Creativity Friday: Adventures in typography!

As I mentioned in recent posts, I’m in the midst of creating a new book proposal*. In my last Creativity Friday, I wrote:

As I work, I’ve been musing a lot about typefaces — specifically how they communicate intention for a book. I love to browse through Font Book on my Mac, compiling lists of what might work. I also love to research the history of a typeface, to see what subliminal connections there might be. In some ways, as I try on these typefaces for size, I feel a bit like Thea whenever she plays in her costumes. It’s all a giant game of dress up.”

In response, a commenter asked:

…. How do you play around with the fonts? Do you just type a few sentences in the font or do you actually print them out and hand draw them? I like doing both, so I was just curious as to how you do this.”

This is a great question. I’m sure everyone works a bit differently, but here’s how I proceed when I “play with type”.

As mentioned above, I begin by creating a list of typefaces that I think would work well for my book. I spend a lot of time pouring through Fontbook on my Mac. But, though I have thousands of typefaces on my computer, I also check out other possibilities. Here are several sites I like to troll for fonts:

1. MyFonts.com. My Fonts is an inexhaustable resource—they seem to have every font you can imagine. Best of all, you can try before you buy. Thanks to their easy-to-use website interface, you can type in sample text and view it in different typefaces and even download samples. This feature is especially useful for display fonts (ie: those used for titles or headlines). Have a font you’re trying to identify? My Fonts allows you to upload a sample, for which they’ll attempt to find a match. Very useful!

2. Scriptorium Fonts. Scriptorium specializes in antique fonts and fonts based on hand lettering from famous artists and calligraphers like Alphons Mucha, William Morris, Arthur Rackham, and Howard Pyle. They offer similarly-themed decorations, which are very useful in book and product design. They also have a large selection of trial fonts for free download. (I used their Fiorenza handlettering in The Lover’s Path.)

3. HPLHS Prop Fonts. Fun H. P. Lovecraft-inspired fonts that look very 1930’s. They also have some free downloads to try out, along with handy directions on how to make your own props using their fonts.

4. P22 Type Foundry. You can find P22 fonts on My Fonts, but sometimes it’s faster to go to the source. They also specialize in creating typefaces inspired by art and history. Great stuff!

5. Walden Font Co. Walden describes themselves as “purveyors of fine historic typefaces.” Yes, they are very fine. They have some great clip art collections which lend themselves to creating faux antique documents.

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Creating this list of possible book fonts can take some time—anywhere from hours to much longer. Once I have this list in hand, the fun commences. I begin by designing two sample pages for my book—I usually work in Quark XPress, laying in text boxes for where type will go, placing sample art to indicate where illustrations will go. At this stage of the game, page trim (or size of the book) depends on what I envision for the book. (Caveat: Trim sizes usually change once a publisher buys a book. So this is definitely a preliminary step.)

My first design is a full text page (or mid-chapter page), complete with running heads and folios:

The second design is a chapter opener (or the first page of a chapter):

(These samples were taken from Doomed Queens.)

I use these two pages as templates to try out all the fonts I’ve compiled on my list, in different combinations and point sizes. When I come upon a design that I like, I save it as a separate file and print it out. And so on and so forth, until I get that “aha, this will work” feeling in my gut. From there, I move onto designing a book title page and cover typography.

How long can this take? Like most creative processes, sometimes it’s very fast; other times, not so much. By the time I decide upon a typographic treatment, my work area is often covered in piles of print outs. But it’s an important process: Type “speaks” to me of so many things: of history, of emotion. The right typeface tells a story onto itself, offering a supportive counterpoint to whatever I’m trying to express with a book. Like music or color, it creates an environment in which to linger.

These adventures in typography are an important part of my visualizing my book—and usually the first step I take once I have my book outlined.

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* Yes, I’m still being annoyingly secretive about the subject matter. Frankly, I always feel a bit vulnerable revealing new book ideas until they’re safely (a) committed to the page and (b) under book contract. I guess I’m a bit superstitious in that way!

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