GRL PWR is a hand-drawn 3D colour font inspired by the girl-boss quotes I keep finding on Pinterest. Pink letters, thick black outlines and deliberately wobbly drawing.
It started with girl-boss quotes on Pinterest
It came from that particular corner of Pinterest and Instagram filled with hand-drawn slogans, bright pink lettering and messages about confidence, ambition and getting on with it. Some were beautifully polished; others looked as though they’d been drawn in five furious minutes, which was often the bit I liked most. GRL PWR borrows that energy rather than copying any one piece of lettering.
Drawing GRL PWR in Procreate
I drew the font directly in Procreate on my iPad.
Procreate is quick and easy to use, which suits the way I work. I can sketch a character, change the shape, try another version and undo any bad ideas.
At this stage, I wasn’t worrying about spacing, kerning or any of the technical parts of making a font. I was concentrating on the character of the letters.
I wanted the lines to look wobbly and sketchy. Not badly drawn, but clearly drawn by hand. If I’d smoothed every curve and corrected every small irregularity, GRL PWR would have lost the thing that made it interesting.
The uneven lines aren’t mistakes I forgot to fix. They’re the point.
GRL PWR feels distinctive because the handmade wobble hasn’t been cleaned out of it. That sits against a chunky 3D structure, bright pink faces and heavy black outlines, so it feels halfway between lettering and a working font.
It has enough consistency to type with, but not so much that every character looks factory-made.
Working on the details in Illustrator
Once the drawings were taking shape, I moved them into Adobe Illustrator.
This is where I worked on the details, refined the outlines and made the placement of the letters more consistent. The letters still needed to feel loose, but they also had to work together as an alphabet.
Making the glyphs work together takes longer than you’d think. Nudge one over, tweak another, realise the first one was better where it was. Make coffee. Start again.
Clean up too little and the font feels unfinished. Clean up too much and it starts looking like every other polished display font. I wanted to keep the movement in the original sketches.
Why GRL PWR is pink and black
The colour choice was much easier. Pink kept it bright and not too serious; the heavy black outline gave it the boldness I wanted.
The black outline is what makes the 3D effect work. It separates the pink front from the sides; without it, the whole thing starts turning into one big pink lump.
The colour combination also fitted the original Pinterest inspiration. It’s confident, cheerful and a bit excessive, which felt right for a font called GRL PWR.
The main ingredients are fairly simple:
- Bright pink lettering for colour and energy
- Heavy black outlines to define the shapes
- Chunky extrusion to create the 3D appearance
- Wobbly lines to keep everything feeling handmade
It’s not subtle, but that was never the plan.
Turning the drawings into a working font
Drawing the letters is the creative part. I love that bit.
Turning those drawings into a font is a different matter. You import the characters, line them up, sort out the spacing and start typing words to see what looks wrong. Something always looks wrong.
I used Fontself for Illustrator to convert the artwork into a typeface. I love Fontself because it saves an enormous amount of time and makes the process far less painful.
It doesn’t magically finish the font for you. The artwork still needs preparing and the characters still need checking. But it removes a lot of the repetitive technical work between drawing the alphabet and producing something you can install and type with.
More time drawing.
What makes GRL PWR an OpenType SVG colour font?
GRL PWR uses the OpenType SVG colour font format.
This allows the colour, outlines and 3D artwork to sit inside each character. When you type in compatible software, the letters appear with their pink faces, black outlines and extruded sides already in place.
You don’t need to rebuild the effect for every word.
That’s the useful part. GRL PWR gives you something closer to finished lettering while keeping the speed and convenience of typing with a font.
OpenType SVG support varies between applications, so check that your software supports the format before starting a project. It’s a dull little check, but considerably less dull than discovering the problem after designing 14 posters.
Two versions of GRL PWR are included
The download includes two styles:
- A full-colour 3D OpenType SVG font
- A standard solid vector font
The 3D version gives you the complete pink and black design. That’s the loud one.
The solid version uses the same basic letterforms without the built-in colour and extrusion. It’s useful when you want to choose your own colours, create a simpler layout or use the font in software that doesn’t support OpenType SVG.
You also get:
- Standard characters
- Numbers
- Punctuation
- Symbols
What can you use GRL PWR for?
GRL PWR works best when it’s used large. There’s a lot happening inside each character.
It suits:
- Statement merchandise
- Magazine headlines
- Posters
- Social-media graphics
- Packaging
- Campaign artwork
- Short quotes and slogans
Use it for the main message, then pair it with something simpler for supporting information.
You can use the complete 3D colour version when you want the full effect, or switch to the solid style when you need more control. Both were made for short messages that need to be noticed.
Take a closer look at GRL PWR.
GRL PWR font FAQs
Does GRL PWR include uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation?
Its uppercase character set, and the product includes numbers, punctuation and symbols.
Does GRL PWR include alternates?
No stylistic alternates are listed with GRL PWR.
Does GRL PWR contain ligatures?
No.
Does GRL PWR have OpenType features?
Its main OpenType capability is the full-colour SVG artwork built into the characters. No additional stylistic sets, alternates or ligatures are in the font.
What weights or styles are available?
GRL PWR comes in two styles: a full-colour 3D OpenType SVG font and a solid vector font. Both use the same bold display letterforms; there isn’t a family of different weights.
What languages does GRL PWR support?
GRL PWR is intended for English-language display work. It doesn’t have Extended multilingual support, so contact me before buying if your project needs accented characters or a particular language.
Which font formats are supplied?
The OTF files for desktop installation.
Does GRL PWR have any limitations?
The detailed colour version needs software that supports OpenType SVG fonts, including Photoshop CC 18.0+, Illustrator CC 22.0.0+ and InDesign CC 13.0.1+. It also works best at larger sizes, where the outlines and 3D details have room to show. Use the solid version when your software doesn’t support colour fonts.
What licence comes with GRL PWR?
The standard purchase includes a one-user Desktop licence for creating static artwork such as branding, packaging, print and social-media graphics, subject to the limits in the font licence agreement. Font-file use in websites, apps, electronic documents, digital advertising or HTML email requires the appropriate additional licence. Contact me about webfont, broadcast, server or large-volume use.
Written by Simon Stratford, type designer and graphic designer. These are my opinions, reached after too little sleep and too much coffee. You can also follow my antics on @itsmesimonok, or leave a comment below. Despite all the opinions, I’m actually quite nice.