What’s your type(face)?

In the past two issues I wrote about the evolution of the Dungeons & Dragons logo and how we could move past its tropes to explore different aesthetics of fantasy.

I asked you to vote on what I would do next and you seem to have enjoyed this first dive in design tropes so in the next issue I’ll explore the design of science-fiction!

Creative fuel

• ATARASHII GAKKO! is one of those bands where I’m always impressed by the creativity and energy they put in their music videos. The one for TTTTOKYO is no exception and is a cute love letter to Japan’s capital.

• James Stuart is a musician, filmmaker and graphic designer so obviously he creates the covers for his musical releases. The cassette tape below is great and would be perfect for a TTRPG bestiary. Read more about him.

• At my parents’ house I found an ex libris that most likely belonged to one of my ancestors and it’s honestly pretty cool. I’m in the process of digitising it to potentially change “Johannis” to “Jean”, although my fiancée has pointed out that it’s just the latin version of my name so I might save myself the trouble.

• I usually don’t care for branding but Daryn Roongrawewan’s approach to design blending texture and elegance is absolutely fantastic.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Hello! I hope you’re enjoying the summer and that you’ve got enough shade to hide from the heat. Over the last few weeks I settled in my new job and a more strict weekly schedule (four years of freelancing gave me some weird habits). All in all it’s going well and while I’m still adapting to this new dynamic I’m really enjoying the regularity of an office job as it’s making me enjoy my free time a lot more. But enough musing about work and leisure, off to designing!

Fresh off the grid

I was hired by Glue Trap Games to do the layout for their Appendix N Jam submission. If you don’t know, this jam invites designers to write an adventure that would fit in the Appendix N, a list of works that inspired the original Dungeons & Dragons. The twist is that every participant is given a title and has to figure out an adventure from there. I participated last year and wrote about how I designed the layout and cover.

Below you can see the sketch I made for the lettering of In The Shadow of the Tomb-Ship and the final result on the first page. The lettering is far from perfect but I think it plays into the “quick and dirty” look I went for for the layout. Make sure to read the full adventure!

What’s your type(face)?

Last month I started a series to look at how TTRPG typography approaches various fiction genres and their tropes. I went for the obvious one and studied several iterations of the D&D wordmark. If you missed it you can find it here, but here’s the short version: in my opinion the wordmark design peaked with the 3rd edition and has been sliding down towards blandness ever since. So how does the competition fare in this regard?

But before I start, I want to emphasise that I have nothing but respect and admiration for type designers. I have tried my hand at lettering a few times and now I know why I mostly stick to layout. All the criticism and snark comments are not attacks on the designers but rather on the decisions that led to these designs being picked over more original or evocative options.

The challengers

Let’s first look at the lettering for some of the bigger games1 offering a similar flavour of fantasy as D&D (elves and magic, dungeon crawling, epic combat…) with some tonal variations.

Symbaroum (2016)

Blackletter is a staple of grimdark fantasy so it makes sense that Symbaroum would resort to this style for its title. The gritty metal texture and muddy colour scheme (rare enough to be noticed) do a good job of evoking the harsh survival aspect of the game. I also really like the flattened stroke of the “S” and the indented counters in the “b”, “a” and “o”, small details that give it an extra bit of personality.

Forbidden Lands (2018)

I really like this logo. The colour palette, the double stroke, the extended stem of the “F”, the hand script strokes, the 70s fantasy vibe of the whole thing, it ticks a lot of boxes for me. But all these qualities actually make me think of science-fantasy instead of the traditional fantasy found in the setting of the game, so I wouldn’t call it a total success.

Pathfinder 2e (2019)

The star of the show here is very clearly the stylised “P”. It’s brimming with flourishes and looks great. I’m not sure how I feel about the other letters using studs and having a more angular look that clash with the curvy strokes and swashes of the first letter. I like how the divider is used to level the “P” with the rest of the word but I think the texture is a bit boring and doesn’t do much. Overall it feels like its own flavour of fantasy without taking too many risks.

The One Ring (2022)

A classic and elegant serif that honestly just works. There’s not much to say as this styling follows the look established by the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and that is still used for the recent Rings of Power series (even the stroke of the “R” going below the baseline). I do like how they blend the title and rings of colour into the illustration of each cover.

Dragonbane (2023)

This one is very similar to the current D&D wordmark: bold red letters, a callback to 80s fantasy, wide serifs and it even has curvy strokes! In all fairness these choices make sense since Dragonbane is a reimagined version of a Swedish game from 1982 so the game’s identity also builds on legacy (the original logo was much cooler though). The details found in almost each letter are nice but are way too discrete to make it feel unique.

Draw Steel (2025)

Another wordmark in the vein of the current D&D one (bold caps and discrete serifs), except it’s extremely boring. The only interesting details are the inktrap on the “R” and the middle stroke of the “W” sticking out (riveting, I know). Oh and once again there are two letters touching hands.

Daggerheart (2025)

This is so bland and unoriginal I’m convinced you could use the same typography for literally anything else and it would sort of work. The design is elegant and clean but really doesn’t evoke epic fantasy at all (at least to me, maybe I’m missing a cultural reference). Also now there is a pair of letters holding hands and another slashing each other. Maybe that’s the fantasy element?

The outsiders

Enough with games that try to compete with D&D, let’s move on to games that know they’re not in the same league and have decided to explore a different kind of fantasy (😎).

Shadowdark (2023)

The thought process that led to the creation of this wordmark was probably very similar to the one for Symbaroum, but was executed very differently. The letters look like they were scratched with dirt on a ragged scroll, which fits the old-school and dark aesthetic the game is going for. It’s not very original but does the job well.

BREAK! (2023)

Being inspired by anime videogames, Break!! is probably the game that strays furthest from the classic fantasy setting. Hence a logo that looks like no other on this list: the bold caps are almost futuristic in a y2k way, which is contrasted by cracks that give the letters an ancient look; and the top and bottom lines of the wordmark creating these sort of slopes instead of straight horizontal lines make it very dynamic. I think this is a very cool wordmark.

His Majesty the Worm (2024)

This wordmark is a lot. But a lot of good! It is oozing personality: the composition itself makes it instantly recognisable, the large caps with ornaments matching the scales of the titular Worm are lovely, and the swashes and strokes connecting the different words hinting at a hand-drawn quality (although it’s not) are a cool detail. It’s clearly inspired by the tropes of medieval fantasy but still has its own personality. The only issue is that this amount of detail quickly becomes hard to read when the wordmark is shrunk.

Mythic Bastionland (2025)

And blackletter is back (because it’ll never be gone)! This time we’re going for clean lines and elegant swashes that feel epic and romantic, and this is perfect for a game inspired by the legend of King Arthur. It also does the same thing as The One Ring logo with the first and last letters being in caps to frame the title. The spaced out “mythic” is a modern touch, but at this size it’s a bit hard to read, especially because it’s so close to the swashes of the “B” and “D”.

Stonetop (2026)

The wordmark for Stonetop is in my opinion a great example of appropriate simplicity. “But it’s just a sans serif with a bit of texture on top, it doesn’t even have an elaborately decorated cap or frame!” Well for a game where you play as villagers in a remote corner of a fantasy world where the village you inhabit is as important (if not more) as the adventures you go on, this rustic simplicity fits perfectly. I’ll admit it’s not the most eye-catching but I think the game being made of two 600-page books in a slipcase makes up for that.

Land of Eem (2026)

This game “combines Lord of the Rings high fantasy epicness with a heavy dose of Muppets-like whimsy and a dash of Mad Max dystopia” and honestly yeah it’s mostly all there. The ornamented letters are reminiscent of medieval manuscripts and the large swashes feel magical and evoke old adventure films. It’s not my taste but it’s fun and effective.

From this small selection we can observe a pattern emerge: bigger publishers tend to play it safe while “independent”2 creators are more willing to experiment. This mostly comes down to the fact that projects from the second category are often helmed by a single creator (or a small team) with a clear artistic vision rather than a full publishing house with a marketing strategy where design by committee very likely happened. These are not mutually exclusive, but as an independent creator you’re much freer to target a niche (even if that niche is just you) than a publisher with an established brand. Speaking of niche, what you want your game to be is also a huge factor in determining its artistic direction: D&D wannabes tend to follow a similar approach whereas games with an original pitch explore different aesthetics.

My main takeaway is this: we have enough bold serif and blackletter titles, please make yours weirder.

What’s your type(face)? will be back in September! But what should I do next?

Creative fuel

• I made a zweihänder linocut!

• I’m slowly succumbing to board games but I’m trying to spare my shelves by only buying card games. The Kickstarter for Gristle Giants looks really cool: it has killer art and the game looks fun and simple to play. So go back it!

• I decided to watch The Furious after seeing its fantastic poster. The story is not its strongest point, but its fight scenes are amazing and I loved every second of it.

• Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film, Digger, has me curious and looking forward to its release, and its wonderfully Saul Bass-inspired poster helps with the wait.

• I stumbled upon this poster for the Donjon de Rouen which recently launched an immersive experience to recreate life in the castle during medieval times. I really like how the type hints at the experience of playing with the donjon itself.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Great news, I got a new job! I now work full-time as a prepress operator which means I check files to make sure they can be printed correctly. It’s not a very creative position but it’s a stable income with some benefits, which is something that was missing from my freelance work. It also means that my availability for new projects has shrunk considerably. Nevertheless, I enjoy designing TTRPG layouts too much to leave it behind so I’ll try to keep a few open slots each year. But I’ll let you know when I have figured out this one. This new step in my career is also going to impact this newsletter.

Working full-time means I’ll have much less to share in terms of actual design work so I need to rethink what I want this newsletter to be. Most notably, the “Fresh off the grid” section is becoming a special section only featured whenever I have projects to showcase, whether personal or professional. “What’s your type(face)?” is probably going to become the main focus, which is not necessarily a bad thing as I know it’s the main appeal of this newsletter for a lot of you. I might also start writing about TTRPG layout if I find the time and inspiration. “Creative fuel” will become more detailed as I will certainly need new creative outlets to compensate for my less creative job.

I hope you’ll enjoy this slightly updated version of the newsletter.

What’s your type(face)?

Last month I decided that instead of the usual themed selection of typefaces I wanted to take a closer look at staples of TTRPG graphic design and try to find new ways to explore their respective themes. You voted for a different kind of fantasy so we’ll get started with the biggest representative of the genre: Dungeons & Dragons.

Since the release of its first edition in 1974, D&D’s influence has been and still is undeniable. Even though the tone of the game has shifted with each release, the core aim of the game is to take players on epic quests where heroic adventurers risk their lives for glory and riches. For better or for worse this has set the standard and defined expectations of what TTRPG are both for those familiar with the hobby and the uninitiated. With more than 5O years of existence, the game and its visual language have evolved to follow trends and define new ones, so let’s look at the face of the game: its wordmark!1

1. Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

The name of the game is set on a single line in a bright red slab/Egyptian font in full caps reminiscent of the Victorian era. The ampersand (“&”) is already there but isn’t stylised and is simply set in the same font as the rest of the text. Even though covers of that era were going in all sorts of directions typography-wise and fantasy didn't have one set look, this kind of ornamental font doesn’t really scream dungeon crawling and dragon fighting if you ask me. But the use of Victorian-like typography was probably meant to evoke gothic literature (some classics of the genre were published during this period): dark castles, haunting wraiths and a sense of mystery, elements that are all integral to the game experience.

2. Dungeons & Dragons BECMI (1983)

This new edition uses a similar slab for its wordmark, with slightly less details (notice the bumps on the midpoints of each letters are gone) which makes it more modern. The outline of the letters has become a slight drop shadow which also helps the typography move away from classic Victorian slabs. The two “D” are slightly bigger than the other letters, creating a sort of weird small caps look. The dragon ampersand makes its entrance and to be quite honest I don’t think they ever topped this one. I love its simple efficiency and how the stroke drawing the burst of flame recalls the one in the letters. It’s also interesting to notice the two words are now stacked vertically, with the placement of the ampersand making the abbreviation to “D&D” more of an evidence (people were likely already using the abbreviation and this was probably just meant to go with the flow).

