Essentials for Plane Travel and Font Friday

Today I'm heading off to Chicago for the weekend. So exciting! I haven't been in about 15 years and I'm so looking forward to seeing it again. So in honor of the trip, today's Font Friday is Arsenale White – a handwritten font perfect for "writing" out a travel checklist. I found this font via this great roundup of free handwritten fonts from A Subtle Revelry.

Font Friday – HVD Rowdy

This week's Font Friday is HVD Rowdy a free font from HVD Fonts. The font was made using potato stamps which I think is totally craft-tastic. I was actually playing around with some potato stamping this last weekend. It's super fun and I hope to do more of it. To actually make a whole font composed of potato carved stamps is an impressive feat. This font is definitely not for everyday use (certainly not for large blocks of text) but for everyone once in a while, headline use it's appropriate. And for when you want to let a little loose on say St. Patrick's Day, it's perfect.

Giveaway and Design Tips to Make a Photo Collage Wall

Recently, I was invited to attend a party hosted by HP and interior designer Genevieve Gorder (you remember her from Trading Spaces, right?). The purpose of the event was to showcase HP's new photo wall decor products. I arrived early because I was super paranoid about being late. Being early can be so awkward sometimes can't it? This time it worked out for me and I got to chat with Genevieve for a little while about design and blogging. She was very nice, obviously passionate about design and so pretty! We bonded over our graphic design backgrounds and Northwest connections. I told her that I'd like to try printing some of my Instagram photos. And she shared that she had printed some low res Hipstamatic photos on canvas and they looked really great. Now I just need to choose which of my Instagrams I want to print!

Font Friday - Corki and a little Yacht Rock

Today's Font Friday is Corki from Type Depot. The font is available for free and comes in four variations including a fun selection of dingbats! Following this week's navy theme, I made the nautical themed graphic above. I mean, who doesn't love a little yacht rock on a Friday? All of the dingbats with the exception of the anchor (which is part of this download) are from the Corki font. The dingbats include arrows, hands, banners, stars and other little things.

Font Friday - Myra Caps

Have you ever thought about how a font could be like a pocket? Well, pockets are useful and decorative just like today's Font Friday pick – Myra Caps. Myra is a sturdy, all caps, sans serif font – very useful – but it also has a curly decorative alternate for each letter. The font is designed by Sergiy S. Tkachenko and is available for free download on the Free Typography website.

Above I'm using the font over the top of one of my favorite instagram pictures of the week. I was trying to think of a pocket related phrase to use and decided on "Like candy in your pocket" because I always feel a certain child like glee when I have my pockets full of candy. It's a secret little treat just hanging out there waiting for you to be ready to throw 'em down the hatch. The blue sky in the photo really lends itself well to the word candy. You can almost eat it!

Font Friday – Banda a Font for To Do Lists

I know it's February and most people have long forgotten their New Year's resolutions but I'm still thinking about all the things I want to get do this year. There's no time like the present right? So in honor of remembering things, setting goals and making lists, today's font Friday is Banda from the Type Depot, a font perfect for making to-do lists.

Font Friday - Coco and Pinterest Favorite

Today's Font Friday is Coco, designed by Hendrick Rolandez and available for free on Behance (scroll down to the bottom of the page, the link is tiny). This unique font is narrow, thick on the sides and very skinny at the top and bottom. It works best used sparingly in just a large word or two with mostly solid color behind it. The samples on Behance are great examples of how to use this font.

The photo above of Chocolate Cake and Berries is one of my favorite pins of the week. If you speak Swedish, you might be interested in the recipe on the source site. The photo contains a couple of themes that I collect on Pinterest – Coffee & Tea and Works in Progress. Because the photo is rather busy, I added a drop shadow to the text in order to give it definition and make it easier to read.

Font Friday - Blanch

Today's Font Friday feature is Blanch, an all caps font available for free from Lost Type Co-Op. This font is an interesting mix of serious and friendly. It's very tall and straight, a little uptight but then it has softly curved "U"s and "N"s. I think this would be a great font for infographics or other informational designs. I'm getting into some knitting this week so I decided to do a little knitting themed graphic to feature this font. You know the seed stitch right? It's a lovely stitch and so simple, just knit one, purl one, repeat. 

Free Printable - Crossed Arrows Valentine

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching which means it's time to start making valentines. I've always loved making my own valentines, cutting out paper hearts, making treat boxes and such. Last Friday I featured the font Berimbau as a nice pick for a Valentine's Day graphic. I adapted that design into a sweet little card free for you to download and print yourself.  

Font Friday - Berimbau for Valentine's Day

Today's Font Friday is Berimbau, available from My Fonts. Berimbau is a tall and thin, handwritten font. So, even if you have less than stellar handwriting, this font can transform your valentine from a scribbled mess to a tender, hand-crafted love note. And most of all, you want a valentine to look sincere don't you?

Font Friday - A Practical Font for the New Year

Today's Font Friday is Casper designed by Michael Chereda and available for free on Behance. Casper is a clean, sans serif font perfect for the New Year when we're all looking for a little more simplicity. This font has features four variations: regular, italic, bold and bold italic. Just enough for the basics. For more fonty goodness check out #FontFriday on twitter. Do you have any favorite practical fonts?

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DIY Graphic Design Tip - How to Pair Fonts

Choosing a font can be difficult but choosing two that go together is a whole other proposition. When choosing a pair of fonts, you need to find a balance of contrast and similarity so that your fonts look good together but different enough that they show off each other's specialness.

Inspired by this post from the blog Frances May, I decided to feature a cursive typewriter font this week. So I found Script 12 Pitch BT (available for free, found via iDIY). Next up was what to do with this font. Seeing as it's almost Thanksgiving, I decided to do a little Thanksgiving themed graphic with one of my favorite shapes - the triangle.

The sample at the top is my favorite font pairing - Script 12 Pitch, the cursive typewriter font and Governor from Lost Type Co-op. These two fonts both have a vintage feel but there's a nice contrast between the thickness of Governor and the varying line weight and casual feel of the Script 12 Pitch. Each font holds its own yet supports the other which to my mind is the perfect pair.

Now, a few examples that I think are less successful pairings.

Here, Script 12 Pitch is paired with Ballpark Weiner. Ballpark also has a vintage feel but because it's also a script it feels fussy and overdone next to Script 12 Pitch. A script font is often a great accent font but it's really difficult to pair two scripts together.

For this what-not-to-do example, our typewriter script is paired with Gotham Medium. Gotham is a great sans-serif font but it doesn't have any similarities to our script and the design falls flat. While it is a sans-serif like Governor, Gotham is too current and doesn't have the vintage feel that complements the script so well.

The final example pairs Clarendon with our script. Clarendon is a great, classic, serifed font but it just doesn't quite work in this pairing. There are too many thicks and thins in Clarendon and the eye doesn't know where to settle.

So, what do you think? Here's another example with Governor and Script 12 Pitch. Do you think they pair well together? What font would you choose?

For more font inspiration follow #FontFriday on twitter.

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