I stumbled upon "Fraktur Mon Amor" by Judith Schlansky A collection of beautiful Blackletter typefaces, showing alphabets on one page and creative compositions on the other. It's goregous, I highly recommend it!
Of the 333 digital typefaces featured in the book, a majority are open-sourced. The thought of passionate type enthusiasts generously offering these imperfectly stunning labors of love to designers, without expecting anything in return, deeply resonated with me.
I knew that a small corner of the internet was to be carved out for my hobby, making letters.
So here it is, 'BEEP BOOP' Inspired by the nostalgic aesthetic of the early internet and it's democratised resources. In other words, a bunch of letters made with love & pixels.
LOTS OF LOVE,
Ally Mac xx
The typefaces housed here are designed using mostly modular systems... in other words the shapes that make up letters conform a ruleset usually, but not always defined by some sort of grid.
The simple reason I like this process:
a] It reminds me of chess and how although your bound to move in certain ways, one small move can open a whole new world of possibilities and unlock new creative ideas.
b] Making a decision in design often isn't easy. 'Should I flip or flop? Which one is better?' These are questions that are hard to answer alone. In a way, the modular system makes a lot of those tricky choices for you. :)
While researching (and reminiscing) over 90s web nostalgia, memories at the family computer began flooding back... like entering cheat codes SIMS (deluxe edition), customizing an MSN tag with a sychronised performance of headache inducing animated emojis. And more recently discovering that the Yahoo! logo yodelled (I know).
The common thread weaving these memories together is the unexpected joy of discovering something that feels like maybe you weren't supposed to.
As a nod to what for me was a golden age of the digital easter egg, you will find plenty of clickable, tappable & draggable suprises lying around here. I encourage you to explore 🔍
While BEEPBOOP makes fonts, the site isn't using just its own. Instead, the typefaces are sourced from some brilliant makers that have influenced this project.
Have a click or a tap on any of the lovely letters to the left to find out more about the fonts we're using.
While 'Fraktur Mon Amor' lit the fuse, undergoing this project has led me to discover a community bloody wonderful letter makers & type taxonomists. From big to small, practical to experimental and everything inbetween. I'd be remiss not to mention a few and point towards their direction.