About Jamie Clarke

I am an independent graphic designer with over 25 years’ experience, based near Bristol in the UK. I divide my studio time between my two passions—lettering and type design (described in the box to the left). While these practices are quite distinct, they continually compliment and influence each other, keeping my work distinctive and original.

My lettering work combines words with meticulously crafted imagery to create visual stories. This approach has found a niche with branding agencies, book publishers and packaging designers. Alongside these commisions, I design original typefaces (you’re reading ‘Rig Sans’ right now), that provide a unique, visual tone of voice to written language. You can licensed my fonts for use from a number of partners.  I also produce custom fonts for clients who would like to encapsulate their brand essence visually within their written communications.

‘Type’ or ‘Lettering’—what's the difference?

These two terms may seem like different ways to describe the same thing but both are activities are quite distinct.

‘Lettering’ refers to letters and words drawn for a specific, one-off purpose, like a book title or a logo.

‘Type’ is when characters of a consistent style are arranged into a font that you can install on a computer and type with. The process of making a font is called Type Design.  I wrote an article for Google Fonts that describes the process.

My background

Despite a passion for letters that ignited at school, my design career began in web design. I initially worked for a couple of startups then joined Microsoft, where I eventually became Head of Design in EMEA. In my late twenties I started a design agency with two partners in London. The business grew to emply over 20 designers and developers and attracted a client list of globally respected brands.

In my spare time I started to re-explore the world of type and lettering via my blog, Type Worship. This ultimately led to a career turn. After an exhilerating decade at my agency I decided to follow my passion and studied type design at the University of Reading and took course in letterpress at the St. Bride Foundation. To make a fresh start I relocated to Sydney for a few years where I began honing my lettering skills and designing my first fonts. In 2017 I returned to the the UK where I’ve been working on lettering commissions and expanding my library of typefaces ever since.

• How typefaces are designed, Google Fonts Knowledge
• Making Friends with SideNote, I Love Typography
• In conversation with... Jamie Clarke, Typograph.Her
  
• The Evolution of Chromatic Type, I Love Typography
  
• Craftsmanship that would make William Morris proud, Typograph.Her
• Brim Narrow – Making a Chromatic Typeface, I Love Typography
  
• Rig Shaded –Create your own 3D typeface, Creative Bloq
  
• Typographers’ Typefaces, Type Worship, 8 Faces Blog
  
• How to design your own typeface, Creative Bloq

All of my fonts are included with Adobe's Creative Cloud or can be purchased at: MyFonts or I Love Typography.