How do you make a font out of a basketball?

Today, we would like to explore the fascinating world of Typography.

Typography is the art and technique of arranging text in a visually appealing and legible manner. It's about choosing the right fonts, setting spacing, and organising text to make written language on your designs (brochures, websites, leaflets) clear and engaging. Essentially, it's how text looks and feels, influencing how a layout appears and how readers perceive the message. 

The standard fonts we use daily are ‘Serif’ and ‘Sans-serif’. 

A serif font is a typeface that uses small strokes or extensions (serifs) at the end of the main strokes of letters. These serifs can be decorative or functional, helping to make letters more easily distinguishable, especially at smaller sizes. Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, and Palatino are from the serif family.

A sans-serif font is a typeface where the letters do not have decorative strokes or "serifs" at the ends of their lines. This means they have a clean, simple appearance, often used in digital settings and for their readability. Arial, Helvetica, Futura, and Calibri are fonts from the sans-serif family.

However, typography can also be abstract. They do not have to conform to the standard serif and sans-serif, but can come in all different shapes. Block fonts, grunge, scribbles – even letters made from food or plants can be used as typography.

At Crossover Studios, we have designed our own font, called ‘The Crossover’. Our font is made out of the shape of a basketball. 

The process:

We started by creating our own basketball icon – using a simple line drawing based on the lines of a basketball.

We then dissected it into letters using different areas of the ball icon.

By using our shape to make our typography, you can see that the letters come in different sizes. However, as they are made from the same shape, all the letters look like they come from the same font family.

When we finished, we ran our letters through some font software, and boom! – We have our first-ever Creative Crossover font, which is made from a basketball!

If you would like a copy of the Crossover typeface or have any questions on how to make your own font, please message us – we would love to help and hear about your ideas!

Thank you for reading :)