Udemy
Customizing Type with Draplin: Creating Wordmarks That Work
4.6(588)47k students
Korshub's take
Customizing Type as a Designer
Acclaimed designer Aaron Draplin teaches the overlooked craft of type customization—the moment a designer takes ownership of letterforms instead of accepting defaults. In this 90-minute session, Draplin mines antique typographic references and reimagines them for modern use.
Core lessons cover kerning mastery (owning the space between characters), manipulating individual letterforms, sketching type by hand, and preparing files for print production. Draplin also explores texture techniques and complete typeface rebuilding for those ready to push further.
By the end, you'll understand how customized type becomes a powerful branding tool—essential for every logo, identity, and visual project.
About this course
Join design icon Aaron Draplin as he shares tried and true techniques for customizing type – an essential skill for graphic designers of all levels. In this 90-minute class, you'll follow along as Draplin digs for antique typographic references and then creates several type treatments of his own to design merchandise for Portland, his beloved hometown. The lessons cover:
- Discovering reference material
- Kerning - owning the space between characters
- Customizing letterforms
- Sketching type from scratch
- Prepping a file for print (and even finding a good promotional item vendor to work with!)
- PLUS bonus segments on adding texture and rebuilding typefaces from scratch
Draplin teaches you to avoid "default" typeface settings and to take ownership of your design by managing the forms, in-between spaces, and relationships of the letters you're working with. Once you master customizing type, you'll have a powerful skill in your design toolkit for every branding, logo, and visual styling project that comes your way.
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