An intricate web of historical research, real-life experiences, and just-for-fun quirks that swirled together to form Swim Club.
The Narrative
When I started on Swim Club, summer was turning to fall and I wanted to spend every minute outside, soaking up the last days of warm sun on my skin. My first drafts were sketched from the screened-in-porch of a lake house in Alabama, overlooking a wooden dock with a pretty metal waterslide. There’s always a specific scene or vignette that surfaces when I’m developing the concept for a font. For Swim Club, it was a group of girlfriends piling into a cabin after a long day on the lake—a little disheveled, laughing, and sitting around a crackling fireplace passing around a bottle of local wine. Cold toes in wool socks, laps covered in cozy quilts. As we developed the storyline, we honed in on the collective spirit of friendship, the wild mischief of a weekend getaway, and the nostalgia of soft, sentimental handmade textiles. I envisioned this font living on vintage tees/sweatshirts, faded on the side of a boat, or stitched into felt pennant flags on the cedar walls of a cabin.
Reality Meets Fantasy
This may come as a surprise, but each of my fonts is the visual embodiment of what’s happening in my season of life at that time. In a way, I am archiving the chapters of my life with each one. This story is about stepping back into girlhood with playfulness and freedom. Taking life less seriously after years of being weighed down by the grief of infertility. Something in me changed this year—like emerging from a chrysalis, I wanted to take up space in the world again with big, colorful, flapping wings, finally freed from the internal wrestle and paralysis of the cocoon. Being immersed in the water felt like the best sensorial representation of release, the antithesis of rigidity and stress, so we decided on a water theme. Some aspects of the story are built on reality, and others are a reflection of the things I’m longing for, missing, and daydreaming about. The weekend getaway was my fictional escape, and I enjoyed working with my concept developer, Kathryn Stewart, to write scenes about a group of girls sneaking out late at night for a dip in the lake under a full moon. Bare feet running down the dock with skirt hems lifted. The ecstasy of camaraderie, the safety of belonging in a group, the hysterics of late-night laughter. Like authors often do, I write a story to escape into another world, while peppering in key themes of my reality.
The Process
After finishing Morello this Summer and poring over pixels to get each flourish perfectly aligned, I wanted to design a font “just for me” that was fun and easy. Oh, the irony! Swim Club took me a lot longer than I expected. Each of my fonts is made by hand, meaning I literally start with pencil and paper, and Swim Club was no exception. I drafted many different iterations with varying proportions before settling on the final letterforms. Molded and remolded. Throughout my usual drafting process, the letters move from paper to screen and back to paper many times. The way a design translates from paper to screen always exposes a few oddities and reveals what needs to be changed for balance. The goal is for it to look imperfectly nuanced but never kitschy.
I wanted to take a lettering style that was traditionally considered simple, and push myself to make it more dynamic by adding real texture. To take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. Once the letters were designed, I ordered custom rubber stamps of them and experimented by pressing with different ink pressures on various papers. Subtle texture makes all the difference in a finished design, and it’s become a key component of my signature style. I’m so excited to offer a typeface where the texture is already embedded; all you have to do is type.
Research
Once a typeface is designed and developed, I create props and print pieces to bring it to life and visualize the many ways it can be applied. It’s one of my favorite parts of the process—the rubber meeting the road, so to speak. Last February, when I was working on Index Mono, I realized that I was stalling out when it came to generating the actual words and phrases that would go on each piece. Enter: My hero, Kathryn Stewart, and her penchant for archival research and writing. She’s brought depth and soul into these last few launches and helped me establish a sense of place and time for each of them that feels completely authentic. We decided to set Swim Club in the early 1900s in Appalachia. Our collaborative energy has unearthed new creative territory in each of us, which has been such an unexpected joy. Enjoy a few of my favorite historical references she sourced for Swim Club…
Patches, Keys, and Tees
As I mentioned before, I’ve been pushing myself to go the extra mile in exploring tactile methods. I wanted my marketing for Swim Club to be completely unique, and I wanted to produce deliverables that I could share with you physically—from my hands to yours. As a token of gratitude and small way to connect off-screen, I’ll be gifting branded keychains and felt patches to the first 50 Swim Club customers*. Wee!
My husband has a very cool collection of vintage t-shirts that he’s accumulated throughout the years. When we were dating, I loved to borrow them, particularly the Lakers one and the Siberian Husky one. Tragically, after wearing a few of them to shreds, I lost my borrowing privileges. Throughout the process of drafting Swim Club, I would go into our closet and study his shirts—inspired to design a font that could be used to recreate the kinds of designs I loved. As a final deliverable for the Swim Club marketing, I designed my very own vintage tee (and learned along the way how tricky it is to make something look authentically old and not over-designed). I probably drafted 50 iterations before landing on a pretty simple design. Classic. I ordered several t-shirt proofs, but printing on a fresh new shirt just didn’t feel right, so I scoured Etsy, eBay, and local thrift shops to find tees that were worn-in and one-of-a-kind. Once I have the full collection in hand, a local shop will be screenprinting them here in Tennessee. I can’t wait to share these with you! They will be for sale through my website in December.
Hugs ‘n Kisses
I just want to close by saying thank you. If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you’ve purchased a font, thank you. If you’ve liked or shared one of my posts, thank you. This year has taken me by surprise in the best way possible. The font shop is thriving beyond what I could have imagined, and I feel so creatively seen, supported, and fulfilled. Thank you for seeing the vision and fueling my dreams.
Thank you for being my buoy,
× Andi
A Songlist for Lakeside Days and Cabin Nights
*To receive your free keychain and patch: first purchase the Swim Club font, then message me on Instagram with your order number and mailing address.
Hugs 'n kisses to YOU!! I have the most fun collabing with you on all your gorgeous fonts. <3 <3 I think I love them all equally as a good auntie should, but our Swim Club adventure has brought so much fun into this year when I needed it most. Can't wait for ;D real ;D life ;D swim club...
This is a gorgeous and moving tribute to your life and new font! I adore the image of the big, colorful flapping wings. I'm proud to witness your transformations over the years, how you merge art and life, and how you inspire others. Congratulations on Swim Club!