This iteration is important because it established the foundations for all future wordmarks for the D&D brand: the dragon ampersand, the vertical stack and a trendy display font.2

3. Dungeons & Dragons 3rd ed. (2000)

And now for a massive change, out with the Victorian slab, in with the textured 3D medieval-inspired lettering! The vertical stack of the title is emphasised by the sword upon which rests the sadly squashed ampersand which almost blends with the background. This version of the wordmark follows a trend observed in popular CRPG like Baldur’s Gate (1998), Planescape: Torment (1999) and Icewind Dale (2000) that also used this textured 3D look for their titles. You’ll notice that styling your cover like that of an ancient tome was all the rage back then.3

4. Dungeons & Dragons 4th ed. (2008)

In my opinion this is the weakest D&D wordmark as it removed all of its weirdness to try and broaden the appeal of the brand.4 The result is a weird blocky half-sans serif, half-slab with a few flourishes. The ornaments filling the “O” have been carried over from the 3rd edition design, the “R” and “A” are holding hands because whatever, and the pointy/blocky slabs look like they were forged by dwarves.5 Also why is only the “u” in lowercase??? The ampersand was moved back between the two “D” but because it’s the same colour as the divider separating the two words it feels like a background element. You can guess I don’t like this version of the logo.

5. Dungeons & Dragons 5th ed. (2014)

We finally arrive at the current version of the wordmark: I like the serif font and its callback to 80s fantasy (or what we currently associate with 80s fantasy); I think the serifs on the “D” curving upwards is a nice touch; the divider is gone which makes sense since it would feel redundant with the wide serifs; although I’m happy the ampersand has become the star of the show I don’t like how aggressive it feels. But in all fairness the condensed wordmark is absolutely killer.

Going beyond the tropes

In my humble opinion the D&D wordmark for the third edition is the one with the most personality, and it’s all been tamer and tamer since then. Here are some ideas to explore for anyone sitting on the complete manuscript of a fantasy heartbreaker and who’s eager to make it feel weird (meant in the most endearing way):

1. Look at other time periods and art movements: fantasy doesn’t have to be gothic or medieval, it can be Bauhaus, Pop Art or even y2k.

2. Fantasy isn’t confined to adventures: it can be about other grand emotions such as romance but also mundane activities like cooking.

3. Don’t be afraid to play with texture (although do apply some restraint if you want it to feel contemporary, otherwise crank those bevels).

4. Keep in mind that a wordmark is still text so do try to maintain some legibility (or at least make sure it’s impossible to confuse it for something else).

I have to add a massive caveat to these tips: it’s almost certain that the D&D wordmarks were based on existing typefaces that were redesigned to fit the brand’s need so don’t expect a font to be that eye-catching straight out of the box. Colour, size and connectedness are great starting points for experimentation.6

• Trickster: this one feels like an obvious choice but its horns and dripping strokes bring an extra amount of eeriness and esotericism.

• Migaela: I never thought I would enjoy a Christmas font and yet here we are. The swashes and flourishes are perfect to conjure up images of epic adventures.

• Blocktag: if you want to make a game about swords and other slashing weapons, just use a font that looks like it’s made of perfectly crafted blades.

• HYPED (+ Jost): and now for something completely different: Bauhaus D&D! I’ll admit I’m very proud I managed to make it look like a dungeon map.

Next time we’ll look at other fantasy games and how they tried to make their wordmarks stand out (or not).

Creative fuel

• I cannot stop looking at these envelopes designed to accompany the release of themed stamps.

• This short animation randomly appeared in my YouTube feed and I think it’s very cool.

• I haven’t seen the Backrooms film but I’m very tempted to buy its companion zine featuring The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story I read in uni and really liked.

• People Make Games made a fantastic documentary about Jerry’s Maps. The video also talks about legacy and what we make of it in a very sincere and moving way.

• Here’s a collage paper knight I made on a bored afternoon.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

Looking and applying for jobs is very time-consuming, so this month I mainly focused on the layout for “100 Dead Heroes”, Rookie Jet Studio’s TTRPG inspired by the comics and TV show The Boys.

“100 Dead Heroes” by Rookie Jet Studio

The goal for this one was to make it look like an old file pieced together with redacted documents and confidential reports. To achieve this sort of archival design I gave each page a frame where text and documents would be fitted, as if someone had been given empty sheets to fill with information from a variety of sources and formats. This also gave me more freedom to experiment and build variety out of a corporate black and white style that can feel stale very quickly.

This is all work in progress so I know I need to fix a few things here and there. But in the meantime don’t forget to follow the campaign if you want to see more of the book!

“Party at the Roche Limit” by TerryHerc

Ok so this one was released in April but I can’t resist showing off the illustrations I made for it. Drawing is not my strong suit but I think I managed to pull off the right vibe for the cover and map of this Atomic Age-inspired adventure for Mothership. It’s available here!

What’s your type(face)?

Maybe telling you that I’m a big fan of “zonecore” influenced the voting, but it worked out for me so who am I to complain! For those unaware, zonecore refers to fiction about an area where strange phenomena occur. These stories often follow explorers of these areas, who end up changed by the weirdness inside, whether on a physical or mental level. Think Roadside Picnic (film), Stalker (film and video games), The Southern Reach trilogy and the film it inspired, Annihilation. To sum up, zonecore is about exploring a familiar yet strange landscape and how it changes us. So let’s see how to convey this through typefaces!

• Xenowort: what better way to represent change and mutation of the self than with a type where each character combines its lower and upper case?1

• Lem Fonts: this collection of fonts is inspired by the works of Stanisław Lem (author of the novel Solaris). Most of them are variable and contort into strange organic shapes, just like the stalkers in the Zone. The one shown here is Mimoid.

• You Dense: in this second collection, each typeface is based on the density of a material, with each type having different weight representing different ways to interpret this density. This leads to a variety of experimental and distorted characters, a perfect illustration of the Zone’s twisted environments. The ones show here are Ammonia 200ppm and Black Hole Halo.

• VITRO ASEMIC: a typeface grown in the Zone (actually based on bacteria grown in petri dishes) with its characters replaced by otherworldly shapes.

If you want more strange or nature-inspired fonts, check out these other selections: “Wizard Runes” and “Hopeful Solarpunk”.

I want to try something different for the next selection: explore heavily codified aesthetics of fiction, look at some of the current trends and see how we can push them further. I want to start with TTRPG staples and see if the concept has legs. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Creative fuel

As I mentioned above, this month was mostly dedicated to job-searching so I didn’t have much time for personal projects. But I did manage to work on a linocut for my godson. It took me about 8 hours to carve this lowercase “a” (uppercase for when he gets older), and phew type design is hard! I’m super happy with the result though so it was well worth the effort.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

I’m almost done with the initial layout for “100 Dead Heroes”, Rookie Jet Studio’s new game inspired by The Boys. It’ll be reviewed and then potential changes will have to be made. The style we’re going for has forced me to be creative with a lot of constraints and I hope I can show you more next month!

I also started consulting on the layout for “Twisting Unseen”, ChrisAir’s newest MOTHERSHIP module, and this kind of work is always a nice change of pace after spending hours fixing weird spaces between words.

The rest of my time was spent working on projects for Modiphius, but I really can’t say anything about these yet, sorry!

What’s your type(face)?

This month’s theme got me pondering the orb looking for powerful glyphs (browsing the internet for fonts) that could conjure up all matters of spells and hexes (they’re barely legible but look like sigils).

• Malebolge: the ridges along the letters make this font look like the sort of hand-drawn letters an obsessive wizard spent too long scribbling on a scroll.

• Immortalist: on the other hand, this typeface looks like someone had to write down a spell in a hurry before they forgot about it.

• 4 Fromages: a typeface where each glyph is made of four versions of the same letter twisted to fit into a square. Once you know this it becomes readable (kind of), otherwise it’s the perfect font to conceal powerful spells.

• Jester: this typeface is peak wizardry: it’s a fork of Trickster, which means its glyphs were put through an algorithm to create distorted versions, and it comes with 22 weights (!!!) named after tarot cards. The result is a large collection of characters that look like blots and glitches and are sure to turn your design into a cursed tome.

• Teranoptia: bonus recommendation! What’s a wizard without a weird familiar? This typeface made of various heads, bodies and tails will let you assemble your perfect chimera.

Creative fuel

• In the poll above, if you’re not sure what “zonecore” means, check out this great article from Exeunt Press: “What is Zonecore?”. A lot of the works mentioned are among my favourites books and films, and this gave me ideas for a game where you explore the zone using a mecha…

• If you’re a fan of old sci-fi book covers, check out this collection of works by Richard M. Powers. It’s really great to switch between decades and notice trends in the genre.

• Wakamai Fondue is a useful tool that lets you check various features and information about a font without having to dig through its files.

• I’m happy to report that I completed the 100 Day Project! I managed to do one custom lettering each for 100 consecutive days (had to take a break for a week when I was ill) and now I’m going to pick the ones I like the most and properly design them. Expect to hear more about this in the coming months!

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

Because of the move I took some time off to pack stuff and unpack it (that last part didn’t really happen because I was ill) but I have been busy, I just can’t show with what yet. All I can say is I’m working on the layout for Rookie Jet Studio’s 100 Dead Heroes, coming to Kickstarter soon! I’ve worked on many projects with them, and this new game inspired by The Boys is going to be very fun. Follow the campaign now!

What’s your type(face)?

I’m skipping the selection this time but I already have some ideas that will make “Wizard Runes” a fun one…

Creative fuel

• Archive of Archives is a curated selection of visual archives with eclectic topics such as Winamp skins, Chinese cigarette packaging and wheelie bins from every UK county. Its presentation is also excellent.

• Cool sketches of the crew patches found in Alien.

• I can’t resist the simple yet extremely efficient work of Jakub Zasada.

• Now that I’m almost done with the 100 Day Project I really want to start pushing some of these concepts into actual designs. In the meantime, here is a selection of designs I think have some potential.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

I just have one project to show off this month and I want to focus on the references I used and how I incorporated them to design its layout.

Mad Cow, Mad World by TerryHerc

This scenario for MOTHERSHIP follows the classic “experiments with animals gone wrong” trope but has the originality to take place in a cattle ranch. I liked this brief because it was an opportunity to represent sci-fi horror in a more rural setting than what most adventures do. Gone are the cold metal corridors of space stations, we’re dealing with dusty soil and hay now! I wanted to take advantage of the trifold format to make a sort of advertising leaflet for the ranch. I looked for references and focused on older material because I just can’t resist their charm.

What I took away from these references:

• A limited colour palette (you can get away with one colour if it’s bright enough)

• Frames with simple shapes to delineate the different sections of the text

• A strong iconography (saddle, horse-riding…)

• Highlight the landscapes and scenery through the layout

In the brief, Terry mentioned I should use colours that felt reminiscent of farms: red for barns, brown for mud, green for grass... I used a dark red to convey the sense of menace and picked a creamy white to create a soft contrast with the background. I applied this logic to all the other elements of the design:

• I tried to make the headers look like neon, futuristic versions of those iron-wrought signs you often find at the entrance of ranches.

• The background features a pasture with cows and splatters (but is it milk or blood???).

• The cover was an experiment in making a cow scary, and thanks to the magic of textures I think I got there!

If you enjoyed this breakdown, make sure to check out Mad Cow Mad World!

What’s your type(face)?

