Behind the type

Roadhouse Blues was inspired in part by my own hand lettering experiments and the awesome work I'm seeing by people who I follow on Instagram. I love handmade lettering—I'm an addict. Handmade lettering I'm addicted to finding quotes and lyrics that I can draw, to fuel my Instagram addiction. Sometimes I hear someone say a particular phrase and I think I could use that. Normally it's music that I'm listening to that gets me. I tend to sketch out my ideas on paper first. I then scan that into illustrator and change everything. The layout, moving and rotating each word...

Take me to the river is what I'm calling my new brush script font. The name is taken from a song by Al Green, but I've only ever known the Talking Heads version—and I love it to bits. I swear this will be the last script font I do for a while. It's been a real slog to finish this font. Not the drawing of the letters but just putting it all together, technical problems and kerning. I don't mind admitting it was a struggle. The perfect brush font I'm still on a mission to create the perfect random-looking brush...

The Atomic Dustbin font was handmade with a watercolour brush, black ink, and paper. I was trying to get that dry brushmark, with all the lovely detail that can produce. It's like Déjà vu Creating a dry brush font is something of a recurring subject for me. I've never quite got the result I was after. I can picture the font in my head but getting it down on paper is another thing. Constraints can be good I might try and do it left-handed next time or time limiting myself. Having a constraint can lead to unexpected results that I...

Mind the Gap font just released—but first, let me make a short story longer. If you have ever visited London the chances are you have travelled on the Tube. As a tourist, it's one of the easiest ways to get around—it's like a big adventure and buzzing with energy. Commuting, on the other hand, is generally not an enjoyable experience. In fact, it's the exact opposite of enjoyable. Lost hours in limbo travelling to and from the office, packed in like sardines—soul destroying. Lucky for me I decided life was too short to be spent in a hellishly hot tube....