Alice in Wonderland falls down a hole and finds a new world that is hard to escape.

Alison Kay Andrews thinks she will try out a font or two and falls into a world that is hard to escape, too.

This happens to me all the time!

Trying fonts is fun.  And creative.  And intellectual.  Each text has qualities that the font needs to express.  And it can take a while to find the right fit.

And when the right fit happens, it’s so wonderful!  Qualities appear on the page in visual form.  It’s a lot like writing (or painting or sculpting, or any creative process), really.  An idea exists.  The idea wants to express itself.  Sometimes it takes hours of editing and trial and error to express it.  Sometimes it just flows out from pure inspiration. Either way, it’s so satisfying when the idea is revealed and fully expresses itself at the end.

The end result brings beauty and order and clarity.  It spreads joy or solemnity, sparks the imagination or reinforces established information. Or all of those things, sometimes.

Even if you are just designing place cards.

This afternoon I unintentionally spent over an hour playing with fonts as I considered some texts that I might like to make up as wall art…but most likely will not make up as wall art. So was this a waste of time?

I think not!

It was wonderful.

My family can tease me all they want.  Font-land is one of my happy places.