03. "[ˈɜːrkəl]"

Introduction

This next project is called [ˈɜːrkəl], (pronounced like Steve Urkel's last name). This title is taken from when my son was able to vocally identify circles, but with vocal facility at the time, he could not pronounce the initial "s" sound.

What he was able to do was:

• Take something from the external world
• Understand what it was (to whatever degree he could).
• Used his then-current linguistic skillset to reproduce the sound that distinguished that thing as unique.

For this project, you will do something similar, except with found lettering/typography.

Objectives

• Gain facility identifying a typographic system external to you, and examining its aesthetic qualities.
• Gain facility taking those identified aesthetic qualities, and expanding them into a full font/typeface.
• Gain greater agency using (physical/IRL) drawing as a type design resource.
• Gain greater agency using type design software to create a coherent typographic system.

Final Deliverables

• All research, imagery, and drawings from your "type walk" exercise
• A folder with imagery of all other research, notes, sketches.
• .TTF or .OTF file(s) with your typeface
• a specimen book
• 1 piece of ephemera

Requirements for your Typeface File(s)

• You must give your typeface a name.

• Your font must have the following characters:

  • "A - Z" (uppercase)
  • "a - z" (lowercase)
  • "0 - 9" (numbers)

• the following punctuation (this is basically all the characters on a keyboard)

  • (space character)
  • . (period)
  • , (comma)
  • ? (question mark)
  • ! (exclamation point)
  • @ ("at sign")
  • "#" (hashmark/octothorpe)
  • $ (dollar sign)
  • % (percentage)
  • ^ (chevron/caret)
  • & (ampersand)
  • • (asterisk)
  • ( ) (left & right parenthesis)
  • { } (left & right curly brackets)
  • [] (left & right square brackets)
  • < > (left & right carets)
  • ' (apostrophe)
  • “ ” (left & right quotation marks)
  • "-" (dash)
  • _ (underscore)
  • • (plus sign)
  • = (equals sign)
  • | (pipe)
  • \ (back slash)
  • / (forward slash)

• 10 (ten) extra glyphs of your choice. This might include (but is not limited to) the following:
  • ligatures and/or contextual alternates that make sense for your font
  • wordmarks (i.e. "and" becomes one glyph)
  • emojis
  • characters from another area of unicode of your choice (playing cards, runes, Braille, etc.)

All the above should have a style consistent with the source that you chose. If you're interested in something that might make you unable to create this specific list of characters let me know. For example you might want to do unicase, but that is featured in your source.

Requirements for Specimen Book

• Cover (your name, the class, project name, semester)
• Introduction to your typeface and reference imagery
• Complete glyph set
• Information about any special features/extra weights/extra characters
• 3 pages of different pangrams
• "Waterfall" of display text at the following list of sizes: 96pt, 72pt, 60pt, 48pt, 36pt, 24pt, 18pt, 14pt, 12pt, 11pt, 10pt
• Paragraph text (Lorem ipsum text is fine, you can choose the text) at 18pt, 14pt, 12pt
• 5 pages of different text lockups of your choices (these should fit the theme or design of your font. For example if based on a taco stand's hand lettering it might be lockups featuring different menu items)

Make the pages 11 in. x 8.5 in. (you can print as an 11 in. x 17 in. book folded in half). Black and White is fine.

Options for Ephemera

• A menu from a food truck, or existing eatery (Dunkin', Carvel, etc.) using your font as a title or heading prominently. (Any imagery of food or otherwise, should be drawn or photographed or rendered by you). At least 24 in. x 36 in.
• A poster for an event (real or fictional) that uses your font for headings and subheadings, paired with an existing typeface. All imagery should be your own. At least 24 in. x 36 in.
• A risograph animation that features the type prominently. It should be at least 48 at frames and at least 2 colors. It should be saved as a .gif or .mp4

No Shuriken Mode Challenges

(This is where "no shuriken mode" comes from)

(These do not guarantee a better grade, they are merely suggestions for what might be a superlative project, or a jumping off point if you're not sure what to do technologically)

• As always, if in doubt, extend the character set. Add numerals, more punctuation, another case, another weight, etc.
• Make the typeface variable with a non-standard axis.
• Work together with other folks in the class to create an interactive installation or web experience.

Grading Criteria

Criterion	%
"type walk" is fully completed	10%
all files are clear and easy to navigate	10%
all characters are present in font(s)	30%
thoughtfullness in conception of ephemera	20%
aesthetic improvement/refinement of final type	20%
clarity of process in class, and via meetings	10%

Related Work / Inspiration

• Quiapo by Aaron Amar↗
• (fontsinuse page) for Template Gothic by Barry Deck↗
• Bayard by Vocal Type (Tre Seals)↗
• Lavender Vision by Bailey Hummel↗
• Nat Pyper's Queer Year of Love Letters↗
• Genderfail Protest-inspired fonts↗

Relevant Dates

• 03/10/2026 →

  • In Class → Introduction to "type walk" exercise
  • Homework → Complete "type walk" exercise and have ready to pin-up for class

• 03/17/2026 →

  • In Class → Introduction
  • Homework → Continue work on letters, drawings, and expanding character set

• 03/24/2026 → SPRING BREAK!

• 03/31/2026 →

  • In Class → In-progress pin-up
  • Homework → Continue work based on collective feedback

• 04/07/2026 →

  • In Class → One-on-ones & Production time
  • Homework → Complete work and production for final critique

• 04/14/2026 →

  • In Class → Final critique!
  • Homework → Send typeface for collaborative strip-mall sign