When I was a student at the London College of Printing, I started to design a typeface. It was called Annie Rexy. I wanted to make it all bent and crooked like thin, almost broken bones but, the tutor a famous typographer called Frederick Lambert (who's most popular font was probably Compacta), told me I had to design the straight version first. I was quite scared of Fred and he was such a pro, I did exactly as I was told.
Annie Rexy Straight Typeface by Emma Calder
Each letter was drawn with a 2H pencil, was 4 inches high and drawn on tracing paper, with graph paper underneath, Fred did not allow me to use a compass or a ruler. I would show Fred a letter approximately once a month and he would tell me how to improve it. Sadly I never finished the typeface before finishing the course, although a couple of years ago, almost 30 years since the original design commenced in 1979, I did do a bit more work on it. Fred had warned me that a decent typeface could take a life time.
Recently I was asked by an architectural practice, if they could use the typeface for a job involving the names of some clients being carved into the edge of a wooden door. It was the extreme thinness that had attracted them. I will add a link to the door once it is finished.
As I had the work on the computer and it was my daughters birthday, I thought I would make her a card using the typeface. I was messing around trying out the original idea of the skinny, bent bone, lettering and I discovered a filter tool in Photoshop which I had never tried before. Here is the result.
Birthday Card for Coco
I still need to finish the typeface though!
