I do quite a lot of lettering pieces with different styles and tools. This helps sharpen my calligraphy, drawing, and digital drawing aka vectoring skills—and to test some ideas freely with no pressure.

Sometimes, just to have some fun with letters, and sometimes those tests end up becoming starting points to a new typeface. Sometimes they just end up in the shredder.

If I see something interesting in those sketches, I might have an urge to test out if that could work in a typeface. Usually, though, that small and quite roughly made lettering piece would go through quite a big transformation before ending up as a typeface. It ends up looking totally different than the starting point, but the main idea is still there.

It was the same thing with Boomville; I made a fun-looking, bouncy script lettering piece that said Lingonberry. That became the basis for the typeface. Although it has changed quite a bit, the main characteristics are still there.

It’s important to consider quality when evaluating a brush script typeface. Precise kerning, an extensive glyph set to support a wide array of languages—some you might not even know you need to support yet—and carefully drawn curves.

Something you don’t necessarily see before you start using the font in your work is the quality and placement of the nodes, or the tangent points of the vector curves. You need to have the right amount in the right places to ensure the curves are smooth and preserved in print and on screens.