The theme for this month’s selection, “Punk Xerox”, concerns a landmark in the history of design and politics. Before becoming a suffix attached to any genre of speculative fiction departing from traditional sci-fi, the punk movement stood for values such as “non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatocracy, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not ‘selling out’”. Naturally the artworks coming from punk artists reflected these ideas not only in their subject but also in the way they were produced and distributed, most notably the use of Xerox machines which made it easy to reproduce and print flyers, posters and zines.1

My usual criteria for these selections are fonts that look nice and are freely available for commercial use. It would have felt dishonest (and not very punk) to only focus on aesthetics for this selection. That’s why I’ve tried to include typefaces, creators and foundries that share similar values.

• Gadetyper: this patchwork of a font was made using characters from signs and graffitis found on the streets of Copenhagen, which makes it naturally gritty and eye-catching

• Anarchist Mustache: one of many typefaces designed by Loki Gwynbleidd, an “angry anarcho-vintage artist” whose work is inspired by posters, flyers and designs from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Publifluor: this typeface is based on the work of self-taught letterer Chrystel Crickx, who used to cut out letters by hand for signage and sold them in her store Publi Fluor. This version includes many glyphs for gender-neutral language (“écriture inclusive” in French).2

• Lettuce’s Ransom Text: not a font but more of a tool to recreate the gritty analog look and feel of punk designs. Each letter comes with several options (all the serif, sans and slab you’ll need) so you can easily avoid repetitions.

Creative fuel

• Speaking of punk, the work of Corita Kent is a powerful reminder of how graphic design goes beyond visual problem solving: “Her work insists that design is not decoration. It is a tool for seeing, for staying engaged. Corita Kent did not make gentle art for comfortable people. It’s hard-hitting art, for hard-hit people.”

• Love the work of Pedro Stolf whose goal is to make “sci-fi queer, exciting and human-oriented again”.

  

• A fantastic thread about some of the ideas behind the visual design of the upcoming game Blades ‘68.

• Elizabeth Goodspeed wrote, once again, a great article dissecting a current trend of graphic design: faking analogue techniques! As a designer I’ve always been attracted to the grittiness and imperfections of print matter. And like many other designers I’ve tried to recreate these elements digitally, mostly to save time. But the point of the article is not to blame designers who can’t afford the time to work with analogue techniques, but rather the lack of conditions that could create the space for it. Ironically, these processes seem to be slowly becoming more and more popular as a sign of authenticity against AI-generated assets: “What matters isn’t how convincingly something performs imperfection, but whether we can create conditions where imperfection still matters.”

• Jules Vernacular is project cataloguing typography from signs all across France, and I absolutely adore it.

• The 100 Day Project is still going strong! I have started polishing some of my designs but haven’t taken the time to post them yet. In the meantime, here are some favourites from last month. (as I post this I realise the D in “Warlord” is too short, which is why I need to rework these before posting them properly)

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Happy new year dear reader (a bit late, I know)! It’s hard to believe the first month of 2026 is already over, and yet… I have a lot of creative energy for this year, with plenty of ideas for new projects but also older ones to finish. To make sure I can work on these I’ve set a few resolutions to limit the time I spend on my phone, especially in the morning. Instead of scrolling on social media and checking my emails as soon as I wake up, I now read a chapter or two from whatever I’m reading and then work on my 100 Day Project (more on this below). So far it’s proven rather successful so let’s hope I can keep it up!

Fresh off the grid

My last release of 2025 was my “X-Files” viewing report, a notebook I designed to document my viewing of the classic show. I made a spread for each season, with blank spaces to write my thoughts about each episode. With 11 seasons and 218 episodes, it seemed rather daunting and not very efficient to manually copy/paste each episode title, so instead I used data merge.

Using data merge to make statblocks

Ok so first of all what’s data merge? It’s a feature found in word processors and layout softwares that allows the user to automatically format sets of data or text. The way it works is rather simple: all the data you want to format must be placed in a spreadsheet (the source) where each line represents an entry and each column is a field in this entry. This means you can use it to generate letterheads, invoices or, more interesting for us dice-rollers, statblocks. So how do you get there?1

First you need to set up your source. Open a spreadsheet and create as many columns as you have fields in each entry. In this example, each statblock will have 5 entries: a creature name, the value for 3 different stats and a description. Save this somewhere you can find it easily (ideally where you’ll save your layout file). Here’s an example of what it looks like:

Once this is ready, create your Affinity document and start typesetting a statblock that will act as a template for the others. Because each field (column) is going to be assigned to a part of the text in a text frame, you can use paragraph and character styles to create your usual hierarchy. Keep these in mind when designing your standard statblock:

• Data merge will generate identical copies of the original text frame you use so when designing it you should use the longest text that will be displayed to make sure it all fits.2 Also if you make the value for Stat 1 bold and bright green, every statblock will show the value for Stat 1 in bold and bright green.

• Only the text linked to fields will change, so you can also have “fixed” text that will appear in all the statblocks.

From the example above, the “Ghast” has the longest description so I’ll be using it to create my standard statblock.

“Ghast” is set in a style called “Creature name”, and the rest is set to body style, with “Stat 1/2/3” in bold. The next step is to link your source to your document. To do this go to “Window > Layout > Data Merge”3, click “Add Data File…” and select the spreadsheet you created previously. Next go to “Window > References > Fields” and look for the “Data Merge” dropdown menu.

Next you need to insert those fields into your text frame. To do so, select the text that corresponds to the field you want to insert, and while the text is selected, double-click on the corresponding field. My standard statblock now looks like this:

The text between brackets is what will be fetched from the source spreadsheet, while the rest of the text will be static. If I go back to the Data Merge menu and click “Preview with record”, I can see how each statblock will look like and make sure it all fits within my established template.

And now comes in the “Data Merge Layout Tool”. The way data merge works, it only shows one entry from your spreadsheet per page, so if you copied your text frame and clicked “Generate”, you would end up with several copies of the same statblock on one page, and copies of the second entry on the following page, so on and so forth. “Data Merge Layout Tool” lets you display multiples entries per page by creating a grid based on your standard text frame. I’ve decided my page will have 3 columns and 6 rows with 7,5 mm gutters, so I’m just going to replicate this in the “Data Merge Layout Tool”.

Next I simply have to drag my standard statblock into the “Data Merge Layout” layer to see it replicated. Make sure the text frame is aligned with the rectangle in the top left corner of the “Data Merge Layout” layer, as it acts as a sort of mask for it.

“Data Merge Layout Tool” offers a few options to determine in which order your entries are organised and displayed, but I’ll let you experiment with these. Now all that’s left to do is go back to the “Data Merge” menu and hit “Generate”!

And here it is, our bare but quickly generated page of statblocks. In case you’re wondering how this works within a full book, once you click “Generate” a new file is created replicating all the existing pages, only changing the linked fields. If there are more entries than available spaces in your grid, data merge will create new pages to place those additional entries, so make sure you’ve made enough room or you might end up with unwanted pages.

If you want to use the baseline grid to set up the spacing of your text frames, I’ve found that the best way to do it is to set your document units to points (“Document > Setup > Document Setup”) and set up your columns gutter as a multiple of your baseline grid. So for example if I’m using a 7 pt baseline, I could set the gutters between my columns to 7 pt, 14 pt, 21 pt or more. This method makes it easier to match the spacing in the “Data Merge Layout Tool” to the baseline grid without having to convert millimetres/inches into points or vice-versa.4

Oh and one last thing: you can use data merge with images! It works just like with text, only for two things:

1. In your source spreadsheet, instead of text you need to input the access path of your file (which you can usually copy by right-clicking your file and searching in the contextual menu).

2. Instead of linking the fields to text, you link them to picture frames.

And the best part is you can treat the two different frames as one entity (grouped or not) and set it up just like you would a single text frame.

In the example above, my template is made of a single-column wide text frame on the left and a two-columns wide picture frame on the right. They’re both nested in the “Data Merge Layout” layer and placed within the first row of its grid. Once I hit “Generate” this is what we get!

Data merge is a powerful tool that lets designers repeat layouts with large amounts of data while reducing the risk of formatting mistakes. It’s an essential tool for designing complex playing cards but can also be used to generate a catalogue of locations or a video game-like bestiary. The data being stored in an external spreadsheet means you only have to update the file in Affinity and any change will be reflected the next time you click “Generate”. The exact repetition can look a bit sterile or too corporate, but by being smart about formatting and the use of images, it can create some interesting results.

I only covered the basics of data merge in this tutorial (more in-depth info about data merge and the data merge layout tool) so if you would like me to explore it further, please let me know! And of course if you have any question about it I’ll be happy to answer them.

What’s your type(face)?

Our first selection of the year has a very interesting theme: “Japanese display”. Display fonts are meant to be set at large sizes, usually on covers, posters, billboards… They’re very expressive but this makes them harder to read at smaller sizes so it’s usually best to avoid them for body copy. Now how does that apply to the Japanese written language?

Japanese is written with three alphabets: hiragana, which are basically the syllables used in Japanese; katakana, often used for foreign words and loan word; and kanji, logograms (a symbol represents a word) imported from Chinese scripts.5 Kanji make up the majority of the Japanese language, with about 2000 characters used for daily life, but with over 50000 existing. Logically, and as I observed while researching this selection, a lot of display fonts focus on hiragana and katakana, and only include a limited selection of kanji if they include any at all. Interestingly, most fonts I’ve seen include latin characters, so you can use them even if you don’t want to write in Japanese, how great!

Another thing to keep in mind is that when writing these characters by hand, the strokes are meant to be drawn in a specific order and direction. Some fonts replicate the resulting variations of width for a textured look, while others will make the stroke uniform for a more modern and digital aesthetic.

Each font in this selection is available under the Open Font License or freely available for commercial use. I’ve found them mostly by browsing Font Labo and Sankou Font using my browser’s translation feature, so if these don’t meet your needs, don’t let the language barrier stop you from searching for more. As usual, Google Fonts also has some interesting options.

Finally if you intend on using these fonts to display Japanese text and it’s not your native language or you haven’t studied it, ask or even hire a native speaker to review your text (this actually applies for any language you’re not fluent in).

• Genkai Mincho: this font uses an equivalent of the latin serif which gives it a classic look, but with an uneven fill which in this case evokes to me the marbling of light reflected in water.

• Doki Doki Fantasia: round and even strokes make this font very cute, perfect for approachable and colourful designs.

• Torono Glitch: another font with a modern look, this time with sharp corners and a glitchy look. The font comes in 4 versions with varying amounts of glitching, both in sans and serif.

• Ankoku Zombie: the handdrawn look and heavy texture of this font make it perfect for horror-related designs (and I hope you enjoy the design of its webpage).

Creative fuel

• Back in issue 33 I talked about wanting to give the 100 Day Challenge a try. Well the beginning of a new year seemed like the perfect opportunity. Since January 2nd I’ve been practicing custom lettering, 10 minutes at a time. While I still have a lot to learn I’m really enjoying it so far! I might try to clean up and polish a few concepts I really like in the future. In the meantime here is a selection of favourites from the first 30 days.6

• trait d’union, a French band making synth punk cold wave, is my latest musical obsession. I made a poster for the whole album but my favourite song is “oiseau de nuit”.

• Emily from Graftbound Press wrote a fantastic guide on how to prepare your manuscript before sending it to your layout designer. An essential read for anyone planning to work with graphic designers but also for designers still figuring out what’s best practice.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I started working with Modiphius as a freelancer in January of this year. They got in touch with me after I chatted with one of their employees at Dragonmeet 2024 during SoulMuppet’s MuppetMeet, proving that in-person networking can be damn efficient. As a graphic designer I was mostly hired to typeset books for established ranges of games, but I also did some packaging and banner design. First I’ll share some figures that might be interesting for other freelancers out there and then some thoughts about my experience working on these projects.

