Kokomo Breeze: An Interview
Kokomo Breeze came in at #13 in the MyFonts bestselling new fonts of 2019 list. We spoke with Nicky to learn more about the inspiration behind the design!
What inspired you to design this typeface? Were you designing for a specific use case or customer? Or were you more focused on a particular artistic vision? Or some combination of both?
One of the things I love about font design is the tremendous variety — an infinite amount of lettering styles, the different pens, inks, and medias to take inspiration from and create an infinite number of fonts. I like to challenge myself with designing something new and unexplored. This can come in one of two ways- One is just going with my creative flow in the moment along with my large selection of pens, inks and drawing tools. Often, it’s just choosing one, and trying out a new style of lettering that leads to the birth of a new font. The second is seeing a style out in the wild that just really speaks to me: on a pretty hand lettered wedding invitation, in a vintage magazine, scrolling through Pinterest, on a postcard — inspiration is everywhere.
Walk us through the process of designing this typeface. Was there anything different about it, compared to your usual process? Did it come along more easily than others, or were there unique challenges?
Kokomo breeze was designed using a brand new ‘full-of-ink’ sharpie and, instead of regular paper, I used smooth glossy Xerox paper as the medium as I didn’t want too much texture and I wanted the pen to flow quickly and easily. I started out by writing out words to get a feel for the style, then I refined it by doing several re-takes for each letter. I selected the letters that look the best, and then scanned and digitized them. The only challenge was choosing the letters.
Looking ahead, are there new projects you’re excited about? Anything you haven’t tried yet but are eager to explore?
I usually like to alternate between casual and formal fonts. A more formal one is probably up next, but the daily onslaught of inspiration doesn’t always stick to this idea. Watch this space :)
