New Zealand's newest typeface designer, Danielle Smith, releases JY Dandy

Massey University student Danielle Smith not only turns 21 today, but her first typeface family, JY Dandy, is officially released. Licences go on sale today directly from JY&A Fonts, and JY Dandy will be made available via MyFonts.com and other retailers before March 31.

   Smith, in her final year of a graphic design degree at Massey University Wellington, originally developed JY Dandy as part of a project.

   She describes her hand-drawn typeface family, available in roman and italic, as ‘non-élitist and accessible’.
   ‘It purposely has a delicate, hand-done feel, and is ideal for display usage,’ she says.

   During her project presentation, Jack Yan, of Jack Yan & Associates, spotted Smith’s work and said it should be commercially released.

   ‘It reminded me of Pablo Ferro’s hand-lettering for some of his movie titles,’ says Mr Yan, who began in the design business as a calligrapher 25 years ago.

   ‘I was also conscious that women were greatly under-represented in the typeface design business.’
   Smith completed the characters, including the rupee symbol, and prepared them in FontLab 5. Yan did the technical end, hinting, spacing and kerning the two fonts. The character set is the basic western European one.

   The licensing cost retails at US$29 per font, US$49 for the family.

   Jack Yan & Associates’ font business, JY&A Fonts, represents not only Yan and Smith’s work, but that of Mark Geard, David Philpott, Jure Stojan, Todd Hallock, Greg Bastin, and Antonio González de Santiago.