Fonts on Friday: Crafty Handmade Fonts

What better time to round up new typefaces than on Friday. Not only is “Fonts on Friday” alliterative, but showcasing new fonts also seems like a good way to end the week.

While I love classic and tasteful text typefaces with famous names attached to them like Garamond or Caslon, I also enjoy seeing display fonts that push the boundaries of taste, or at least usefulness.

A couple of weeks ago I showed my personal collection of fonts made from food. (Tasteful? No. Tasty? Yes!)
While I have never actually set any type with these characters — and they’d have to be placed as graphics form &$8212; I chuckle at the thoughts of using them in a context other than food or cooking.

That’s the fun of display type, in my opinion; to be able to turn the tables on what’s expected.

So this week I found some fonts that are clearly on the periphery of tasteful or classic.

This first one is kind of sweet, actually, and it seems appropriate for Mother’s Day. In truth I may be drawn to it because I’m a knitter and sewer myself, and so is my mom.

The font is called Knit Typeface and it’s by a New York-based interactive design Filiz Sahin. These are EPS letters, not a font, so you have to place letters individually.

I really like the detail in the letterforms, and also the EPS “thread” connecting them. You can manipulate the lines in Illustrator to connect any characters you want. If you’ve ever seen the reverse side of machine embroidery, you know that threads carry over from element to element. (If you like embroidery, don’t forget to check out these amazing Penguin book covers.)

Knit Typeface is free and can be >a href=”https://www.behance.net/gallery/Knit-Typeface-Free-Font/3340471″>downloaded here. Thanks to Typography Served for the tip.

This next collection of type is really imaginative. It’s by HMF (HandMadeFont), operated by Estonia-based designers Vladimir Loginov and Maksim Loginov. These is nothing these guys can’t make into a typeface — red caviar, hand-stitched leather, bread crusts. It may sound a little cheesy (and yes, there is a cheese font) but the cumulative effect is just really fun.

Like Knit Typeface, these are not actually fonts but graphic elements that must be placed individually. And they are not free.

Here are a few I was drawn to.