{"id":80661,"date":"2024-10-08T15:21:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T22:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=80661"},"modified":"2024-10-21T07:16:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T14:16:17","slug":"by-meg-burk-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/by-meg-burk-interview","title":{"rendered":"Handcrafted Letters and Western Vibes: Meg Burk\u2019s Journey in Font Design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to another exciting edition of Behind the Shop<\/a><\/strong>, where we spotlight the creative journeys of the talented individuals behind some of the most captivating shops on Creative Market. Today, we\u2019re thrilled to introduce you to Meg Burk<\/strong>, a font designer with a distinctive, playful style deeply rooted in the Southwest and now flourishing in Austin, Texas. Meg\u2019s journey into type design started with a simple need: to create a font that perfectly suited her design needs. What began as a challenge to create a new typeface every month quickly turned into a full-fledged passion. Now, with a portfolio that includes the beloved Cowboy and Kiwi typefaces, Meg is making waves in the design world with her handcrafted, analog-digital hybrid approach. Join us as we delve into her creative process, inspirations, and the unique blend of influences that shape her work.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/span>What inspired you to pursue font design in the first place? What were you working on before?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My initial foray into designing fonts started because I couldn\u2019t quite find one that fully suited my design needs. Editing one-off letters for brands here or there wasn\u2019t cutting it anymore. The first font I made was entirely in Illustrator with the Fontself extension, and it surprised me in that it was fun for me in an all-consuming way. At that point, I made it a challenge to make a typeface every month for a year\u2026 I had to see what I could learn from it. And I never stopped making fonts since!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before type design was on my radar, I was fully convinced that I would have a career in animation as a character designer. If I look back, though, I was always having more fun drawing letters, words, and icons. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something about the puzzle of it – telling a story or conveying a message in the fewest possible strokes or shapes.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With type, I learned that I wasn\u2019t just designing letters, but instead I was designing a system of shapes and sequences that come together to make something interesting and functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/span>When creating a new font, where does your creative process start? What inspires you?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every idea for a font comes to me in an all-inclusive idea; I already have potential names picked out and ideas for the marketing as well. The inspiration for any of these aspects comes in various forms, but I like pulling from real-life sensations. My first fonts were all inspired by the Southwest, but namely, New Mexico, where I spent a lot of years growing up. I would be inspired by the simplified shape of adobe houses, or the colors of chile, or the steel signs outside of ranch entrances.<\/em> Now I\u2019m pulling from any theme that I am loving or see on my radar to be trending in the future. Most recently, I discovered that I LOVE guava, so I made a script font that feels like guava tastes, to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the loose idea is settled, I sketch everything by hand on paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing compares to the exploration of the idea in a tangible way.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From there, I digitize it and use a combination of Fontself and Robofont to actually execute the idea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"guava\"<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>How would you define your signature design style?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My signature style is very playful in the sense that I prefer not to noodle my designs into \u201cperfection.\u201d Sketches and paintings call to me in that they capture reality in an imperfect way. The strokes say so much with so little. In that way, I enjoy making typefaces that have rounded corners and little wonky aspects. It\u2019s how I see the world: in a gestural way. But maybe that’s also because I needed glasses for a long time and didn’t know, but that’s another story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/span>There\u2019s a strong handcrafted feel in your typefaces. How do you blend analog and digital steps in your creative process? How long does it typically take you to create a font, from idea to execution?<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every character is drawn first completely by hand, and often on paper. Once I’m happy with the shapes, I use image trace to quickly translate my drawings to vectors. From there I clean up vector points or build new glyphs from scratch on a layer above the sketches. Once the glyphs start to make sense, I use a combination of Fontself and Robofont to build the rest of the typeface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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