{"id":15464,"date":"2017-11-01T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.customink.com\/?p=15464"},"modified":"2017-11-13T12:18:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T17:18:52","slug":"typographer-of-the-month-jeremy-tankard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customink.com\/blog\/typographer-of-the-month-jeremy-tankard\/","title":{"rendered":"Typographer of the Month\u2014Jeremy Tankard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

At Custom Ink we love custom designs, and a lot of times that includes fonts! What you might not know is that fonts, or typefaces, are created by typographers and are an art form in their own right. We\u2019ve chosen some of our favorite fonts to feature here on our blog.<\/p>\n

To help you understand them a little bit better, we\u2019re doing Q&As with their creators. Here we meet Jeremy Tankard, the typographer behind Corbel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: What made you want to become a typographer?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> I became interested in type and typography during my foundation year. This is the pre-year before the degree course. It\u2019s slowly being phased out, which is a great shame. The foundation allowed you to try every aspect of art and design and from that you had a stronger understanding of what you liked and were better at, so you could select a degree course to pursue. In the graphic design block of the foundation year we had to design a headline typeface based on an artist. I chose Roy Lichtenstein and his brushstokes artwork. Through my degree course I found type more interesting\u2014setting it, not designing it\u2014never crossed my mind then. Following my first degree, I went to the Royal College of Art to take a masters in graphic design. There I worked more specifically in typography and type design\u2014working with letterpress, printmaking, and computers. Though they don\u2019t teach type design, I had the resources, time, and freedom to ask questions and study letter shape.<\/p>\n

My first typeface Disturbance (marketed as FF Disturbance in 1993 through FontShop International, since taken over by Monotype) was made during my MA as part of my college thesis. I expanded and republished this as Redisturbed<\/a> in 2010. Bliss<\/a> was also started then.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: What\u2019s your first step in creating a new font?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> I work in a sketchbook first. Ideas for a new type start as a previous one is culminating. Initially I\u2019ll ask questions and read around my inspirations, gathering ideas and references. Sometimes the spark is a certain shape I\u2019ve seen, a period of history, or more abstract\u2014music, etc. No matter where the initial impetus comes from I spend a few months enjoying the journey of research and discovery. Slowly ideas and a design direction will form. Fenland<\/a> shows a little of this process, as does Enigma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: How long does it take you to create a font?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> Depends on the size of the character set. Generally I allow a year. Though Trilogy<\/a> took around four years. Mind you a typeface is rarely \u201cfinished.\u201d As with Disturbance and Enigma, these were both extended years later. Bliss had Greek and Cyrillic language scripts added years later.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: How long did Corbel in particular take you to create?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> Corbel<\/a> was a bespoke typeface commissioned by Microsoft. As such, it had a tighter deadline. This was a full year of development involving Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek extended character sets in Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: How has your style developed\/changed since Corbel?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> I\u2019m continually fascinated by type in a very broad sense and am driven by a desire to make different things. This sometimes leads me into unknown or unpopular (but exciting areas). This was especially true of Fenland and Queezoid<\/a>, a bespoke type.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not aware of having a style. Each type is its own thing. I\u2019m sure there is a \u201cvisible hand\u201d that others can spot.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: What is your favorite font that you\u2019ve ever created?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> Difficult, as they are all done for different reasons and have different strengths and lead me to different places. I like Fenland because it challenged me (and others). I like Pembroke for its crispness and setting. I like Kingfisher for its elegance. The perennial answer is \u201cthe next one\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: What\u2019s your favorite font that was created by someone else?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> That is too tricky. There are old and new ones. There are ones I admire, but no favorites as such. One type will work well in a book because it\u2019s been set by a typographer with the skill to make it sing. Then you see the same type used by a novice and it\u2019s ruined. I would have to know the story behind the type in order to admire it. It\u2019s about context and intention.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: How has the digital world changed how fonts are created for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> I\u2019ve only known the digital process. I was a very early user of FontStudio (not Fontographer) and having been taught the process I chop and change how I do things. Currently I like to draw a lot more<\/a>, and this slows me down.<\/p>\n

The computer has allowed me the freedom to do what I like and want to do, but I\u2019m stuck in a hybrid \u201cmanual\/digital\u201d position. I don\u2019t write scripts and prefer not to automate the tasks I see as key to font production.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: What\u2019s something you think people should know about fonts?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> They are tools to design with.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: Custom Ink has a froyo machine in the office. What is your froyo topping of choice?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> We don\u2019t have that (not that I\u2019m aware of) in the UK. My 11 year old would like all [of them] (her dentist wouldn\u2019t), I guess I\u2019d have to go for cranberries, raspberries (if freeze dried), and fruity pebbles sound interesting.<\/p>\n

Custom Ink: If you had to wear one piece of clothing for the rest of your life, what would it be?<\/b><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tankard:<\/strong> Now there\u2019s a question. Practically, a thick coat\u2014good for winter and could act as a blanket. But if the rest of life is short then swimwear, as ideally I\u2019d be on a beach miles away and swimming with dolphins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Custom Ink we love custom designs, and a lot of times that includes fonts! What you might not know is that fonts, or typefaces, are created by typographers and are an art form in their own right. We\u2019ve chosen some of our favorite fonts to feature here on our blog. To help you understand them a little bit better, we\u2019re doing Q&As with their creators. Here we meet Jeremy Tankard, the typographer behind Corbel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-customink-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTypographer of the Month\u2014Jeremy Tankard - Custom Ink Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At Custom Ink we love custom designs, and a lot of times that includes fonts! 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