Font fun from Fonthead

OK, I'll admit it - I'm a bit of a typography geek. I think it all stems from college type classes where it was necessary to render entire typeface families in pencil to study the letterform shapes and interactions with each other. Those studies 30 years ago have helped a great deal throughout my career and, as I moved to using the computer as a design tool about 15 years ago, I had an understanding that there's a lot more to typography than just digital type manipulation.

One of the great things about my focus on identity design is the freedom it often allows me when selecting type for my projects. Fun logos, for non-traditional businesses or events, require fun, non-traditional type. Several years ago I discovered a great resource in the typeface creations of Fonthead Design. With much of my identity work being done for a less than boring clientele, the selections from Fonthead have been excellent design challenge solutions for me.

For example, the typeface Circus Dog was used in my designs for Harrison Flowers, the triangle productions! theatrical presentation The Dream State, the greeting card company Good Pig, Bad Pig and the local St. Johns Window Project art event. Very Merry is the font I selected for use in the images for Black Dog Furniture Design, Oregon Family OUTings and the Portland retail development Heart of the Pearl. The identity for publisher Buttonberry Books and the James John School reading program featured the typeface Carnation.

Fonthead's offering of Bonkers was used in the symbols for triangle productions! Twelfth Anniversary, Buckman School, and a campaign for the Buckman Arts Magnet - and as a secondary typeface (to one I myself have been designing for about 15 years!) in a Fall Thesis image for Reed College. The option Hot Coffee found its way into the logos for the Caring Community of North Portland, and the additional theatre productions The Big Bang and Shopping and F***ing.

The body of the human form in the Big Daddy identity is made up of the font Blue Moon. The typeface used in the triangle productions!: 14 Years of Tears & Jeers image is the Fonthead creation Asimov Sans. When designing the logo for the Portland Iron Chef fund-raising event, an annual benefit for the Portland Relief Nursery, I was pleased to find the typeface Stiltskin, which seemed to work in conveying an Asian influence.

I really appreciate the designs of smaller type producers like Fonthead. The unusual letterform designs add a unique quality to my logos. When I have used the same font in a number of logo designs, the type takes on different qualities when used in different formats. The end results have made for happy clients - and received a great deal of additional attention as well. Several of the designs shown have won American Graphic Design Awards or were selected for inclusion in the Print Regional Design Annual. In addition, a number of the logos are included in the books American Corporate Identity 2002, Logo Design for Small Business 2, Letterhead and Logo Design 7, Graphically Speaking, Global Corporate Identity, The Big Book of Logos 3, The Big Book of Logos 4 and Graphis Logo 6. Quite a few of the designs appear in the Japanese book New Logo World and the Spanish volume Logos From North to South America.

Fonthead Design does deserve some of the credit, for creating the type I've used in producing my logo designs. I hope that you will check out what they have to offer. Besides the very reasonably priced font volume offerings, they do offer a selection of freeware fonts on their site. Right now they also are offering a free font of your choice in a "Buy None, Get One Free" promotion. (Thanks to Tamar on the About.com Graphic Design Forum for bringing it to my attention and to Fonthead for allowing me to post the info on bLog-oMotives.) Take a look at what Fonthead has to offer. Select and download a free font. Then, do me a favor and send them a little note of thanks.

© 2006 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives