My Ideation process occurs in spits and spurts and can last anywhere from a few days to a week or a month. The longest period I’ve spent on Ideation to date is three months. I do it first in the morning and generally only spend about 30 minutes or so on it. If you’ve read The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, it’s a similar concept to the Morning Pages, a process of recording stream of consciousness. The goal is to put many ideas down and allow the good ones to bubble up to the surface over time. Time will enable you to detach from your work and see it from another perspective, which is super helpful in Type Design.

I use pen and paper to sketch, which allows me to capture my thinking process without the temptation to erase or perfect it. You never know what part of the sketch will be useful in the future, so it’s essential to keep it all.

Once I have an idea to explore further, I sometimes use the iPad to build it out quickly to a headline or paragraph; then, I’ll digitize a random word. The digitization is quick with little refinement, generally showing a few of the glyphs I like most. I don’t spend any time thinking of a name for it; I give it a number and file it away until I’m ready to explore it further.

The next stage in my type design process is Prototyping.

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