Working for Modiphius: the numbers

Rates: initially I was paid 90£ (about 100€) per day of work on a project, but this was increased to 100£ (about 110€) per day in October.

Projects: throughout the year I worked on and delivered 11 different projects, one more started in December and set to be completed in February 2026. The shortest one was budgeted for 1 day, and the longest for 20 days. These projects were not spread equally over the year, some months I was juggling 2 or 3 projects, while there were some where I barely worked on 1 (summer was unsurprisingly slow).

Earnings: in total I earned 8827,87€ by working for Modiphius, with an average of 882,79€ per project. My lowest invoice was for 115,06€ and the highest was for 2102,40€. On its own this does not make a living wage but I was also working on other projects with independent creators and as part of my move to Japan I had saved some money that I used when work was slow.

Working for Modiphius: the experience

I already shared some insights back in March, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much.

Scale: going from working with indie creators to a “big” company felt at first very intimidating because all the projects I’d worked on prior to this were organised through Discord channels with 3 or 4 people. But to be honest, most companies just use a more professional-looking version of Discord, and the one at Modiphius is still filled with people who are passionate about TTRPG, there are just more than I’m used to.

Organisation: working with a larger publishing company means collaborating with people whose job focuses on very specific parts of the publishing process. During a call, each person is only there to give info about what they’re doing and answer questions relevant to their expertise. This may seem like the logical process, but in my experience with smaller teams, I’ve either had one-on-one calls with the client (basically a project manager) giving me feedback, or calls with the full team where everyone would give their opinion about my design, whether they were graphic designers or not (several times this has led to great collaborations and ideas so I’m not completely against it).

Projects: each project came with a budgeted amount of days and I was expected to assess and communicate whether or not I could deliver within this amount of time, which meant I quickly had to evaluate how fast I could work.

The format of the books I worked on changed a little: no A5 or half-letter zines here, we’re making chunky letter-sized hardcovers and softcover booklets. The kind of work I did was much different though: typesetting. Instead of coming up with the entire look of a layout, I was fitting a manuscript into an already-established style and making sure it would print well. It was more about problem solving with strong constraints than the open creativity I’ve experienced on previous projects. This was very valuable as I was able to observe and learn from the work of more experienced designers.

I also did some packaging design. It was still for existing product lines, but it was fun to do something different and experience new workflows. Additionally, I made banners and various displays Modiphius used at conventions this year, and it was really great to see them every now and then in their social media posts.

If you’re curious, here are some of the projects I’ve worked on that have been released:

• Dreams and Machines: Setting Guide - Broken Steppes

• Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Ill Flown by Moonlight (PDF)

• Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Halloween Horrors IV - Arctic Abominations

This year working with Modiphius has been a great experience overall. Obviously because it was a regular source of income, but also because it was an opportunity to work at a different scale of the TTRPG industry, which as a self-taught graphic designer was extremely instructive.

A few people actually reached out to me this year asking about rates and other freelancing questions, so if you found this write-up useful but have more questions, feel free to reach out, I’m always happy to help.

Personal releases

This year I released a few adventures, a bookmark game and several zines that I’m very proud of. I also wrote about the design process behind a few of these, so take a look if you missed them:

• Apparitions in the Mirror Maze, a dungeon for MÖRK BORG designed for the Appx. N Jam (design process)

• Raging Storm on Merlin Alpha, a mission for FIST (design process)

• B.O.O.K.’s field guide to fighting the Corruption, designed for the TTRPG Bookmark Jam

• Design Tracks, a zine collecting all the designs I made for the Alphabet Superset challenge in 2025 (design process)

• Halloween Horror Marathon, a zine of reviews of the horror films I watched to celebrate Halloween (design process)

• “The X-Files” viewing report, a printable booklet to document my viewing of the legendary show (process coming soon!)

What’s your type(face)?

No new selection this month, instead I’m highlighting my favourite specimens I designed this year. Let me know which one was your favourite!

• VarahCaps, Barstukai, Plantasia Stingray, Kossel, Mazius, Splash, Erasmusburg25, Josefin Slab, Vasilek

Creative fuel

For the holidays I’m sharing two links related to personal design obsessions. The first is a collection of mid-century modern ephemera and ads, and the second is this amazing book gathering posters made for a jazz festival by a duo of designers for over 20 years (truly impressed by such consistency over such a long time).

And finally thank you for reading this newsletter all year or for even longer!

Hello everyone! This month was busy but not with work. My parents visited so for the most part of two weeks I was showing them around Japan, trying to share with them why I flew across the globe to come live here for a year. Despite all the walking it was great fun, but I’m happy to get back to the drawing board. Let’s dive in!

Fresh off the grid

This month I only managed to finish one project and gather some notes on another: the zine of horror reviews I mentioned in the last post, and a companion notebook for a classic TV show.

“Halloween Horror Marathon” zine

Just like with “Design Tracks” I knew from the start which format I wanted for this zine: DL (1/3 of a horizontal A4 sheet). I like how the narrow pages can be used to highlight the posters of each film. Because of this format I can also sort of imitate the look of an old VHS tape. I also recently purchased Dither Boy and haven’t been able to use it yet, I think it could come in handy here. Let’s gather some references.

First, we have the covers for blank tapes with bold sans serif, some display fonts with a bit more personality, and bold colours arranged in configurations ranging from straight stripes to more abstract and complex shapes. On the other hand, we have the covers for horror films which feature a variety of display fonts for their titles (serif and script are rather popular), and illustrations going for the shock factor. The only thing in common between these is the use of a dark background.

Here’s what I’m thinking: expressive display font for the title, simple sans serif for the subtitle, strong illustration as the centrepiece and colour stripes to frame the whole thing (maybe even make it a wraparound cover). The first idea that’s coming to my mind is to use an old CRT TV and make it spooky. After looking for some images here are two concepts I like:

The first one is super simple and evocative, but maybe too elegant compared to the references I’m using. It could maybe work if I make it more type-based than I planned. The second one has a lot of potential: I like how the TV sits in the middle of the cover like a truncated monolith, there’s a lot more room to add details and tweaks, and it seems better suited for a frame.

Initially I wanted to have a masked killer kind of character standing menacingly behind the TV, but based on the assets I could find I’m going for “haunted TV” instead. Once again I have two concepts I like, but the skull one feels more striking so the pale ghost will go on the backcover with the “TV in the dark” (based on a suggestion from my fiancée). I want the title to have texture and be attention-grabbing, so we’re doing a red and distressed look with Acid Wash and Moinho.

Time to fire up Dither Boy and make that skull ghost glitchy. After some tweaking and experimentations I have something I like, but placed on its own it feels empty and lacks the ethereal quality of the first concept. So instead I layer both and bingo: the haunted VHS ghost feels real! I use the posterise live effect to crank up the colours and get that low-quality printing look, and finally add a curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast and make the lighter areas pop more. I apply the same treatment to the pale ghost and TV in the dark for the back cover and now it’s time to add some texture.

I won’t get lost in the details but I’m using textures from various packs I’ve bought but also from the always great Texturelabs. It’s a mix of halftones and grungy textures, all set to overlay, lighten or screen with low opacity (37% at most) to keep the effect subtle. And of course, what would an aged VHS case be without some cracks and folds? I reuse the same technique as for the cover of Apparitions in the Mirror Maze1 as it gives me more control and is easier to edit (here for example I used a book texture and had to mask the middle folds and some of the grit). The screenshot below includes the bleed so the worn edges are much more subtle than what you see.

And now for the final touch, an added bit of skeuomorphism: the slits on the front and back that let you grab the tape!

I made them by creating an empty rectangle above the cover, adding two trapezoids with rounded corners on each side and making it a mask showing the VHS below, and a drop shadow for good measure. I shortened the subtitle and moved it just below the title because it was fighting for attention with my logo at the bottom. My name with the genitive “s” was probably unconsciously inspired by John Carpenter titling convention (I did watch three of his films for this).

Now the interior layout is rather simple: each page features the poster for each film and a single column of text with relevant info and a review, but I’m quite happy with the texture I added. At first it was only to add visual interest, but it’s also a thematic way to separate posters with a white border or background from the page, so yay!

I hope you enjoyed this process write-up, let me know if you want to know more about a specific part. Check out the zine and tell me if you agree or disagree with my reviews!

“The X-Files” field notes

I’ve finally started watching “The X-Files”. The only memories I have are the glimpses I caught when my dad watched it when I was a kid. Because I enjoyed writing reviews of the films I watched during October, I had the idea of doing the same for the legendary show. Right now it’s just a bunch of ideas in my notebook, but I think I want to print it as an empty template that I’ll write in as I watch each episode. Kinda like Mulder and Scully during their investigations!

What’s your type(face)?

Finally the day has come where enough of you want me to recommend a handful of “cyberpunk elite” typefaces! I’ve wanted to take on this theme for a while so thanks for indulging me. To celebrate I’m doing things a little differently this time. But first what do I mean by “cyberpunk elite”? A picture being worth a thousand words, this spread from CY_BORG perfectly explains it:

I like how it combines the traditional aesthetic of luxury and wealth (elaborated ornaments and impractical fashion) with futuristic elements (cybernetic limbs and personal gatling turrets). In my opinion this illustration also shows the gap between how these elites want to be perceived (elegant and refined) and how the rest of the population sees them (disconnected and ruthless). So I’ve picked and paired six typefaces to represent these two perceptions: bold is how the elite wants to be seen, italics is how they are perceived.

• Jugend’s glyphs seem made to be nested within one another, and combined with the sharp end of their curves they have this futuristic elevated air. Batok does something similar but dramatically accentuates the sharpness of its serifs, giving it a much more menacing look.

• Both Vasilek and Terrible feel imposing thanks to their tall stems and stylised ends (I was tempted to call them slabs or serifs, but they’re not really either so pardon my inaccurate terminology). The former has a thinner look with pointy slabs, which feels elegant and just aggressive enough to pass for gothic; the latter feels more industrial and menacing with thicker stems including sharp cuts.

• Kabond and Dalfitra combine curves and sharp lines with high-contrast counters for a sleek futuristic look. The difference lies in the predominance of sharp angles and curves. Kabond has more curves which dampens the aggressiveness of its thick stems, thus feeling more approachable; Dalfitra and its sharp angles feel more aggressive and domineering (adding more where they were not necessary clearly doesn’t help).

I will likely be busy with a few things in December (end of the year rush yay!) so I’ll be skipping the selection next month but worry not, it will be back in January 2026!

Creative fuel

• This month I only want to highlight this very cool Kickstarter from a team of French female writers and artists: Loin du Feu. Available both in French and English, the book presents four adventures inspired by a region of France, all accompanied by an illustrated short story and pre-written characters. It also comes with rules based on Fate Accelerated. It looks fantastic and there are only two days left to help them unlock more stretch goals so go check it out!

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

October, aka Spooky Month, is already over and amongst my move to Tokyo I worked on several personal projects I’m super excited to tell you about, so let’s dive right in! But first I want to mention the Kickstarter campaign for DURF Expanded. If you don’t know what DURF is, it’s a rules-light dungeon-fantasy TTRPG from Emiel Boven, creator of the excellent The Electrum Archive zines. He’s a fantastic writer and artist so DURF Expanded is certain to be a hit, plus a lot of stretch goals have been unlocked so go check it out!

Fresh off the grid

A few months back I mentioned how after completing the Alphabet Superset challenge I wanted to establish a new creative routine for myself by focusing on very personal projects with a smaller scope.1 Well this month I found not one but two projects to work on regularly: a compilation of the album covers I designed and a collection of reviews of Halloween-related films.

Alphabet Superset zine cover

Last month I wrapped up the Alphabet Superset 2025, a creative challenge where I re-designed an album cover per week, one album per letter of the alphabet. It was my second time completing this challenge, and just like the first one I’m making a zine to compile all my entries (the previous zine is called “a panoply of design”). From the start I knew I wanted it to be A5 landscape, mostly because I wanted an unusual format. The interior layout would be very simple: one page per album, a small bit of text for the band name and album title and maybe one or two mockups of the booklet or CD. I then started sketching some ideas for the cover.

