Monotype’s typeface for Sir Quentin Blake will fill you with joy

One of the world’s most beloved illustrators, Sir Quentin Blake has brought amazing joy into the hearts of numerous people around the world with his art. So it is more than pleasing that Monotype’s Toshi Omagari turned his distinctive handwriting into a typeface.

“Quentin’s writing is anything but regular but it’s not totally random either. There’s something you can find in it to say that it’s his — just as no single cloud is identical to another and has no definite shape, when you find one in the sky you can still tell it’s a cloud” explains Toshi.

“I didn’t want anything to look too unique, especially in the vowels which appear more frequently, because people would notice the ones that stand out, notice them repeated, and realize it’s a font,” he adds. “It had to look random, and it had to hide the fact that it’s not his actual handwriting” says of a typeface that doesn’t just look like Sir Quentin Blake’s writing, it acts like one.

“I have been impressed by the way that Monotype interpreted my handwriting in various forms” says Quentin. “So that it has the distinctive characteristics but at the same time is eminently usable as a typeface in any number of situations.”

With four alternatives for each letter Monotype’s project has an authentic, natural feel to it. Discover more on this project here.