My previous blog post talks about the trial of making wood type. After it’s success, it was time to make some more! I wanted to see the project through from start to finish, and this meant designing my own typeface. Now, I’m no type designer, and I’m like a fish out of water when it comes to illustrator. I’d seen a type face by G.Collette & J.Dufour called l’independent designed in the 30’s and I fell in love with it. Given its simplicity, I was hugely influenced by this when creating my typeface. Each letter is made up of a maximum of 3 shapes and took a total of 2 days to create the 26 letters and numbers. Easy peasy.
Once cut out on the CNC, then the labour starts. The blocks are pretty rough at this point so there’s a lot of sanding required. Each one is first sanded down on all sides on a circular sander then sanded by hand on the top to get rid of any burrs, then with a finer sandpaper the face is sanded round the sides to remove any burs and finally the entire face is sanded down on a fine 400 grit paper until it is as smooth as glass. With nearly 150 pieces, this was no quick task and not easy on the hands!
Work must begin on sanding down…
Finally they were each given 2 layers of sanding sealer (and more sanding to be done!) and finished off with a layer of shellac.
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