A blog by any other name...

Back in the old days, aka the 80s, my primary school presented all of the students in my year 5 class with The Australian Lettering Book.  Let me just say this:  I. Loved. This. Book.

Where the obsession began.

The book resurfaced recently and it got me thinking about my obsession with finding The Right Font.  It was always with me when I needed to put the finishing touches on my poster about Australian Birds or create a heading for my project about explorers Burke and Wills.  I often spent more time working on my headings than the actual content of the project hoping to dazzle my teachers with my creative talent.  "Look," they would say, holding up my poster for all of Grade 5 to see.  "This is what an A++ poster looks like."  

Okay, that last part didn't happen but you get the point.

Below are a few gems from this awesome book.

Letter-Shading advice

Ooh, fancy.

Pretty

In high school I may have forgotten about the book but my love of a good font hadn't gone away.  In my Year 12 Graphic Communication class we had a project that required us to come up with packaging and advertising for the product of our choice.  I chose perfume and named my product 'Mania.'  Why?  Simple, I liked the letter 'M.'  I loved working on that project!

Before I settled on the name Marmalade for my business I had my heart set on Milk & Cookies as a business name.  I loved the sound of it, and was so excited at the thought of choosing a gorgeous font to complement the name and I just knew that everyone would automatically know that any business with a cool name like Milk & Cookies would also have cool designs and products.  Obviously I didn't go with that name.  I ran it by a few people who poo-pooed the name, with the advice that naming a stationery design business after food and drink was too confusing.  Philistines!  So as you can see I took the advice on board, ignored it completely and named my business after something you put on toast.  I may have been hungry when I was brainstorming names.

I have been asked a few times about how I came up with Marmalade as a name.  After an awkward pause where I try to think up something terribly clever I go with the truth.  I opened the dictionary to 'M' and systematically went through it looking for the light bulb moment.  In the end, it was about the letter 'M.'