The concept for my Zine is the discussion of my own typeface, Spanish moss: How I created it, its trends and style. Afterwards I would talk about what inspired the spanish moss which was Myriad Pro. Here, I talk about the originas of the font and then how they inspired different aspects of my work. Following on, I want to talk more about the trends that relate to and enhance my font. I will discuss where the trend originated, it's current uses and where the trend is going. Lastly, i'll have the FY(t)I as i want to leave it as a last cool fact for the reader.

After looking at a few designs of past students and examples given in class I decided to start sketching up my ideas. I really like the mossy vines that I created for the first half of the semester and as my Zine was going to heavily focus on that font, I decided to use them as my main feature. Therefore, I skecthed them down drooping down each page like the moss does in real life. Moreover, I decided that I wanted my colour pallet to fit this moss theme so I went for a white backdrop, black text and green for all of the moss. Finally I wanted the moss to cover my front and back pages as that would tie everything together while also expressing to the reader what this Zine will be taliking about. 

Page 16: Back cover​​​​​​​

Although Thomas has been studying a Bachelor of Arts, he has never had to design his own font before. Although he is experienced in animation, this practice seemed futile in helping him create a font. This is one of the last major steps towards finishing his degree and opening the door to the creative work force. Continue reading to hear more about how Thomas designed and created such an interesting font.

Thomas was assigned to create an original typeface that represents symbiosis. He had to design a complete English alphabet, numbers 0-9, and 10 special characters. Additionally, he needed to create a poster that showcased the symbiotic relationship. Initially, he explored various symbiotic relationships, including the bee and flower connection, but realised they lacked originality. Eventually, he found inspiration in the Spanish moss’s 
relationship with its host tree, which exemplified commensalism. This became the perfect match for his typeface design, as he could mold the shape of the drooping moss into letters. After experimenting with ink paintings and sketching, he settled on using Adobe Illustrator to create a digital design. Continued on the next page...

Thomas drew basic lines over an image of Spanish moss to develop the primary design, which featured branch-like lines falling from the stem. He then converted his sketched design into a pattern brush, enabling him to create custom letters by manipulating the lines. 

After completing all the letters, numbers, and special characters, he uploaded them to FontLab to generate the font file. Despite initial doubts and a momentary change of direction, he gained confidence in the process and achieved a final outcome that flows beautifully. This experience taught Thomas the importance of trusting the creative process.

Myriad Pro is a versatile sans-serif typeface known for its clean and modern design. It was created by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly and released in 2000. With its balanced proportions and wide range of weights, Myriad Pro is widely used in both print and digital media. It offers a professional and legible appearance, making it suitable for various applications, including logos, headlines, body text, and user interfaces. The typeface’s extensive character set supports multiple languages, enhancing its global appeal. Myriad Pro has become a popular choice among designers and typographers seeking a contemporary and adaptable typeface for their projects.

The influencer font, Myriad Pro was the main inspiration when Thomas was creating the outlines for his Spanish Moss font. It may not have had the greatest effect on his design, however, it was the base line for how my font would look.

 This was done for every capital and lowercase letter plus numbers. Although the letter a was done differently plus the special characters as he wanted them to have their own flare.

When creating his own font, Thomas adapted aspects from Myriad Pro in numerous ways. To do this, he would design each letter over the top of the inspired font so that he could make sure the lines wouldn’t differ to far from the original or start to look incomprehensible. 

The main difference from Thomas’s font to Myriad Pros is that he decided to follow a different trend of having the letters droop down from the top line. More about this trend on the next page.

The type trend that relates best to the Spanish Moss font is High baseline or high-ascenders font. This is a branch off of the trend of unconventional baselines where letters within the font don’t all conform to the same baseline. However, for this font the baseline isn’t at the bottom of the font its at the top.

This trend has been around ever since people started to experiment with different types. However, it has gained popularity in recent years as people try to push the boundaries of typographic design. This is backed by the recent climb in technology which allowed for designers to stretch beyond their prior restraints.

This trend had implications (effects) for the design industry. These being the continuation to push the boundaries of typography. This trend is only starting to blossom in the world and with more designers pushing its boundaries it’s only going to become more well known and more appealing for designs.

Before this comes to an end, I would love to leave you dear reader with a small bit of extra information about font design which of course will relate back to the Spanish Moss. When creating a new font there is so many little technical aspects to take into consideration. For this font the main technical aspect that I had to take into consideration was the weight, as for a font to look like its dangling the weight would have to be better balanced or else the letter may fall. Thus, I decided upon adding more to the top area of each letter in hopes that people could see that the letter was being held up by its weight. This is done by setting the rule that the stem must always touch the ascender line and head down.

This zine was tough, I struggled to get started as I felt very lost in how I should design it and what I should write about. However, after some brainstorming and reviewing of past work I decided to do a few sketches to just get ideas out of my head. I really love the idea of having the moss vine down each page as it connects everything together well. I am also pleased with my colour choice as now with hindsight I can see that forest green works so well with my moss themed pages. Finally, I’m not 100% thrilled with the work I produced however, I am proud of myself for completing this zine to the level that I did. 

Final design

Bringhurst, R. (2004). The Elements of Typographic Style (3rd). Hartley & Marks

 (2022, April 10). What are Ascenders and Descenders in Typography?. Retrieved June 1, 2023, from https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/what-are-ascenders-and-descenders-in-typography--cms-39750

 (n.d.). Myriad Pro Font Family from Adobe - We and the Color. Retrieved June 6, 2023, from https://weandthecolor.com/myriad-pro-font-family-adobe/39067

 (n.d.). Myriad Pro Font Family from Adobe - We and the Color. Retrieved June 6, 2023, from https://weandthecolor.com/myriad-pro-font-family-adobe/39067