The first idea is a wrap-around cover with a zoomed-in CD sitting across the spine, with the title placed on its right; the second puts the CD on the front cover but includes the title into the CD art; and the third one is a stack of CDs (using the mockups I made for each album concept) and the title placed in front of it. Fine ideas but slightly beside the point: the main goal of the challenge was to design album covers, and the CDs were only derived from each concept. So I’m shifting the focus to the covers with a modern century-inspired idea: a grid of coloured squares representing the variety of covers. But I quickly give up on this one as mid-century style is my comfort zone and I need to get out of it. The idea also doesn’t seem so great upon quick execution.

The last idea should be the one: a mockup of a CD case with a design representing my creative process (more or less abstract, we’ll see). The sketch shows the title placed on top but since I haven’t decided on it yet (see the list in the bottom right), I might place the mockup and text elements side-by-side. Here are my notes and sketches for this cover within the cover.

Whenever I need inspiration I always crack open TASCHEN's The History of Graphic Design. Because it’s not an aesthetic I’m used to, I want to make something inspired by the 90s/early 2000s, with a faux-punk and grungy look.

I make a list of some techniques I want to include to represent the variety of styles I’ve used for the album covers, let’s see if I can get them all in (halftones, gradients, public domain images…). Then I make a couple of sketches with small variations of the same idea: an x-ray of a skull ornamented with more or less abstract graphic elements. The main change is the placement of the text: in front of the brain or covering the eyes. Now an interesting choice, the typeface! A mix-and-match (ransom cutout letters?) or a bold grungy sans serif seem like obvious choices but obvious isn’t necessarily very interesting and such a typeface might get lost with the rest of the illustration. A simple (sans) serif or even a mono would bring contrast and work better. I’m particularly keen on mono as I settle on a title: “Design Tracks”. Six characters for each word means I can have a perfectly balanced title which will stand out even more in the grungy illustration.

Ok so it looks like the idea has legs (phew). JetBrains Mono ends up being too balanced so I might go with the expanded version of Archivo which occupies the space a lot better. But now I’m torn between bold and extralight. Let’s work on the rest of the illustration, hopefully the right option will present itself. I move on to the background. Because I want it to be something from the public domain, I prefer finding something I like first and build around it rather than search for hours for something that will have to fit with the illustration. I quickly find this (excellent decision-making, uh?).

The background is busy and colourful so I get rid of the blue tint on the x-ray, and because the skull is made of scan lines I add this blob so it remains visible. I don’t like the look of it though, it feels too precise and clashes too much with the background but I have an idea: I’m going to print the skull with its black background and tear around it to scan it and put it back in. Before that I still want to play with gradients to represent ideas and concepts flowing out of the skull.

After a few failed iterations I forgot to document, I finally landed on this. I first kept trying to represent the flow of ideas as a singular shape but it didn’t make sense (ideas come and go like fireworks, not a straight bullet). I looked back at my references and the concept of the x-ray peeling off to reveal a galaxy was appealing and felt relevant so I made my own abstract version (literally a galaxy brain). Now I’m off to print a few things!

After tearing the edges around the skull (enjoy my first failed attempt) and the title I can scan everything and put it together.

I added a few more stars to make the “brain” more dense and settled on the bold version of the title. The lighter title made sense with the lines framing it but I decided to drop them, they felt unnecessary. The torn edges are definitely more interesting than the initial blob, I’m glad I went for it. And here’s the final cover!

I first wanted to place the subtitle in the top left corner but I like that the current placement matches the inside layout and sort of makes it look like a catalogue. And now check out what it looks like printed!

I’m super happy with the final result and if you want to check out the full zine, it’s available on itch.io!

Halloween films zine 2025

I’ve been celebrating the spooky season all month by watching horror films (which I usually avoid because I’m scared) and decided to document this with a small zine where I write my thoughts on each film. So far I’ve only worked on the interior so that’s all I can show you, but next month I’ll do a write-up about my process for the cover.

What’s your type(face)?

It was quite serendipitous that you dear readers would pick Mothership as the theme for this month’s selection as we’re right in the middle of Mothership Month! So let’s look at some of the projects to see what makes a type Mothership.

Out of the 27 projects currently funding, 16 use a sans serif for their main title. The others use a mix of serif and thematic display fonts. The predominance of sans serif makes sense, the game is blue collar sci-fi horror where players are employed by major corporations, so a font that doesn’t have much ornaments and is only made for informational purposes fits perfectly.

Serif fonts on the other hand have a vintage or more refined feel which clashes with the game’s themes. But clashing is not necessarily a bad thing, it can evoke a sense of something unusual within a specific context or setting (sans serif could do that too but would require more effort).

So here I recommend two sans serif and two serif fonts to use in your Mothership module, either for your title, headers or body text.

• Archivo: This one comes in a variety of weights and condensed or expanded forms which means you can easily use it for your main title, headers and body text! Also the expanded black weight shown here feels fittingly menacing in a corporate way.

• Saira: I like the boxy proportions of this font, it makes it very utilitarian and thus perfect for the cost-optimising corporations of the game.

• Manuale: Similarly to Saira, this font has some boxy proportions, fitting for a sci-fi corporation trying to appear more refined.

• Josefin Slab: a slab might feel like an even stranger fit for Mothership but I find this one has a mechanical feel without the rigidity of a mono. Almost as if they were using typewriters in space (no I’m not talking about computers!).

Bonus recommendations:

• Roboto Flex: I stumbled upon this variable version of the absolute workhorse that is Roboto, which somehow becomes even more flexible with 13 (13!!!) axis to tweak.

• Disaster fonts: an absolute classic of my recommendations, this collection is filled with fonts inspired by old sci-fi and computers.

• Legacy of Defeat: with both paid and free options, Legacy of Defeat offers a wide array of fonts that are more geared for cyberpunk but will fit perfectly in a gritty Mothership module.

Creative fuel

• A breakdown of the creation of the Tokyo Metropolitan logo (which has been the same for 36 years!!!). The other potential designs all feel less poetic and efficient, but my personal favourite is this assembly of green circles.

• This great article about the state of printing in the age of AI and digital design made me consider my relationship with printed matter. The article points out how the gap between designers and printers damages both sides, even more so with the rise in popularity of print-on-demand services. As a book designer who has mostly worked on projects meant for such services, I can’t help but feel like part of the issue. It’s not all bleak though, the digital-first times we live in have also make physical objects more valuable: “In a world where so much of our experience is digital, physical printed objects hold a different kind of value; one that’s more about connection, craft and tangibility rather than pure information delivery”.

• And as a perfect segue, I’ve really enjoyed this series of essays and interviews from Backwards Tabletop about the various ways we engage with books—in their physical form—through play, which they aptly call “bookplay”.

• Clayton Notestine gives some excellent advice about how to promote your work. It’s reassuring to see I’m already following a lot of it.

• The folks at True Grit Texture Supply offer artists a few reasons to remain hopeful despite the growing threat that generative AI represents. While only time will tell if they’re right, they make a very compelling case.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

Fresh off the grid

I really enjoyed detailing my process for the layout of my entry in the Appendix N Jam, so I’m doing it again for my new FIST module, Raging Storm on Merlin Five. And this time I’m actually writing while doing the layout!

Raging Storm on Merlin Five

For those who don’t know, FIST is a TTRPG where players act as mercenaries for a secret agency, the titular FIST, during an alternative version of the Cold War where paranormal phoenomena1 are real, and they’re just one of your problems. While I’m a big fan of this premise, I’m an even bigger fan of the game’s art direction and layout: the whole book is in black and white and its text is mostly set in two columns except for a few stylish exceptions. It sounds simple enough but the precision and sleekness of the execution give the book its charm. I actually already gave the style a go with another adventure, Rainforest Rampage. But enough preamble, let’s move on to the layout!

At this stage I’m almost done with the writing, I’m just missing a few random tables (which I always write last because I struggle so much with them). The current manuscript is just short of 2000 words and I want this to be formatted in A5, so if we count about 450 words per page that’s about 5 pages. But I want to add a cover, some illustrations and give the text space to breathe so we’ll aim for 8 pages.

For the typeface, I’m going to keep it even simpler than the rulebook and only use one: Basier Square by Atipo. This one has sort of become my default for sans serif, and I often look to other typefaces from this foundry for various projects. I usually set my body text around 9pt, but because I’m doing this in A5 and I want two columns of text, I need a smaller size, so we’re going with 8pt. To make up for the smaller size, I make sure the leading is wide enough to maintain legibility: 130% of the text height, so 10,4pt. Divided by 2, that gives us a baseline spacing of 5,2pt. Now comes the first struggle: left aligned or justified? I know justified gets a bad reputation but I really like how cold it makes the text look, which feels very appropriate when trying to evoke the ruthless context of Cold War espionnage.

There are a few tricks to making a justified block of text look nice: reducing the word and character spacing and a correctly set hyphenation.2 But the main factor remains your column width: the longer your lines of text the more likely you are to avoid rivers (consecutive spaces running down a paragraph). Let’s see if I can fix that when setting up the margins.

There’s not much to say about the margins, but the 8 columns are more interesting. As I’ve explained multiple times during these write-ups, having more columns allows you more flexibility with your text and graphics. Here especially I want to reproduce what FIST does on some spreads: a wider column of text and a sidebar for illustrations and notes (5 and 3 columns instead of 4 and 4). And looking at it now, I think the justified text works. So now it’s time to format all that text.

I now have all the paragraph styles I need, and I know more or less how everything is going to look. I also notice I need to add some text between the “LVL -2” and “Drilling rig” headers (it’s usually recommended to avoid having 2 headers in a row). But now I can start moving those blocks of text around and give this adventure some personality.

Alright we’re getting somewhere! As I mentioned, I’m taking advantage of my 8-columns grid to vary the width of my columns of text depending on the kind of information on the page: a wide single column for the intro, two columns for a compact spread where all related information is kept together, a wide single column for the boss enemy, two columns for the statblocks and once again two columns for some additional info (although at this point I’m tempted to make it a wide single column). I’ve also added page numbers and blocked out space for potential illustrations. But first, the cover.

I wanted to do something inspired by the Jaws poster with a monstrous fish looking up towards an oil rig caught in a storm. But after struggling to find an image of an anglerfish I could use, I resorted to a previous idea: following the schematics look of the cover of the rulebook (when I said I was a fan of the design I meant it). The title font is Dopeneck by Brandon Nickerson, a familiar designer for long time subscribers. Its chunky look and rounded corners add some industrial flavour. Now I just need to get back to the interior to add the illustrations and edit the text where needed. But you’ll have to check the final release to see them!

These write-ups are a great opportunity for self-reflection and noticing where my process can be improved, but if there are specific points you’d like me to focus on, please reach out and let me know what you’re most interested in!

What’s your type(face)?

I’ll preface this by saying I’m aware “evil corporation” is redundant, as I’ve yet to hear about a fully benevolent corporation, but I included “evil” to make sure everyone got the vibe. Let’s now look at some “evil corporation logos”. There are two lenses through which we can interpret this theme: fiction and reality. First, the boring one.

Looking at some of the most important corporations in the world3 we can see a clear pattern: a simple sans serif with very little personality, and a lot of blue. This makes sense as corporations want to cause the least amount of friction to have as many people as possible identify with their brand. The darker shades of blue are also often associated with neutrality and professionalism (hence why you see a lot of navy blue suits in offices). This effort to seem approachable and sort of friendly definitely clashes with the scandals these corporations went through in recent years (or still ongoing for some of them). How does fiction adapt these principles?

