Computer Arts Projects issue 124

Typography is integral to numerous creative fields, but it plays a very different role in the work of a graphic designer, a typeface designer or an illustrator. Do intricate hand-drawn letters share much common ground with a set of glyphs arranged in a given typeface, besides the fact that they’re both forming words? This issue approaches typography both as a technical craft and a visual artform.

If you rely on display fonts for your daily design work, we lay bare the tried and trusted secrets of great type-led packaging design. If finials, ligatures and serifs are more your thing, we chat to multi-award-winning type designer Kris Sowersby, and test your FontLab skills with the sweeping strokes of the Arabic alphabet. At the more experimental end of the scale, our cover artist Craig Ward throws caution to the wind and takes type further into the realms of fine art.

Our final two projects explore the blurring boundaries between image and text, with a raft of illustrators and designers revealing how to master stunning letterforms, typographical collages and colourful pictorial alphabets.

Next issue we’ll be tackling interactive design, from slick user interfaces to innovative viral campaigns – drop me an email or a tweet with your comments and suggestions. Enjoy the issue.

Nick Carson Editor

IN THE MAG

Project one: Breaking the rules

Gospel of type
Caroline Archer lays out 12 rock-solid typographical commandments

Craig Ward interview
From shards of glass to fonts made from hair: a masterclass in trial and error

Another perspective
Anamorphic theory in practice, from car-park signage to innovative teacups

Design organic type
Hand-drawn lettering specialist Sarah Coleman shares a savvy digital shortcut

Project two: Typeface design

Kris Sowersby interview
We chat to the man who gave a remote South Pacific island its own typeface

Create Arabic type
From sketches to FontLab tweaks, tackle the world’s second most used alphabet

Out of the box
How great type-led packaging design holds its own on crowded shelves

Project three: Image as type

Words are pictures
Why beautifully illustrated letterforms are becoming increasingly popular

Develop a pictorial font
How to translate your illustrative style into a versatile visual alphabet

Project four: Type as image

Designer challenge
This month, we ask our three creatives to make an image out of type

Design lettering with negative space
Midwich reveals how to frame a word using hundreds of vector illustrations

Regulars

Behind the scenes
How our cover was made. And yes, that’s a real sheet of glass.

The big question
What typefaces can’t you live without?

My career so far
A new slot plotting one creative’s professional life onto a visual timeline