Two Words: FREE FONTS!

Are you tired of Times Roman, Verdana, Georgia and the standard lineup of software-specific fonts you are using in your materials? Fonts convey feelings, emotion, personality and presence.

I am a closet font fanatic. I love fonts the way other women love shoes.

Here are some GREAT free font resources that provide font options for you to liven up your materials and breathe some life into your message. These are only just a few sites that offer free fonts for your use:

• urbanfonts.com offers a selection of featured free fonts
• simply the best fonts is also another font library
• 1001freefonts.com is my fave. 1001freefonts offers: 
- an entire A-Z library of free fonts - an option to test your text in the fonts of your choice to see how it looks before you download the font  - option to download the font for either Mac or Windows - font searches in multiple ways, either font type or alphabetically
• searchfreefonts.com is also a great font library

Simply click on the downloadable fonts and save them on your desktop. In some cases you need to unzip the font file you have saved on the desktop. You then just copy and paste the font file (the file(s) with a .ttf file extension) into your Windows/Fonts folder in your computer, et voila!

Contact me through my website, ideasinbloom.ca, if you have any font questions.

Did you find this blog helpful? Please let me know by commenting below or sharing it on facebook or twitter!

Watch for our next Bloom! blog: Why am I having color issues in printing?

Tonia Lenk is a brand specialist and owner of Ideas In Bloom, a brand design studio specializing in collaboration on projects with clients who are dedicated to excellence, committed to the community and sustainability in the environment. She is a proud mother of four, and writing her first novel in 2010. She recently took up flute, and shares her knowledge on print, web and brand design freely!

Are You Stuck On Color?

In my experience, most of my clients come to me with brilliant ideas, and just need me to translate their concept into a visual reality.

I call it playing in the garden. 

We get to have fun, and the space between my client's ideas and my creativity is a palpable energy that blooms into the most amazing results.

Often, my clients do know who they are, what their business offering is, and why they do what they do. I turn that information into fonts and color, and when called upon, graphic images or photography.

I select colors based on what I have received from communication with my clients: through email, over the phone or face-to-face. I use my creative intuition and curiosity to learn about my client, and what has attracted them to their area of business. I want to know what excites them, and who they love working with. I encourage my clients to take time to write a paragraph to me of their ideal client. Then, I get to work.

I open up a host of color palettes to work from and seek to appeal to the specific customer base my client is seeking to attract. One of the tools I am proud to use is Colourlovers. It is an amazing online resource to peruse all kinds of colors, palettes and patterns.

You can search by Palettes, Patterns and Colors through
keywords and phrases.

You can search by color and even keyword, such as "fish" and get a hoard of results. You can search "geriatric" if you are seeking a colour palette to appeal to the retirement crowd. You can search "toys" and get a whole different result for new parents. It takes all the guesswork out of what colors match well and is psychologically targeted!

So, bring your ideas to the table, and watch them blossom into a million possibilities of color

Look for our next blog: Two Words: FREE FONTS!

Tonia Lenk is a brand specialist and owner of Ideas In Bloom, a brand design studio specializing in collaboration on projects with clients who are dedicated to excellence, committed to the community and sustainability in the environment. She is a proud mother of four, and writing her first novel in 2010. She recently took up flute, and shares her knowledge on print, web and brand design freely!