Font – printed letters and numbers of the same style

To remember what font is, recall the following mnemonic:

In the baby's font just before the baptism, they found a whole bunch of letters, all of the same style.

The font you choose for a project is incredibly important to help convey the type of mood you are trying to show. For instance, a font like Times New Roman would be too sophisticated to use on a sign for a children's play park, and a sign for a funeral directors could look disrespectful with a font like Jokerman.

Signposts need to have a font that is easily read, even at a distance. 

Some fonts are created by brands and become very recognisable.

Font Project

For this project we're going to create a set of stamps that we can use to print our selected font. You will need a pencil and paper, 3mm thick foam sheets (colour doesn't matter), a scalpel, masking tape, Pritt stick glue, a 5cm cube of wood (these can be bought online or at craft stores), a sponge and paint in various colours.

First, print off all 26 letters of the alphabet in a simple font, such as Arial. You can now use this as a reference to create your new unique font. 

Experiment with different ideas, being careful not to make them too complicated, as you'll be cutting them out with a scalpel later.

Once you have decided on a theme or design, draw out the rest of the letters. Make sure these are less than 5cm by 5cm so they fit on your block of wood.

Glue the sheet of letters onto your foam sheet using your Pritt stick. Depending on how big your letters are, you may need to need to cut the paper up and use more than one foam sheet or rearrange them to fit on one.

Once the glue is dry carefully cut out each letter. 

Stick strips of masking tape to your wooden block. This will allow you to glue the letters to the wooden block without the risk of them getting completely stuck, you can just peel the tape off and start again.

Using the Pritt stick, glue a foam back letter to the masking tape which is stuck to the wooden block. Make sure the letter is on back to front (paper side down), so when you print it, it'll be the right way around. 

Dab acrylic or poster paint onto the stamp with your sponge. You can reuse the sponge (once washed out and dried) or use different sponges per colour or even use two colours on the sponge at the same time.

Stamp the wooden block onto paper. Remove the letter and repeat until you have a word or phrase of your choice! Or, if you're able, you could always get 26 blocks of wood and make individual stamps for each letter of the alphabet, rather than using the same block. You could try different colours and create a font artwork piece that would look great on any studio wall.

Font.