Create your very own hand-drawn font

Introduction and Inspiration

Download the week 1 pdf guide
Download the WEEK 01 pdf guide
Print out the last three pages with circles, squares and triangles
Time yourself for 5 minutes on each worksheet
Try and fill in as many of the shapes as you can within the time allowed
This exercise is meant to help you create without spending too much time thinking.
Share your creative exercise
From the PDF template you downloaded, please share some of your favorite doodles you did.
Offer feedback on your fellow classmates projects.
Cally O'Loughlin shares their completed worksheet.

Sketch it Out

Sketch your letters
Start sketching you letters.
- Use grid paper: I recommend moleskine or dot grid
- Start with pencil and eraser - I use Derwent Graphic Pencils
- Create your grid - including baseline, x-height, ascender and descender
Try keeping a consistent width and style for your letters.
Share your font
At this stage your sketch could be really rough, or really clean. It could be in pencil or pen. It's all up to you and what you're comfortable with.
Share your font with your classmates, and offer feedback on their projects.
Christina Berkowitz shares their font sketch.

Creating your Vector

Scan in your font
Scan in your artwork at 300 DPI using black and white and save as .PNG to your desktop
Vectorize your font
Drag your image in to Cocoapotrace app and save (Live tracing)
Or, open your image in Illustrator and trace your image by hand with the pen tool (Long method, but more precise)
If you use Cocoapotrace, make sure you spend some time looking it over and cleaning up and unwanted anchor points
For review, export your new hand-drawn font where all characters are visible in .PNG format
Share your final font
Upload your final font to your project page. Be sure to provide feedback on your classmates' projects.
Cameron Walker's final project.

Additional Resources

Cat Baldwin

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