很多人问我字体设计的过程是怎样的，我一般就简单的说先手绘然后钢笔勾。其实也就是这样。重要的是你要有满意的手绘稿，然后再加上满意的后期软件处理，还有必不可少的，欣赏你的客户。这个过程可以很快，也会很漫长。刚好在网上闲逛，看到这位仁兄的一个字体过程，虽然是英文，但是道理一样，我就不客气了，拿来大家分了，我们要赶紧进步赶上他们的水平，这样我就不用总翻译英文的教程，就需要他们翻译我们中文的教程了，哈哈，期待这一天……好了，废话不说了，开始吧！！！
I'm often asked how I get the jobs I do. Well like any business I have to advertise in one way or another to my target demographic. That is creative directors and marketing people. I ran this ad in a west coast trade publication and the marketing director for Lifetime saw my ad, loved the "Fuelosophy" exploratory work I did for Pepsi and hired me to develop the Christmas promotion for their network.So essentially I had to spend around $250 dollars to land this job.
我的这个case是从哪来的呢？就是从这个杂志上。客户看到了杂志上刊登的我为百事公司设计的字体，于是就找到了我。让我帮他设计一个圣诞节用的字体“Fa La La La Lifetime.”。佣金250美元。（也不是很多啊，哈哈）
Knowing my client desired to have a specific styling for their project meant I didn't have to explore a wide range of appropriate type styles. So I just began working out the details of for the wording "Fa La La La Lifetime." I started roughing out sketches on various letterforms and playing with the shapes.
知道了客户的喜好，我就很快明确了设计方向，也就不需要设计很多风格。然后就潦草的勾出大概的样子。（我们每次一提就3、4个，不行还要重新来过，最后客户选花了眼，都不知道自己要什么，悲哀）
Once I determine a direction or vibe for where I want to go I then begin to refine it and shape it until I have a finalized refined sketch I can then scan in and build from in my drawing program. I was after a festive feel and felt the lettering needed to read like a sing song voice of sorts.
一旦方向有了，我就开始不断调整，直到我觉得可以拿去扫描为止。这个方向就是节日的感觉，让人觉得这文字就像歌声一样，婉转动人。
After scanning in my refined drawing I place it into my drawing program and begin to build my vector shapes. There is no guess work, I'm just following what I've drawn out beforehand. I guess you could say I'm manually tracing my drawing in vector form.
My build process is a combination of point by point path building and shape building. On the letter "a's" I used the ellipse tool to form the circular part. It just doesn't make any sense to try and build that point by point, you risk it looking hinky.
I continue this methodology until I have all my basic paths complete. Remember at this point make a copy of your paths and put it on a layer that is turned off. This will server you in building other content as you progress and be vector insurance in case you mess something up along the way.
扫描好了，就开始画矢量了，也就是钢笔勾。钢笔勾，一般有用点勾，和用几何形状，比如a和s我就用椭圆形工具画个椭圆作参考。（最好这样，不然做出来曲线不圆润。还有就是钢笔勾最好不要用“alt”断点的方式，这样虽然看起来方便但是做出来的东西经不起放大看。切记切记！）
When building vector shapes an easy way to figure out where to place the points is to think of the shape as a clock. For example this loop of the "L" to top points are 12 o'clock, the right 3 o'clock, bottom 6 o'clock, left 9 o'clock and so forth. There are exceptions to this rule but I'll be doing another tutorial on this process later.When building curved shapes like this the key part to keep your bezier handles parallel to one another and at 90 degrees. Like any rules there are exceptions but in more cases than not it will apply.
在用钢笔工具也就是贝塞尔曲线的时候，在哪放点是很重要的。我一般把外形看做一个钟。比如这个“L”的拐角处，上面是12点，下面是6点。（恩，点的位置是重要的，外形如果总是不满意，就要去调整点的外置了。）
creating compound paths with your vector shapes you'll notice that on shapes like the letterform "L" where the shape over laps itself it loses the intersecting content and you'll have to fix that in order to make it look like the letterform overlaps itself.
This is the part of vector building that requires some true craft and skill. There is no tool or pull down menu that will do this, it requires some good eyeballing to create the shapes you need to punch out the gaps necessary to give the illusion of depth in your design.
A smart designer will pull a copy of the "L" before creating the compound shape and from that inset it to help create the content needed. This is where you'll have to explore and figure it out on your own, I'm just showing you the end result of how I arrived at my punch out.
