David Kerkhoff didn’t have childhood dreams of becoming a professional typographer. The thought had never entered his mind, but even so, a career in typography is exactly where he ended up one day. Life is kind of funny like that sometimes.
Careers can evolve from the strangest and most unexpected of places. Over the course of his life so far, David has worked as a cook, an artist, a goldsmith, and even a zookeeper. His work ethic is one that embraces challenge and uncertainty with a healthy amount of fearlessness, and it’s led him, quite literally, around the world.
David spent some time working as a tour guide. The job enabled him to do some of the things he loves most: roaming the world, exploring, and taking photographs of the journey. Eventually, David decided to set up a website to sell his photography as a side gig, and being the do-it-yourself kind of guy that he is, naturally he chose to design the website himself.
As most graphic designers will understand, David had a difficult time finding the perfect font for his brand. He knew with certainty that he wanted a handwritten font, but the right one continued to elude him. Often, when a professional graphic designer faces this kind of roadblock, he or she might attempt to make one from scratch. David chose to tackle his problem in the same manner, only he had no graphic design or typography experience to speak of.
He never let that stop him. David took himself on a crash course in typography, learning everything he possibly could from books, websites, and online tutorials. Then, he took his shiny new knowledge, sat down to work and made what he referred to as an “ugly” font.
Still, he didn’t consider it time or effort lost. Even though his first type design would never see the light of day, let alone grace his website or represent his brand, David discovered the art of typography. And it was enough. That one bad font led him to pursue an entirely brand new passion and career, one that’s still going strong. As of this writing, David’s personal foundry label and studio, Hanoded Fonts, offers more than 200 products through YouWorkForThem.
Most of David’s work features a strong focus on handwritten and script type designs he crafts using real materials that include ink, crayons, Chinese or Japanese brushes, and even the occasional (unused) satay skewer. His designs are typically crafted at the kitchen table, even if he has to deal with the occasional and playful side-eye from his wife.
Since the day David made that first “ugly” font, his work has been licensed by international brands that include Quaker, Singapore Airlines and Cirque du Soleil. His fonts have also graced the album covers of music artists like Soulja Boy, Tryptocaine, and Nicki Minaj, among others.
One of his more recent releases through YouWorkForThem is Bronwen, an enchanting hand-drawn font imbued with a touch of magic. This fairytale-like type design features sweet curly details that enhance the font’s jagged edges and serifs. Slightly calligraphic in nature, Bronwen feels as though it could have been carefully written by a child in medieval times, perhaps a young girl writing her first story while sitting beneath an old, secretly-magic tree. Bronwen is actually a popular girls’ name in Wales, one that means “pure heart.” In Welsh mythology, Bronwen was the daughter of Llyr, the god of the sea. David felt the name suited this font perfectly, and we’re inclined to agree.
Bronwen is beautifully suited to publishing, particularly children’s books, movie posters, title sequences, games, product packaging, apparel, merchandise, websites, and digital spell books.
The complete family consists of two fonts, Bronwen Regular and Bronwen Italic. It features stylistic alternates and swashes for extra versatility, and it extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Pan African Latin, Dutch, and Afrikaans for global accessibility and worldwide folklore tales.
Hanoded Fonts currently offers 204 products through YouWorkForThem, an extensive collection of handcrafted letter sets for a wide variety of design projects. Visit David’s portfolio to view the rest of his work and if you love handwritten fonts with a lot of personality and flair, bookmark it so you won’t miss out on any of his future additions. Given what he’s released so far, we always look forward to his upcoming work.