As you can see these logos for fictional corporations tend to follow the same rules with more colours and a lot more personality: the wide and imposing W/Y of Weyland-Yutani, the trust-inspiring sans serif of LUMON or the bold red serif font of NERV. The extra dose of personality is easily explained: it’s fiction, and these are supposed to represent values and ideas the audience should understand easily. Also, these come from settings where capitalism is completely unregulated and subtlety is no longer a concern (e.g. Weyland-Yutani’s uplifting and hopeful tagline being in quotation marks).

From these examples we can infer a spectrum for how corporations logos look: from “way too normal” to “obviously evil”. I’ll let you place the typefaces from the selection on the spectrum.

• Deck Seven: the bevelled angles make the letters look like nuts (not the food), hence a very industrial and sort of utilitarian typeface.

• Erasmusbrug25: the sharp angles and cutouts give this display font an immediate cyberpunk but also menacing look, perfect for a tech company promising it won’t steal your data.

• Tulpen One: a very elegant look, an ideal fit for a lifestyle brand selling you totally-not-weird food supplements.

• Advent Pro: I like this one because it has just enough personality to be noticeable but not jarring, and it’s also very versatile. It comes in a variety of weights but also as a variable font, meaning you can easily adapt it for any kind of industry.

And as a bonus for the delays, two additional typefaces (but these are paid):

• Liber Sans: this one goes on the “way too normal” end of the spectrum. It has a few eye-catching characters (check the “y” and “g”) and enough weights to work in a lot of context.

• Central Display: a super-stylish typeface with wide glyphs, over-extended strokes and serifs that give it a maximalist look worthy of a cyberpunk high-fashion brand.

Creative fuel

• This month I only have the final entries of the Alphabet Superset: X, Y and Z. I couldn’t find albums starting with these letters so I treated them as bonus weeks for albums I couldn’t pick previously: “Days as Echoes” by Misha Panfilov Sound Combo, “Headplate” by KUMO99 and “!” by Lara Somogyi. I’m very proud of all the designs I made, so I plan on making a zine to show them all together. More on that next month!

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Creative fuel

• As I get close to completing my Alphabet Superset for 2025, the 100 Day Project might be my next creative challenge. This quote from the creator, Michael Bierut, summarises its appeal for me: “The practice had less to do with the output and more with getting myself in a proper frame of mind for the rest of my day.” Read more here.

• This zine about a football club’s season oozes with a passion I find truly inspiring. Alfie Wheatley designed a spread for each game his favourite club played, showing the line-up and results but also experimenting with typography to pay homage to each club’s visual culture. I don’t care about football but I do care about personal expression and this is exactly it in a great form.

• Because I have the chance to develop creative skills for my work I always feel like I could (should?) take advantage of these and be more creative in my personal life. But after a day of typesetting and font research, I often find myself torn between not wanting to “force” myself to create again and the frustration of not creating for fun. These two articles may have just cracked the case with a very simple solution: a project with a very limited scope based in regular practice and personal interests.1

• As a Gundam and Gunpla enthusiast, I find myself staring at the Bandai logo rather often, so this write-up about its redesign, done in 1983, is fascinating.

Logo Histories

Bandai Logo, 1983

This post is supported by LogoArchive – The home of historical logos. Discover over 4700 of history’s greatest designs from the world’s finest designers. Updated every single day. Always find the logo inspiration you need for your next logo or branding project…

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a year ago · 21 likes · 3 comments · Richard Baird

• The latest entries for my Alphabet Superset series are: “Visitors” by Scattle and “Where They Landed” by BE/HOLD. Two albums with very similar vibes: soundtracks for retro horror films that don’t exist. “Visitors” is an 80s slasher, which I tried to channel but ended up with something that feels more like an old PC game cover. “Where They Landed” is 70s alien invasion paranoia and I think I nailed that concept with the declassified weird document look.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Hello everyone! Summer goes on and keeps being unbearably hot. In unrelated news, I’ve finally created a design account on Instagram, mostly to try and find clients outside the TTRPG niche (I love that niche but as a freelancer it’s risky to only have this one to rely on). I’ve long been reluctant to do this for many reasons. Firstly because I can do without all that validation regarding my work (a “nice” from my fiancée is all I need really), but also mostly because of Meta’s politics and their use of AI, and the reliance on privately-owned platforms.1 But like I said I’m a freelancer and my income heavily relies on my visibility, so I’m giving it a go. Check it out and I’ll try to make it fun (promise).

Also, if you’re working on a book for Mothership Month 2025 (happening in October) but still need a graphic designer to help you with layout, look no further! I have worked on several Mothership supplements such as Hoss and Astral Brews as well as the upcoming Outer Rim Uprising and Twisting Unseen, so I know a thing or two about that blue collar space horror game. Get in touch!

Fresh off the grid

I just released my submission for the Appx. N Jam: Apparitions in the Mirror Maze. It’s pay-what-you-want so no excuse to not at least check it out. I had a lot of fun putting this together so for this month I want to write about the process. Hopefully you’ll learn a thing or two.

Process: layout

First off, the jam’s limitations: an adventure in the style of old fantasy books fitting on 4 A5 pages. Like many other participants I wanted to make a cool cover, so I’m down to 3 pages of text. It’s getting tight. So once I have most of my manuscript written, it’s time to start with layout. After picking some fonts (Cormorant Infant for the body and Tapestry for the headers), I need to set up my grid.

As you can see below, I went for 8 columns to have some flexibility and accomodate columns with different widths. I’m using a baseline despite this being for MÖRK BORG, but space is limited and I know I have a lot of text so I’ll need this structure to organise the text clearly. Then I built all the styles I needed: main body, numbered lists and headers. At this point, I have a good idea of how much text can fit on the pages, how much needs to be trimmed and where I could fit in some illustrations.

Next step was giving this more flair, as it all looks a bit bland. Plus this is written for MÖRK BORG so it needs something a bit more elaborated. First a change of typefaces: now I’m using CAT_Walthari for the headers and Roboto Serif Extra Condensed for the body. Tapestry was too refined and Cormorant Infant too classic. I also edited and reorganised the text to make it flow better. The first page now has all the background info (plot, hooks, procedure), the random encounters and the monster statblock; the second page has all the random tables for locations players will discover; and the third page focuses on the boss fight. That way the DM has all the information relevant to the exploration on one spread, and the final stage of the dungeon is given more importance by having its own page despite not taking that much space.

Now that the layout is more clearly defined and the text is finalised I can go back to giving this some MÖRK BORG flair. Inspired by the introductory adventure Rotblack Sludge, I set the stablocks in a sans serif typeface, Roboto Condensed (which also pairs naturally with Roboto Serif). As you can see, the last page now makes more sense as the text is wider and sits in the centre of the page.

Finally I can add all the thematic visual elements. For the central spread, I wanted to emphasise the separation between the background info and everything related to the maze. I used a grungy texture with an invert filter and some level adjustments for the white part on the left, and masked it with a torn paper texture. For the black background I wanted to evoke the mirrors found in the maze, so I used a glass texture (black and white filter + levels adjustment) with this dirty glass texture set to screen mode with 30% opacity. Naturally the text with the black background is set to white. The yellow highlights are made with one of the default markers brush from Affinity Designer (can’t remember which one, my bad). For the last page at first I wanted to recreate a bit of decor I mention in a description, where a large mirror is framed by a sculpture of the final boss, but that was too ambitious for the amount of time I had, so I settled for a gross mirror instead. The background and the glass are the same textures as the spread, I just moved them around a bit. For the frame itself I used this brush pack. And for the goo dripping from the frame, I used this blood texture, put a threshold filter on it and then distorted it with the transform option (couldn’t be bothered to use liquify) and masked the parts I didn’t need.

And voilà, that’s the layout done! Now onto the cover.

Process: cover

I don’t have much to say about the ideation process here, as I was thinking about the cover while doing the layout so the few notes I took were mostly to make sense of these disorganised thoughts.

I first drafted a concept to place the various elements of the cover and find the title font. I landed on Hellmade from the always great Brandon Nickerson. A few other options I considered were Alphabyte also from Nickerson (I found it too round for a MÖRK BORG module) and Temple of Sorrow from Kern Club (too hard to read for a retro book cover).

I can’t draw so I rely heavily on public domain photography and art for my work. I had done some research to see what images I could find that would fit the theme, and the two that seemed the most promising were this top view of a maze and this “infinite” corridor. Based on my notes I did a few tests with the top view, I tried to insert some knights’ silhouettes but I knew the perspective would be a nightmare so I quickly switched to the corridor. I found this cool picture of a dude with an axe and cut out his silhouette to paste it into the corridor.

The process in the image above goes as follows (left to right, top to bottom):

1. Character is positioned on background.

2. Black and white filter to see the values more easily.

3. Levels adjustment to increase contrast.

4. Threshold filter to give every element a stark black and white contrast.

5. Levels and shadows/highlights adjustment to add details on the character.

6. Layer fill set to darken masked to the character to make it stand out.

Then I needed to rework the background. It had too much detail and didn’t look enough like a maze filled with mirrors. To do this I simply drew black and white shapes to simplify the ceiling and ground, and create walls and openings around the character. Each shape is filled with the same grungy texture with a levels adjustment and an invert filter for the white shapes. The final touch was adding some goo dripping from a mirror with the same blood texture as on the mirror frame.

After that I popped the illustration in my cover design and shifted things around for a while. I particularly struggled with the placement of the illustration in the frame because I had “drawn” it in a completely different ratio. Then I slapped on a paper texture for the worn-out look (blending mode to lighten, 80% opacity). For the creases I followed Lone Archivist’s tip and used two different textures: the one everybody used and another one. Finally some stickers for some good old skeuomorphism, the green and pink ones are from this pack, the “4.95” from this one.

That’s it, phew! If you made it this far, thanks for reading, I hope that was helpful. Don’t forget to check out the actual adventure!

What’s your type(face)?

I’m skipping the typeface selection this time!

Creative fuel

• Carly Ayes wrote about how fast and slow are both valuable pace for creatives, especially with AI becoming more and more prominent in creative fields.

• I watched the French film “Le Samouraï” by Jean-Pierre Melleville and absolutely loved it so I made a couple of posters. The first one is the stronger concept and my favourite, but the second one makes more marketing sense in showing Alain Delon’s face (which back then you definitely wouldn’t hide).

• The Alphabet Superset continues: Silent Alarm by Bloc Party, To Lose My Life by White Lies and The Universe Smiles Upon You by Khruangbin. A very “indie UK rock from the early 2010s” selection and some groovy psychedelia.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

I’m available for work in the coming months, so if you want to make a cool book, check out my portfolio and send me an email!

Fresh off the grid

This month has mostly been about prepping files for print and finalising projects. So in the same spirit as last month, let me give you a few tips to avoid headaches when you’re in that final stretch:

• Check for printing requirements. Some elements of your book will be affected by how it’s printing. Page count and inner margin (also called gutter) are the most likely to change based on your binding method, and also the most annoying when your printer sends back the file saying “this won’t work”. So make sure to check which requirements your files should meet as early as possible. Other elements to look out for include: margins, bleed, colour profiles and image resolution.

• Have a system for text styles. This one is mostly for bigger and complex projects. If you only have “body, header 1 and 2”, you’ll be fine. But if you’re building styles for sidebars, tables, statblocks, quotes… Have a naming convention that makes sense for you and stick to it. I usually go for “type of text - use case”. For example: “sidebar - header 1”, “sidebar - body”, “table - header text”, “table - header figures”, “table - text” and “table - figures”. You’re usually looking at these names on a small drop-down menu so try to keep it concise. Also create styles for bold and italics (and their combinations), it’s very useful when you realise the weight you chose wasn’t bold enough and you have 20k words to go through.1

• Use your text styles. After you’ve carefully set up your styles, make sure you use them. It’s the best and easiest way to maintain a consistent look throughout your book. It will also save you a lot of time when you realise you’ve set white text to overprint in your 100+ pages book filled with white text.

