Typographer of the Month—Jeremy Tankard

At Custom Ink we love custom designs, and a lot of times that includes fonts! What you might not know is that fonts, or typefaces, are created by typographers and are an art form in their own right. We’ve chosen some of our favorite fonts to feature here on our blog.

To help you understand them a little bit better, we’re doing Q&As with their creators. Here we meet Jeremy Tankard, the typographer behind Corbel.

Custom Ink: What made you want to become a typographer?

Jeremy Tankard: I became interested in type and typography during my foundation year. This is the pre-year before the degree course. It’s slowly being phased out, which is a great shame. The foundation allowed you to try every aspect of art and design and from that you had a stronger understanding of what you liked and were better at, so you could select a degree course to pursue. In the graphic design block of the foundation year we had to design a headline typeface based on an artist. I chose Roy Lichtenstein and his brushstokes artwork. Through my degree course I found type more interesting—setting it, not designing it—never crossed my mind then. Following my first degree, I went to the Royal College of Art to take a masters in graphic design. There I worked more specifically in typography and type design—working with letterpress, printmaking, and computers. Though they don’t teach type design, I had the resources, time, and freedom to ask questions and study letter shape.

My first typeface Disturbance (marketed as FF Disturbance in 1993 through FontShop International, since taken over by Monotype) was made during my MA as part of my college thesis. I expanded and republished this as Redisturbed in 2010. Bliss was also started then.

Custom Ink: What’s your first step in creating a new font?

Jeremy Tankard: I work in a sketchbook first. Ideas for a new type start as a previous one is culminating. Initially I’ll ask questions and read around my inspirations, gathering ideas and references. Sometimes the spark is a certain shape I’ve seen, a period of history, or more abstract—music, etc. No matter where the initial impetus comes from I spend a few months enjoying the journey of research and discovery. Slowly ideas and a design direction will form. Fenland shows a little of this process, as does Enigma.

Custom Ink: How long does it take you to create a font?

Jeremy Tankard: Depends on the size of the character set. Generally I allow a year. Though Trilogy took around four years. Mind you a typeface is rarely “finished.” As with Disturbance and Enigma, these were both extended years later. Bliss had Greek and Cyrillic language scripts added years later.

Custom Ink: How long did Corbel in particular take you to create?

Jeremy Tankard: Corbel was a bespoke typeface commissioned by Microsoft. As such, it had a tighter deadline. This was a full year of development involving Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek extended character sets in Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.

Custom Ink: How has your style developed/changed since Corbel?

Jeremy Tankard: I’m continually fascinated by type in a very broad sense and am driven by a desire to make different things. This sometimes leads me into unknown or unpopular (but exciting areas). This was especially true of Fenland and Queezoid, a bespoke type.

I’m not aware of having a style. Each type is its own thing. I’m sure there is a “visible hand” that others can spot.

Custom Ink: What is your favorite font that you’ve ever created?

Jeremy Tankard: Difficult, as they are all done for different reasons and have different strengths and lead me to different places. I like Fenland because it challenged me (and others). I like Pembroke for its crispness and setting. I like Kingfisher for its elegance. The perennial answer is “the next one…”

Custom Ink: What’s your favorite font that was created by someone else?

Jeremy Tankard: That is too tricky. There are old and new ones. There are ones I admire, but no favorites as such. One type will work well in a book because it’s been set by a typographer with the skill to make it sing. Then you see the same type used by a novice and it’s ruined. I would have to know the story behind the type in order to admire it. It’s about context and intention.

Custom Ink: How has the digital world changed how fonts are created for you?

Jeremy Tankard: I’ve only known the digital process. I was a very early user of FontStudio (not Fontographer) and having been taught the process I chop and change how I do things. Currently I like to draw a lot more, and this slows me down.

The computer has allowed me the freedom to do what I like and want to do, but I’m stuck in a hybrid “manual/digital” position. I don’t write scripts and prefer not to automate the tasks I see as key to font production.

Custom Ink: What’s something you think people should know about fonts?

Jeremy Tankard: They are tools to design with.

Custom Ink: Custom Ink has a froyo machine in the office. What is your froyo topping of choice?

Jeremy Tankard: We don’t have that (not that I’m aware of) in the UK. My 11 year old would like all [of them] (her dentist wouldn’t), I guess I’d have to go for cranberries, raspberries (if freeze dried), and fruity pebbles sound interesting.

Custom Ink: If you had to wear one piece of clothing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Jeremy Tankard: Now there’s a question. Practically, a thick coat—good for winter and could act as a blanket. But if the rest of life is short then swimwear, as ideally I’d be on a beach miles away and swimming with dolphins.