把路径复合后，发现“L”交叉的地方没有了交叉的感觉。所以就需要调整一下，让他有交叉重叠的感觉。这就不是死的东西了，需要你自己去感觉，用你慧眼去看，需要在哪里断开，断多少，怎么断。
你够聪明的话就会多复制一个没有断开的L，以免你断的感觉不好，后面要修改。（一定要记住备份最初的源文件，以免重新来过的时候抓狂。还有就是你的眼力，一个出色的设计师眼睛是要比鹰还要敏锐的，放很大很大看细节，放很小看感觉。）
Once I have all my final paths done I drop in the color I want to use. At this point I continue to make any visual adjustments to balance the overall logo type. You'll notice subtle changes with each new incarnation.
Working digitally to me means I should be making any revisions to improve my design as I progress through each stage. I may draw it out beforehand but that doesn't mean there isn't room to improve it as I build the art.
有了形，就可以填颜色了。但是在填颜色的同时，还是要进行调整，这个调整可能是很细微的（有时候山寨客户是注意不到的，碰到不注重细节的客户，这样真是浪费时间，但是在我手里出来的东东又不能不负责，每次都是纠结中把细节做的满满的，自己安心就好了，对细节没要求的人，最多只能叫操作员，不是设计师）。
No refinement is too small to make. It doesn't matter if the average Joe consumer won't notice it, if you do it needs to be addressed period. I decided to add some nice gradients to the type to give it a little more anchor.
不要觉得很小就不去调整，不管客户是否注意到。我把M的弧度变得更漂亮，加了几个点。（就是这种态度，没有这种态度永远做不出好的设计，也永远不会进步）
Even though the client didn't request it I created some secondary support graphics for the mark too. I'll run it by them in case they'd like it as part of the overall motif. Considering it only took me about 20 minutes I think it's worth the investment.
虽然客户没有说，但是我还是加了一个图案作为辅助，只花了我20分钟，我觉得值得。（客户喜欢这样的设计师哦）
I send the client three comps with two different color schemes and the various secondary graphic treatments.
我给客户3种颜色和不同的辅助图案选择。
Most often I get feedback from clients in the form of an email with them just telling me what they want done, or they call me and we go through it over the phone. In this case the marketing director made several photo copies and pasted them up and drew on it, than scanned it in and emailed me the image with his notes.
Changes Requested:
- Connect "la la la"
- Revise "F" to fit new layout
- Make "Lifetime" bigger
- Remove loop on "L"
- Revise "t" bottom so it's not a dagger
大多数情况下，我们用email或者电话和客户沟通，市场经理就会把客户的反馈画在打印出来的稿件上，然后扫描email给我。
修改要求：把"la la la"连起来。修改F。让 "Lifetime" 大点。去掉L的拐角。修改t的下部，别让他看起来像把刀子。
First thing I did was placed the image my client sent me into my drawing program and scaled my base art to match it. Once I had it aligned I then had an absolute size to work from and fixed several of the areas they had problems with. I than printed it out and drew the connected "la la la" scanned my drawing back in and build the new connected letter forms.
收到客户的修改图片后，第一件事就是把客户的修改稿和我的原稿进行原大比对，这样就看出了问题所在。然后我手绘把“la la la”连上，然后扫描，然后再软件处理。（就是这么繁琐）
Personally I think the looping "L" looks better but they requested that the bottom be treated more like a traditional "L" letterform. So I drew out a new shape and followed the same methods to create it.
个人来说我觉得有拐角会好点，但是客户说了改也没办法。（看来在哪都会遇到这个问题。自己觉得很好的东东，客户硬要去掉。有时候需要以你专业设计师的身份去坚持。）
Once I had all my revisions implemented I had once again audit the shapes and and balance the forms so they worked well with one another.
有了整体的外形，我就开始整体的去调整，每一个细节，字母字母之间的协调，空间，外形等等。（看不出变化的同志，需要练习一下眼力了，哈哈）
Off went this new comp to the client.
好了，把作品发给客户吧。
a not-so-brilliant idea. They asked "We'd love to see the word "Lifetime" in a candy cane style."
As much as I tried to talk them out of this they insisted. So I gave it my best shot. It looked "Craptacular!" And thankfully my client wised up and decided that wasn't a good idea. Sometimes a client needs to see what won't work before they accept what will work.
反馈又回来了，一个不怎么好的想法，他们让我把“Lifetime”做成糖果的样子。我和他们沟通了很多次，这个效果不怎么好，但是无奈，他们还是坚持。于是我也只能尽力而为了。谢天谢地，客户终于聪明了一次，他们终于觉得这不是一个号想法。有时候客户就是要看到才会死心。（是啊，每次客户说这样吧，我说肯定不好看，你做出来看看啦，做，哇，果然不行哦，郁闷，浪费我的脑细胞%>_<%）
The client at the last minute requested that I extend the letter "L" more.
Sing with me now "Viva Viagra, Viva Viagra!"
I didn't understand why but it would make sense later.
最终了，客户又来了，说把L延展一点。终于完成了，跟我一起喊“万岁，万岁！！”
最终效果。
应用效果
完
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