• Use global colours. Global colours are kind of like text styles but for colours. Basically if you apply a global colour to an element (text, vector, layer effect…), whenever you change that colour the change will also apply to all the elements using that colour. This is immensely useful when converting files from RGB to CMYK, and again to maintain a consistent look. And for extra efficiency, make sure they’re all named after what you use them for (particularly useful when you’re using different shades of one colour).

• Save different versions of your work files. Include the version in your file’s name (for example “my_amazing_book_V1”) and create new versions regularly. I tend to do this every time I open a file, whether I’m working on it every day for the initial typesetting or on and off for edits. And keep the most recent versions at hand, you never know when a client will say “I liked it better before”.

• Regularly make copies of your work files. Save them on the cloud and on a hard drive (or two if you can) because no one is safe from a coffee spill, laptop drop or accidental “delete and immediately empty bin“.

What’s your type(face)?

The theme for this month’s selection is “grungy script”, one I’m particularly fond of because like many other designers nowadays I often strive to imitate the imperfections and flaws of printed media, even when a design is 100% digital. This quote from Brian Eno always comes to mind when I’m layering textures and displacement maps:

Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.

• AODEPS: with just enough texture to look like it’s drawn with a marker, this one’s for when you want a handwritten look but still maintain legibility.

• F’Donkulous: on the other hand, this one is for when you’ve completely given up on legibility and just want your text to look like doodles in a bored student’s notebook.

• Splash: a typeface that makes you hear the scratching of a quill on paper. It comes with alternates for almost all its glyphs, which is great to avoid “unrealistic” repetitions.

• Dioszeghiensis: blackletter is probably the most famous form of script, and this one looks like it was written with as little care as possible. Perfect for adding a rebellious spirit to a medieval-themed project.

Creative fuel

• Another fantastic resource from Explorers Design: a list of foundries offering great typefaces at accessible prices. Go type hunting!

• I made a new linocut! It’s called “Main Morte” (“Dead Hand”) and is based on a French idiom about giving your 100% to something. As usual it’s an absolute delight to see an idea slowly come to life as you carve, ink and print it.

• Nathaniel Roy wrote a very interesting piece about the limits of trying to be a clever designer, especially when it comes to powerful symbols.

  A Book Designer's Notebook

  Swastikas on Book Covers

  Confession: If there was one word with which I’d like my work to be described, it would be “clever…

  Read more

  a year ago · 24 likes · 10 comments · Nathaniel Roy

• Anna Mills’ approach to handlettering is very inspiring for my Alphabet Superset, as I still don’t experiment enough with the typefaces I use.

• Loved that video about why Japanese fantasy feels so familiar to Europeans and yet very different.

• The entries for the Alphabet Superset for letters P, Q and R! This series is still very fun to work on, even more with these designs that let me revisit albums that hold a special place in my mind.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

I’ve been very secretive about what I was working on in the last few months, and that’s because a large chunk of my time has been spent working on projects for Modiphius. My work with the publisher mainly consists of doing typesetting for books in existing product lines: they give me the manuscript, and my job is to make it look nice and legible while following the style another designer developed. The challenge here is less about visual creativity and more about problem-solving with lots of constraints.

These projects are all covered by an NDA, so I can only gush about them once they’re released. And one of them finally is: Achtung! Cthulhu: Ill-Flow by Moonlight. As my work only involved typesetting, there’s not much to say about the design process. But working on the files of more experienced designers meant I picked up on a few tips and tricks I thought would be interesting to share.

A list of layout tips gleaned from the files of professionals

• Body copy is capital. This may seem obvious but it’s what readers will spend the most time looking at, so you should also spend the most time setting it up and making sure it’s comfortable to read. There are plenty of guides out there on how to do this: Explorers Design covers the basics (and more) and Butterick’s Practical Typography will fill in for what’s missing.

• When setting up your baseline grid, divide the leading by 2 (for example if your text has a 10pt leading, create a 5pt baseline grid). The smaller increments will make it easier to create different spacings between your various paragraphs and headings.

• Not everything has to be tied to the grid. When I first started using the grid, I saw it as an anchor I could hold onto to figure out what looked good. And so for the longest time I would pull my hair out trying to figure out how to make everything fit on it. But if your text follows your grid, placing graphic elements (frames, ornaments, infographics…) along your text will usually be enough to maintain the flow established by the grid.1

• A profusion of text styles is not a failure. I was always under the assumption that fewer text styles was better: it’s easier to manage when designing and it’s likely some of these styles you made are unnecessary. In reality as long as those styles are actually used in your layout, it’s fine to have plenty (the files I’ve been working on have at least 4 groups each containing about a dozen different styles). The key here of course is to determine what is useful. A good rule of thumb is that if it only appears once in your layout, it doesn’t need a style.

• It doesn’t matter how it gets done. Layout softwares are esoteric and can easily become overwhelming when you start navigating their menus and sub-menus looking for a specific feature. While these features are often meant to automate and simplify certain tasks, there’s almost always a “dirty” way of accomplishing the same result. Can’t figure out how to generate a table of contents with hyperlinks? Manually write the name of each section and its page number, then add anchors that will be exported as bookmarks.2 Moving an empty frame around the page to maintain spacing between various elements is also a valid technique.

I was already applying these tips in my work but seeing them used by more experienced designers really cemented them as proper practices in my mind. I’m self-taught and had to learn by doing (and sometimes it look a lot of doing), so I hope these will save you some time and headaches!

Outer Rim: Uprising - Campaign Handbook

Work on the Campaign Handbook is pretty much done, so I’ve spent some time making it easier to navigate. The book includes 20+ factions, multiples NPCs and locations all intertwined, which means there are page references everywhere that I had to cross-reference (more than 200!!!). It was well worth the effort as readers of the digital version will be able to click around and instantly find the info they’re looking for.

The GM screen is also almost done, IKO is actually looking at the final version this weekend, so the printer should hear about it soon…

What’s your type(face)?

This month’s theme is “Knightly”, and I love knights so I’m very happy about this choice. Knights were skilled fighters, known for their sense of honour. Nowadays they evoke a sense of adventure and romance. So how do you translate cool swords and chivalry into a typeface?

• Mazius Display: this one is inspired by chancery hands, an old form of handwriting used for business transactions (and a chancery was an office that produced official documents during the Medieval period). The sharp serifs and strong contrasts of its curves give the typeface a very elegant and striking look.

• Parix Hybrid: a gothic font with dramatic upper caps (which can be turned off in favour of tamer ones) that create a great contrast with the more legible lower caps.

• Grenze: the serifs and italics, reminiscent of calligraphy, give this typeface just enough medieval flair, and its numerous weights make it a great option for your body text.

• Parker Chronicle: for when you need that “monk curled up on his desk, scribbling away by the candlelight” look.

Creative fuel

• Jazz albums always had and will always have the coolest cover art. Learn why in this fascinating article about the birth of album art. The awesome typography from some of the albums shown in the article inspired my concept for the “Our Love” design (see below).

• A fun read about the creation of the Pokémon logo. Kudos to Chris Maple for designing an iconic logo as a rush job.

• Very interested in how Tjaša Cizej pushes the boundaries of typography with playful experimentation.

• The Alphabet Superset continues! Here are the entries for L through O: “Løvehjerte” by MRD, MOON’s eponymous EP, “New Model” by Perturbator and “Our Love” by Caribou. I’m already halfway through the challenge and I’m very happy with the diversity of designs I’ve been putting out (M and N have very similar vibes but M was an attempt at handmade lettering and for N I only used pre-made assets).

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

Lots of client work this month but all for unannounced projects so I can’t show anything yet. For now I’ll simply share two images from a recent moodboard, try and see if you can figure out what it’s about…

What’s your type(face)?

A wordmark is a textual representation of a brand, as opposed to a logo which is a figurative or abstract representation. Think of the Coca-Cola swash or NASA’s Worm. Of course, just like logos, they’re not meant only for brands, they can be used for anything with a public image such as TTRPG books. And just like a great logo, a great wordmark is easy to recognise, but as a typographic object it must also be easy to read. It should strike a delicate balance between personality and legibility.

Additionally, when looking for a typeface for a wordmark, I find it convenient to use typefaces that have extensive glyph sets, meaning ones that include upper and lower case (some display fonts only have one or the other), punctuation, digits and diacritic marks (accents). But why bother when you already know exactly which characters you’ll need? Because if you want to use that same typeface for your project’s branding (eg. ads and graphics for social media or a newsletter), a complete glyph set will be necessary to accommodate any text.

With all this in mind, I based this month’s font picks on the most prominent TTRPG settings—fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and urban/contemporary (please don’t come at me)—and made wordmarks for imaginary games and projects related to each. These were also combined with logos to help sell the idea of what they could be about.

Finally, some of these picks are paid because I think for something that will be the face of your project it is worth spending some money on a good typeface.

• Dragönsteel1: SimpleBits is a studio that puts out fonts with strong retro influences. This typeface specifically is inspired by 80s fantasy RPG and so its round blackletter look is the perfect fit for any fantasy heartbreaker.

• Kossel2: To continue with classic aesthetics, this font by Brandon Nickerson is pure sci-fi nostalgia. Its chunky curves contrasted by sharp angles grab the attention while remaining easy to read. (also you can get free fonts if you subscribe to his newsletter!)

• Black Rocket3: Here we’re leaning into the scrappiness of a post-apocalyptic world, where everything is rough and grungy. The logo-like quality of some characters, such as the crossed A and O, is also great for creating a striking mark.

• Rubik (and its many variations)4: This round sans serif looks fairly unassuming but its simplicity and varied weights make it perfect for a project with a modern or contemporary aesthetic. Rubik also has a lot of thematic variations, which can easily be used to infuse more personality into a wordmark.

Creative fuel

• Clayton Notestine’s article on how he designed a brand identity for a podcast was definitely an inspiration in how I approached this month’s selection of typefaces. The fact that he wrote as he was doing research and designing makes this feel like a design livestream, but at a pace I much prefer. Maybe I should try it for this newsletter instead of writing furiously at the end of the month. Read about Clayton’s process here.

• The Alphabet Superset is still going strong! Below are entries H through K. I wanted to balance the absence of lyrics in the instrumental albums with more ambitious visual concepts but had to lower my ambitions because I was short on time. Hopefully next month is the month I can bring back analogue techniques into the mix.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

First thoughts on working with Modiphius

Work is still going on with Modiphius, and while I can’t show yet what I’m working on, I want to share some personal insight.

I’m used to working with independent creators who most of the time are publishing a module or game as a hobby which means some things are figured out as we go. This is not a problem as the production process tends to only involve a handful of people and any issue can usually be fixed with a couple of Discord messages. Modiphius being a well-established publisher with games covering various IPs, I expected a completely different workflow. There is obviously a lot more structure and the overall production process is very organised with clearly defined steps, just because of the scale at which they operate. This was very intimidating to me, as I was worried any question I would ask would be perceived as a lack of professional acumen, which could then mean I would not be hired for future projects. But I was very wrong. So far all my questions and comments have been met with positive responses and consideration, and not at a single moment have I felt like anything I asked was redundant or hindering production, quite the opposite. Of course this is in part due to the team I’m working with, but who knew clear communication could work so well? Me but I worry too much and tend to forget the obvious.

Hopefully I can be more specific about the design part of the project soon!

Information design for “Outer Rim: Uprising - Campaign Handbook”

Remember when I said the Campaign Handbook was almost done? Well I kinda forgot I still had to make a whole map, faction diagram and wait for additional art. The map still needs a bit of tweaking so for now I’ll focus on the faction diagram. Iko wanted to include a relationship map that would detail how each faction present in the Outer Rim bundle interacts with the others. And it’s a great tool to have as a GM so I was excited to design such a useful piece. But when I saw Iko’s rough version I realised how challenging it would be: 20 factions, split into 2 groups, all with complex relationships with each other (meaning simple arrows and symbols would be no use), all that in black and white and fit on an A5 spread.

