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How to Design Custom Typography using Memory Typography

2:11 with Mat Helme

Alright designers, it's time to challenge your typographic memory. Do you know your type well enough to recall it 24 hours later?

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    [?Music?] [Treehouse presents]

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    [Exercise Your Creative]

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    In this episode of Exercise Your Creative,

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    we're going to create a custom text lockup for a company called FuturTek.

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    FuturTek is currently using Helvetica,

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    but wants something original.

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    For this project, we're going to use an exercise called

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    typography memory inspired by the late and great Eric Speakerman

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    or as some of you might know him as the typomaniac.

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    This process can be broken down into three easy steps.

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    The first step, finding an original font;

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    the second step, studying that font;

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    and the third and final step, drawing that font from memory 24 hours later.

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    I'm going to use a font called Dosis for this project.

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    You can find this font in the Google Webfonts Directory.

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    Once the font is downloaded, I'm going to open it up

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    in Illustrator and compare the old layout with Helvetica

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    to the new layout with Dosis.

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    Then I'm going to print out the compared fonts

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    and use this as a study guide.

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    After I've spent some time with the font,

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    I'm going to trace the word Futurtek.

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    When tracing, I want to pay close attention

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    to the font's proportions and curves.

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    Because I'm using grid paper,

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    I want to keep an eye on the font sizes.

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    As I trace, I make small notes of the block heights

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    from where the t's end and the widths of the letters.

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    After I have completed the studying process,

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    I want to put the tracing some place where I can't view it for 24 hours.

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    After that 24-hour period,

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    I want to draw the letters which I'll need for the word Futurtek.

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    These letters are f, u, t, r, e and k.

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    Now, let's take those letters and bring them into Illustrator

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    to make our final layout.

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    This final process is to clean up the font

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    and create our vector format.

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    Once I have finished cleaning up all the letters,

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    I would then want to add an off-set drop shadow

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    to give the type a unique look.

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    There we have it, our very own custom text lockup.

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    This process also comes in handy if you can't afford

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    a specific font or if you just want an altered version of your own.

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    As always, have fun

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    and exercise your creative.

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