AUTOLETE PROCESS

The process for this project was fairly straightforward, yet long and arduous. Creating this typeface involved copious amounts of time, research, and some good ol’ trial-and-error.

While I would normally start off in the sketchbook, for this project, I had to actually find the letters I wanted to recreate, and a great way to do that is to venture out and do some exploring.

I knew from the start that I wanted to take my typeface from a source that I could actually physically find in my local world—rather than just finding something online. With this in mind, I did essentially all my hunting in my hometown. I looked at old buildings downtown, as well as vintage packaging and books in antique stores.

And of course, I also had to hit up the Jockey Lot—Anderson’s local flea market. It’s every bit as crummy and atrocious as one could hope for, and I love it way more than I probably should. It’s also filled with neat trinkets and old, grody packaging.

The highlight for me at the jockey lot was definitely the antique bottles. The glass beveling on the Lime Cola and the pitiful sticker on the Orange Crush really stood out to me, and I briefly considered taking those on for my typeface. But then I found a source that was even more intriguing to me.

This disheveled sign is completely fixed to a tree next to an abandoned grocery. Many aspects of this sign stood out to me—particularly the depth and texture created by the layers of text. It looks as if this sign had been reused and painted over for decades, and all the layers have simultaneously come to the surface to tell a bit of a story.

At first glance, the intersection of the words “Auto” and “Obsolete” gave the impression of a new word: “Autolete.” So, with the typeface basically naming itself, and a decent variety of typographic style to choose from on this sign, I moved forward.

For additional context, I also took a good look at the aforementioned grocery. It’s very clearly a remnant of mid-century Americana, with the building being no bigger than some people’s bedrooms and the gas pumps having that modern-yet-timeless look to them.

I’d seen this building plenty of times driving through the backroads of town and hadn’t given it much thought, but it is truly a time capsule of a simpler time (at least in terms of gas stations). I also decided to reach my hand through the broken windows and snap some photos of the inside, and I was honestly baffled at the amount of things still inside this locked building on the side of the road. It almost looked like it was abandoned last week.

Info about this building was scarce online—to say the least. Any source I managed to find on the building was just repeating what I already knew about it.

But one decently interesting find was these two posts by TG57Roadmaster from February 2007. Just some snazzy vintage cars with this retro gas station, but the building apparently had a totally different paint job before its current green look… so that’s neat.

As you could imagine, info on the metal sign of interest was basically non-existent. EXCEPT for this clearly older image which more clearly shows “Auto Parts from 1928 to ‘70” as the more recent layer.

What intrigues me even more about this picture is that the tree is basically trying to absorb the poor sign. Rankin’ is completely covered and decently faded, which would imply that it may have originally said “Rankin Obsolete” on the bottom layer. Any other words are basically indistinguishable or non-existent.

LETTER STUDIES

My first steps when attempting to digitize the letters were simply tracing them on the trusty iPad. While this may seem like an unnecessary step, it was decently beneficial for really isolating the differing letter styles and figuring out what the best path would be for a typeface. The majuscules of “RANKIN” and “PARTS” were immediate standouts for me, as well as the numbers listed at the bottom.

The next logical step was to try and sketch some letters and see how they might adhere to a grid system. The majuscules were definitely the glyphs that I found most intriguing, so decided it’d be best to start with those.

During this initial round of glyphs, I also worked out numbers and symbols. I also dabbled with the idea of including the minuscules seen from words like “Auto” and “Obsolete” on the sign, but for the sake of time, I opted to just stick with majuscules for the moment.

At a certain point, the DNA of each of the letters became self-explanatory, and I was able to work almost exclusively from the computer. By establishing rules for the measurements and applying them to a consistent grid system, I was able to work through the simple letters like H and O, and the rest of them would form soon enough.

ROUND 1

After a few good sessions of chugging through, I had the first round of letters done and ready for critique. Many of the more complex letters were able to be built from simpler letters like H, O, and X. These three gave me the basic horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and rounded forms I needed to make the rest.

The numbers came rather naturally as well, with the biggest difficulty coming from 6 and 9. The apostrophe took its form directly from the ‘70 on the original sign, and gave the exclamation point its own distinct retro look. I also made sure to include an alternate R to honor the one found in “PARTS” on the original sign—as well as giving the R some new friends with K, Q, and L.

I felt very positive overall about the first draft, and the changes that needed to be made would soon come to my attention.

REVISIONS AND NEW STYLE

The changes were mostly subtle and involved me tweaking many letters ever-so-slightly. The biggest changes from the first round to the final weren’t actually found in any letters, but in numbers and symbols. 2 had its foot extended and hair curled. The $ was given a slight slant to its vertical line. And of course, the & went to the chiropractor to get its back straightened out.

It was also during this time that I decided to create a condensed version of the typeface—mainly inspired by the tall and sleek A and O from the original sign. This version would not include the five special stylized characters—the bonus K, L, Q, R, and &.

FINAL VERSION

At their final stage, the letters all fell right into place and felt cohesive and complete. Along the way, I also found that rounded versions of the letters looked rather smooth and added to the nostalgic tinge of the mid-century modern style. With that in mind, I also created rounded versions of the typeface for both the Regular and Condensed styles.

AUTOLETE REGULAR

AUTOLETE ROUNDED

AUTOLETE REGULAR CONDENSED

AUTOLETE ROUNDED CONDENSED

SODA BOTTLES

I was also inspired to create some mock soda bottles that harkened back to the mid-century style of the typeface—pretty much bringing everything full circle. After sketching through some ideas and gathering inspiration, I decided to go for a bit of a faux-screenprinted look. So I took to the iPad and drew some fruit in a simple but textured style.

Then it was just a matter of creating a nice layout of the text and illustrations—as well as some ingredients listed out, plus a bar code just for good measure.

I bought a generic bottle of soda from my local sandwich shop and took the label off. Then I did a mini-photoshoot setup (literally just some sheets and wooden boards I found in the studio) and took some shots of the bottle.

And from there, it just took some simple (but complicated) photoshop work to attach the labels and recolor the liquid. As a big soda enthusiast, I kinda wish these were real. Maybe one day.

THANKS FOR READING

Seriously, I appreciate it. This is definitely a condensed highlight reel of the process, but I hope you were entertained nonetheless! To read more about the final typeface, head back to the main project page.