45 - Poppy (TPYF)

TPYF (Their Past, Your Future) is a project for schools to explore the history of the armed forces.

Gabi and I were luck enough to be asked by the Gordon Highlanders to help them create workshops and activities to look at the GH history with artistic eyes.
Because we had rememberance day, the creation of the poppy typeface is a fitting and beautiful typeface for this week.

Gabi and Phil would like to thank all the schools & pupils involved in the project, and a special thanks to Aurelie Bureau for asking us to participate and plan projects with her at the Gordon Highlanders.

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!

44 - Leaves TPYF

TPYF (Their Past, Your Future)is a project for schools to explore the history of the armed forces.

Gabi and I were luck enough to be asked by the Gordon Highlanders to help them create workshops and activities to look at the GH history with artistic eyes.

We Tied in the Typeface A Week project and worked with various schools and children to create new typefaces based on aspects of the histories they found most interesting.

The children were interested in many aspects - from chocolate rations to poppies for rememberance... It was a fantastic experience for us and the pupils, and we think we got some very interesting and exciting work from the project.


Gabi and Phil would like to thank all the schools & pupils involved in the project, and a special thanks to Aurelie Bureau for asking us to participate and plan projects with her at the Gordon Highlanders.

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!

42 - up

We took Poppy to the pictures for the first time ever this week - to see the new Pixar film UP. it's fantastic! Poppy was mesmerised by the "giant telly!" and was fascinated by the big seats and all the people coming in... when the lights dimmed, she was highly entertained...and started whispering to us!... a natural born cinema goer!



Gabi decided to create a typeface based on the balloons used by Carl to take his house to South America. It's also quite fitting as Poppy has been to a few of her friends parties in Oct and Balloons keep being taken back to our house to be unserimonoiusly deflated over a few days...

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!

41 - Skye Beach

During our holiday in Skye, Gabi, Poppy and I collected "stuff" from the beaches, as you do...shells and floatie bits... taking photos of the things we found.



So, Skye Beach is a culmination of memories from our hols... we really do want to go back and explore some more!

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!

39 - bDay & candles

Poppy was three this week, so as a special wee pressie, Gabi and I designed a font each for her. Both based on her birdhday candles, we hope she likes them!



The cake was also made by Gabi and I... deliciouso!

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!

38 - doves

It's been a sad week, after the wonderful NEOS event, we heard that artist, Jen Beattie, sadly passed away. We were invited by her very close friends (Susie Hunt and Lindsay Stewart) to paint Jen's coffin.

We arrived at Jen's on Sunday morning to see lots of Jen's friends and fellow artists painting the cardboard coffin in the studio, a rather sobering sight. A mixture of sadness, collective spirit and joy - we all worked together to create an amazing work of art for Jen.

Jen's family were very moved by the work, and very grateful for all our contributions...

Gabi was taking some time out with Poppy, taking a stroll through Jen & Jim's amazing garden, watching their white doves... inspiration for Gabi's tribute typeface to Jen. Rest in Peace Jen.



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!

37 - NEOS @ Mill farm

To celebrate the end of NEOS, Gabi and I asked all the artists showing with us at Mill Farm, Kemnay to design a few characters to create a mash up typeface showcasing everyone's individual styles & ideas.

It was fun to see how everyone coped with the "brief" and interesting to see how asking people to write / draw / represent "letters" throws up real challenges… “what sort of shape do you want this?” “how do I draw this letter?”. It’s fascinating to see that the “rules” of known letters really can cause blocks to creative thinking…

We think everyone really produced interesting characters, reflecting their personalities and styles. It makes for a very personal typeface for us – as we had such an ace time with everyone during NEOS’09. So, we doubt our blog readers will “use” this typeface, but hope you can see that this is one of the strongest typefaces representing the “spirit” of this project! Inspired to create a typeface and join in?…





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!

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!

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!

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!

12 - applestalk

We know it's spring...and the apples are still the brushings of a bees legs - but we're excited...about growth - change - new possibilities... so as a tribute to our new found energy and sense of growth - Gabi has created a rather cool typeface based on apples...

This typeface has no uppercase - but as you can see - looks rather good as a spindly, Tim Burton-esque tribute. We'll be using it in the Small Stories range....

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!

08 - woody

Continuing the wood theme that often surfaces in our work - Gabi has designed "Woody" in her own inimitable hand drawn style. Based on swirls and knots, this playful, bold typeface is a great addition to the "small stories" collection Gabi is working with in 2009.


You can see more info on Small Stories here : www.g-r-a.co.uk/small

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!