my first encounter with Design...

I think it was a childhood crush.  My first encounter with my love, Design, happened at a young age when little girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks, or vice-versa, and instead of following the rules, I played inside my house with the millions of bits and pieces of art accouterments that my dad had in his office.

My father was not only an artist, but had his degree in small model building.  There was nothing that I didn't have access to...pens, pencils, charcoal, paper, Exacto knives, tapes and glues and paints and rulers and drawing boards and books and books and books.  Who would want to play Barbie when you could create anything and everything a child could dream of??? I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't creating.  I always tell people I was born with a paint brush in my hand...

And that's when I saw it.  On the bookshelves amidst the hundreds of seductive titles....The Complete Guide to Illustration and Design Techniques and Materials...."What IS this..???" I thought for 2 seconds before snatching up into my curious little hands....

Oh my...Intros to Illustration, Media, Technical Illustrations, Equipment....but , the most intriguing chapter???
Design and Typography....

Fonts. FONTS....Oh how I fell in love with Fonts, and fell hard.

What is a font? Technically....

In typography, a font (also fount) is traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface.


But to me, fonts are bold, fonts are seductive, fonts are shy, fonts are mean, fonts are silly, fonts are all about making money, fonts can whisper, fonts can show age, fonts curve and sweep and stand tall and grow fat and....fonts are my love.

When working as an Advertising Executive for the Reporter newspaper, and later, for an independent publisher, S&J Advertising, I was one of the only ad reps that laid out the ads I sold to the detail, including the font.  Known as a control freak, I would pour over thousands of fonts that expressed the right message to the right audience in just the right way. There is a perfect font for EVERYTHING.

Today, I don't spend as much time with my fonts that I used to.  I miss them.  I've even forgotten some of their names (eeeeek!!!!!)....but my heart still goes pitter-patter when I see a well designed and even more creatively used font.