Quentin Blake: the clever type

At Zetteler, we’re firmly of the belief that children’s illustrators fall into two categories: 1) Quentin Blake, and 2) Others. Having grown up surrounded by piles of books (thank you, Roald Dahl) emblazoned with Blake’s inimitable drawings and joyously offbeat handwriting, and more recently been captivated by his excellent House of Illustration in King’s Cross, we were very especially excited at the news.

But the fact that Britain’s best-loved illustrator has had his handwriting fontified isn’t even the best bit. There has been a Quentin Blake typeface kicking around for years, after all. The really interesting thing is that Monotype hasn’t just reinvented the character set to make the new one; its lead designer Toshi Omagari has started from scratch to create a typeface that captures the quirks and variations of Blake’s natural script in all their irregular glory.

Because each character has four variant versions and a different one can appear each time you key the letter in, text in the new typeface doesn’t have the tell-tale repetitions found in standard handwriting fonts; instead, it mimics the random inconsistencies and imperfections that occur when writing by hand. Even the kerning changes depending on which letter variant the font throws up. That marks a pretty significant typographic breakthrough – a typeface that’s full of personality and clever enough to look authentically human.  

Top Image and Below 1: Quentin Blake Handwriting samples. 2: The new font is already being used in the Rold Dahl app Twit or Miss.