Designer Jessica Walsh has recently announced her latest creative endeavour Type of Feeling – a unique font foundry that taps into the power of emotion. When we think of evoking certain feelings in design, the power of typography as an emotive source is rarely at the forefront of our minds, yet Jessica and her team are rewriting the industry with an immersive collection of bespoke fonts that are evocative, thoughtful and powerful in their own right.
Placing feelings over aesthetics isn't something that is typically considered in typography design, yet the &Walsh founder's approach reintroduces a personalisation to the industry that is often overlooked. From sonder to joy, each bespoke typeface is a testament to the untapped visual storytelling to be found within emotion-driven typography – a limitless spectrum with boundless potential.
Type of Feeling launches with seven bespoke Typefaces, each inspired by a range of distinct emotions. Each design carries its own tone, built to stand out against conventional "workhorse" typefaces to build brand stories that shine amongst a sea of conformity.
"We’ve found that many foundries focus on creating typefaces for mass distribution rather than creating something that is really unique and emotive," founder Jessica Walsh tells Creative Bloq. "This gap in the market combined with our custom typography experience inspired us to create Type of Feeling: a foundry focused on creating niche and distinct typefaces that can help brands stand out through their uniqueness," she adds.
Type of Feeling exists to fill a void within the typography sector, prioritising quality and nuance over scale, while avoiding the novelty of fleeting trends. "In our experience, designing to fit the current trends means that within a few years, your brand will blend in among your competitors, ultimately meaning you need to rebrand again sooner," Jessica says. "I believe all the best creative work evokes feelings or emotions. Typography is so interesting because it allows for a deeper feeling beyond the words you are reading," she adds.
Tackling abstract emotions gives Type of Feeling a unique creative stance, with examples such as "'Jubel,' the exuberant expression of joy, or 'Ssonder,' which is the realization that everyone has a life as full and as complex as their own," exemplifying the foundry's careful dissection of intangible emotion. "We then collected references of how that emotion could come to life in its form, ascenders, x-heights, etc," Jessica says. Flourishes of these sensuous words appear across the typographic design, embedded in the terminals, tails, counters and more, to illustrate the nuanced depth of emotion.
While the creative team are said to be working on over thirty new typefaces, the foundry plans to release two unique fonts per year. As well as providing retail options, the foundry offers bespoke commissioned typefaces, adopting a meticulous four-stage process comprised of "strategy, concepting, execution and testing," to meet the individual needs of brands.
The indie foundry's unique appeal goes beyond its emotional roots, focusing on accessibility above profit. "We also understand that many teams don’t have access to the resources needed to hire design agencies for these services. That’s why creating a bank of unique, emotion-driven, licensable typefaces was so important to us with Type of Feeling. We have priced our fonts based on the different needs of designers and smaller brands," Jessica says. With a consciously humble pricing system and a sliding scale to accommodate the needs of non-profit organisations, Type of Feeling is about opening up the font market to a broad spectrum of clients. As Jessica herself claims, it's a "passion project" at its core.
"Accessibility is a driving force of Type of Feeling. Especially for single users/small companies, we have tried to keep the pricing reasonable or low. If there are any awesome nonprofits wanting to use our type for a really great cause, we’re willing to work with them on pricing if it's out of range!" Jessica says.
Find out more about Type of Feeling.
For more typographical inspiration, check out our guide to the best free fonts or take a look at our selection of professional fonts for designers. To see some stunning typography in action, check out the Fortnum & Mason fonts which are a classy tribute to British typographic history.