The aesthetic of the handbook being based in DIY, grungy punk zines, my first idea was to make it like a handwritten diagram with scribbled notes. But given the amount of info it contains, this approach would reach its limit very quickly (this reasoning is the same I had when working on the headers). So instead I looked towards something more industrial, more corporate: straight lines and boxed entities were the way to go.

But as you can see below, my chart is much less straightforward than one entity at the top branching into smaller ones. Mine has arrows going all over the place, back and forth, crossing each other and even across the spread (those were the worst to figure out). The main trick I used to make it work was to add a second stroke behind the main stroke of the arrows, which would break other arrows when it crossed them and make it easier to follow where they’re all going. Then it was mostly a game of figuring out which entities were the biggest knots (the ones with the most connections) and placing the smaller entities while connecting them. This worked so well that I was even able to work in a table with page references for each faction!

Bonus: print test of the zine with one of my favourite spreads!

What’s your type(face)?

Solarpunk is an artistic and literary movement focusing on creating a sustainable future built around nature and community.1 In regards to design and typography, I interpreted this as finding new ways to create, ones that would feel more connected with nature, whether as an inspiration or even a participant in design (which is why the specimens have a very green-oriented colour palette).

• Plantasia Stingray: this typeface is part of a project where students had to design typefaces based on plants that were then assembled to form a superfamily of organic typefaces. This one is Stingray but I also really like Arbo and Pilea Peper.

• Stigmate: a typeface inspired by graffitis found on trees (hence the almost complete lack of curves).

• Occlusion Grotesque: a typeface grown on a tree. More exactly, the letters were carved on a tree and photographed over several years, thus creating 5 different weights. I highly encourage you read the process for more information.

• Museo Moderno: this was developed for the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, which is itself very solarpunk. Its curves and round angles convey the hopefulness of the solarpunk movement.

Creative fuel

• I found out about Márton Tóth’s fantastic designs and I just love his mix of texture and ethereal fantasy. More about him here.

• The Alphabet Superset challenge continues with D, E, F and G. I went the analogue route for the D and E entries (The Drums’ eponymous album and “An Ever Changing View” by Matthew Halsall): the first one is made of cutouts that I scanned and assembled, and the second has some of its pages printed on tracing paper. I made a flip-through video because I was super happy with the result. For the other two I stuck to digital but with very different styles: classic crooner with modern touches and poetically abstract. I’m still having a lot of fun with this and I want to try more analogue techniques for future entries.

• It did not take me long to buy a graphic design-related book in Japan, and my first purchase was this collection of cool typography filled with inspiration.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Fresh off the grid

Working with Modiphius

Yes the publisher of the Fallout, Star Trek and other very cool roleplaying and board games. I can’t say anything yet about what I’m working on because I signed an NDA (very standard but it’s a first for me!), but as soon as it’s out I’ll share some more info about the process. It’s my first time working with such a big publisher but I was surprised to see that it wasn’t that much different from my usual work with independent creators. This first project is almost complete, and it’s been very rewarding on several levels, but more on that in a future post!

I’ve also been working on revisions for Espers and the Outer Rim: Uprising campaign handbook. These projects will be finished soon which means I have openings. So why don’t you check my portfolio and maybe write me about your project!

What’s your type(face)?

The winner of last month’s poll was “barely legible but amazing vibes”, a theme I’ve wanted to do for a while. Typography is often a key part of a specific aesthetic, and even though it is meant to be read, sometimes you just want it to be evocative above anything else.

• Thaumaturgy: this one looks like calligraphy on expert level, which gives it an esoteric feeling, as if reading a wizard’s book of forbidden spells.

• Barstukai: this font is part of a series inspired by Lithuanian mythology, and this one specifically by the tiny people living in forests. And let’s be honest, yes this is how a gnome writes.

• Guy 1976: inspired by the work of artist Guy de Cointet, this minimalist typeface feels almost alien and is perfect for a slick sci-fi look.

• Hofmann: named after Swiss designer Armin Hofmann (who was part of those cool guys who developed the Swiss Style), this font looks “organically engineered”.

Creative fuel

• An inspiring article about an initiative from Korean design studio Everyday Practice in reaction to the attempted coup last December : “If designers remain silent on these common sense issues, they may be bystanders who are giving a free ride to a democracy that was built at someone else’s expense.”

• Depending on the corner of the internet you hang around in, you may have already heard of this deep dive about Gorton, a font you’ve definitely seen before. If not, it’s a fascinating journey about an unsung hero of everyday signage.

• Trend reports are customary at this time of year but instead of simply announcing what will be in for typefaces this year, Monotype looks at the relevance of typography in 6 contemporary issues such as social activism, climate change and the inevitable spread of generative AI. Achievements from individual designers are praised alongside efforts from companies and startups, which can feel jarring at times considering the topics addressed. But the report still remains an interesting starting point to reflect about the impact of design beyond commercial communication.

• My new run of the Alphabet Superset has started and this time I’m doing album concepts! This means each week I’m redesigning the album art, CD art and booklet of albums I enjoy. The first entries are “Artillery from Heaven” by Contention, “Body Jumper” by Provoker and “Celestial Blues” by King Woman. I’m having a lot of fun with this and I’m quite happy with the variety I have so far. I post additional pictures on Bluesky, so make sure to follow me if you want to see more.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

You may have noticed already, but News from the Grid is looking a little different. This is part of the redesign/rebrand I mentioned last month. While I’ve been happy writing this newsletter in its past form for the last 2 years, it felt more like a personal journal rather than a resource for designers (and I’m more interested in reading and writing the latter). So I’ve decided to slightly rework NftG and refocus it on graphic design, with more insights and useful links. The content is basically the same, but a little less all over the place. I hope you’ll enjoy this new version of News from the Grid, and please let me know what you think!

Fresh off the grid

The rough visual design of “Outer Rim: Uprising - Campaign Handbook”

I’ve been working on the Campaign Handbook for “Outer Rim: Uprising”, a bundle for “MOTHERSHIP” filled with adventures and modules where players face evil corporations. The handbook is meant to connect all these adventures and provide GMs with a framework in which to use them. Its aesthetic is inspired by punk DIY zines and leaflets (think grungy textures and low-quality printing). The zine’s purpose and inspirations seem to be at great odds: providing a clear and defined structure vs. a counter-culture built around escaping and dismantling structures. While it would be tempting to apply the aesthetics in all aspects of the design to balance these clashing ideas, the density of the text would make it very hard to use at the table. Hence a compromise.

As you can see above, the gritty headings are stretched and compressed to counterbalance the rigid and structured body of text placed on a grid. This rigidity is also mitigated by the texture in the background and the placement of the paragraphs themselves. Indeed instead of fitting the text to a template, I adapt the template to the text using various graphic elements meant to evoke a handmade quality. See another example of this balancing act below.

Consulting on “Emergence”

I’ve started working on another “MOTHERSHIP” project, this one recently announced. “Emergence” is a funnel adventure where players attempt to escape a prison where inmates are used for strange cloning experiments. Carson (who’s part of the excellent team working on “Devil’s Due”) wanted my help in defining the look of the book. That sounds very similar to what I usually do, right? Well not really, because instead of picking fonts and setting margins based on a moodboard, I used the brief to expand on what Carson had already found.

For example, in the original moodboard there’s a page with screenshots from various media showing cold, brutalist concrete structures. Another one mentions technical drawings and riso printing as inspirations. In my mind, these immediately conjured up constructivism’s use of abstract shapes and limited colour palettes. The movement’s ideology also fits into the module’s themes, as it was focused on representing its contemporary industrial society. From there I suggested to Carson that we use the riso colours in abstract shapes to create highlights in the text, signal factions or different sections of the book. There were other reference points I brought up but I don’t want to reveal too much yet, hopefully I can tell you more next month…

I also picked and recommended a couple of additional fonts based on a selection Carson had made, so now the next step is for me to review a preliminary layout and some promotional assets. Speaking of, you can already follow the Kickstarter campaign!

What’s your type(face)?

“Great for dropcaps” won the last poll, but because the holiday season was killing me, I skipped the selection in December’s post. To make up for the long wait I offer you not 4 but 8 free, available for commercial use typefaces!

A quick definition: a dropcap is the initial letter of a paragraph enlarged and used as an ornament. Usually you’ll think of big, golden, illuminated letters found in medieval manuscripts or thick and thorny blackletter characters. And that’s rather correct as those elaborate dropcaps are much less common in contemporary typesetting. But technically you can use any typeface as a dropcap, just turn on the setting in your layout software and voilà! That’s why I’ve picked 4 typefaces that fit the traditional vision of dropcaps, and 4 modern options that I think work great as such.

The text in each specimen is taken from Google Fonts’ glossary.

• Ehmcke-Schwabacher Initialen: this one goes the blackletter route, with ornaments creating a sense of tension around the letters.

• Christensen Caps: something more medieval, rounder and with floral ornaments that feel a lot softer on the eye.

• Cheshire Initials: a combination of intense floral ornaments and incredibly swirly characters.

• Varah Caps: an art nouveau twist that I find very elegant and just dramatic enough.

• areminiscentsmile: an elegant typeface with discreet serif. Its contrasting strokes bring the drama you expect from a dropcap.

• Kuga: a chunky typepface using inktraps in a creative way. It’s playful but also sort of futuristic.

• Plomo: this one looks very mechanical, with tall slabs cutting through curves and strokes.

• RON: obviously sci-fi, this one looks like it’s made on a segment display that added round angles just for fun.

Creative fuel

• Nguyen Gobber is a graphic design and typography practice based in Vienna. Their work is great but I learnt about them through their design articles, called “insights”. The most recent one is about content and form, and how perceiving both as entirely separate entities where a designer receives a content for which they must design a form is limiting.

  Rather than viewing design as the task of finding the “right” form for a given content, it should be seen as the practice of crafting expressions with thoughtful references that guide the audience towards the desired interpretation.

  This is a fascinating perspective to consider regarding the consulting work I do with Carson on “Emergence”.

• I recently started following Nathaniel Roy, a book cover designer, who just a few days ago published a fantastic list of resources on how to design book covers: theoretical advice, fonts, images…

• It’s Nice That wrote about the Kyiv Type Foundry, which recently released a font family inspired by Kyiv’s metro signage. Ukrainians can download the fonts for free, anyone else is asked to make a donation. Find the fonts here.

• I finally read “Vermis” 1 and 2 by plastiboo (and I mean read, not just stare at the art). They are very atmospheric and inspiring. So much so that I made a piece in the style of plastiboo. Playing with the colours and texture was very fun.

• Alfred Valley made a video a few months back about the pleasure of losing yourself in experimentation. Of doing things for the sake of the process. And while I’ve been sort of exploring this last year with the various hobbies I picked up, it was enlightening to hear this idea formalised the way Alfred did (watch the video below, it’s very good). It also encouraged me to pursue another hobby I’ve been eyeing for a long long time: music. So at the end of last year I got two Stylophones thanks to my fiancée, and earlier this month I bought an EP-1320 Medieval. I suck at it, so much. But I’m also having so much fun.

• Remember those weapon posters I made between 2023 and 2024? Those were part of the Alphabet Superset challenge: each week I designed a poster based on a theme and letter of the alphabet and you can see the results here. I enjoyed the challenge so much that I have decided to do it again. This time I’ll be remaking cover art for albums I love, as well as design the matching booklet (for my younger readers, these contain lyrics and credits for each song). I’ve already made a list of ideas and I’m super pumped for it!

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!