Freelancers' Best-kept Secrets: Top Tips For Thriving On Your Own

February 9, 2024

A passionate typeface designer, Kristiana Kim brings a unique blend of artistry and technical skill to her creations through Rain Foundry. In this interview, Kristiana takes us through her journey from a weekend developer to a celebrated type designer.

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What inspired you to design typefaces in the first place?

_{Kristiana draws a plain geometric while Mary tells her that the joins need to be reduced for legibility}

In my nascent years as a developer on the weekends, I did a small type design class by Faber&Lo. In the class, I drew a geometric and really got passionate about it. Later on, I started doing calligraphy, reading typographic and type design theory before I would attempt to draw a single glyph on a font creation app. Thenafter I would tinker around with the nodes. What led me to become a type designer was the idea of creating a legacy for myself and earning money while drinking a nice cold brew, loafing in my loafers.

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When creating a new typeface, where does your creative process start?

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Firstly, I’d have to find a prime reference and several secondary references. From there, I’d draw some roughs and after that tinker with the nodes.

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Typefaces are everywhere! In the street, on a poster, in a library, on a book, and on a menu. Anywhere and everywhere. Whatever I see and like, I’ll amalgamate and interpret as such.

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An example of this is MD Agnecy, where I bought a poster abroad and was drawn to the agency.

_{I tend to draw typefaces in a fundamental and expressive way. Calligraphic stresses (angled stress), narrow joins and some idiosyncrasies on certain glyphs. This is so that it isn’t dry when you read it.}

Out of all the typefaces you’ve designed, what is your favorite family?

As of writing this and what’s currently in Creative Market it would be Conacher. The typeface infuses geometric properties with penciled illustrations. I use it in my business documents and it really brings something dry to life.

*_{Conacher was used in a Exhibition Poster design}*

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What kind of brand do you envision using your typefaces?

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If you had to help a brand select its primary font, what would be some of your criteria?

Purpose: What is the purpose of the brand?
Tools: Does the font contain the right weights, glyph sets, and italics?
Aesthetics: Is it visually attractive?
Ubiquity: Is it somewhat arcane that it can be a differentiator?

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I’d like to say thanks to Anneau for this interview. Hopefully to whomever reads this would enjoy my typefaces and use it for future projects. Follow me on Instagram. I’m pretty active there and post work-in-progress typefaces, typeface analysis, tier lists, opinions on typeface related things and other things.