Typefaces and the handwriting of the designers behind them.
In this digital age, we owe most of our lives to type designers. We use their craft in almost all forms of visual communication: newspapers, SMSes, instant messages, emails, web pages, signs, posters, billboards, et cetera.
Typefaces are what define the style and tone of our daily messages these days. You can choose between thousands of typefaces such as Baskeville, Franklin Gothic, Didot, Gotham, Rockwell, or even Comic Sans if you like to be seem childish, elegant, and modern.
Given that typefaces have a strong impact on what we do, have you ever wondered about the designers behind them? Why did they create the typeface? Where did the inspiration came from? How did they start?
Someone asked himself just one question. The Man in Blue has always been intrigued about how type designers – that help us communicate – communicate. Setting aside technology, printing presses, and typefaces, how would they write on a piece of paper or a post-it note?
A type designer’s handwriting is intriguing in the sense of several things like: Do they exert extraordinary pen control compared to a layperson? Did their handwriting somehow influenced the typefaces they created? Is handwriting no longer needed or useful given the rise of digital communications?
There surely is something strange about looking at the handwriting of people who spend their lives working on type. To satisfy our curiosities, Cameron Adams selected and asked a handful of good type designers to send him a scan of their handwriting. Here are the results:
That was like seeing different graphic designers have their doodles and sketches exposed, right? We think some of them could be actual typefaces like Dino’s, Nikola’s, or Sebastian’s.
Which one appealed to you the most? Share your thoughts through the comments box below.
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