In her own words, Laura Worthington writes: “An accomplished and award-winning typeface and lettering designer, I love the feel of pen or brush as my hand sweeps across just the right paper. My passion for the craft, my devotion to precision at the computer as I digitize and polish, my desire to provide designers with type that’s rich with personality and versatility combine to form a body of work that has brought both success and recognition. Each project is a journey that I undertake with enthusiasm and joyful discovery—and gratitude that my background in graphic design, calligraphy and typography has given me the opportunity to focus on what I most want to do.
My approach is unusual in that everything from original concept and drawings through production is mine. Rather than collaborate or look to historical predecessors, I craft original, lovingly handmade letters which form the base of my typeface designs, primarily for use in titling and display.
I offer designs that are infused with the sense of a milieu or era, a moment captured from time or place and then transformed. Yet, rich as they are, I nearly always provide the tools to make the typeface package so expansive—with an extraordinary number of contextual alternates, ornaments, glyphs, and other Open Type effects, culminating, for example, in Charcuterie, which features ten typefaces, each with their own complementary font families—that a designer can, in effect, combine what I design to make the typeface reflect their own personal style.
My work is available through a wide range of distinguished and popular distributors. While I do some commissioned work for select major brands, have led in-depth workshops at respected events such as Typecamp and TypeCon, spoken at The School of Visual Concepts, and taught college-level visual communications for five years, creating display typefaces is my focus.
Three of my typefaces (Alana, Hummingbird, and Samantha) have received Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts; three, beginning with Origins in 2010, have been among MyFonts Best of the Year, and one made Typographica’s coveted Best of Year short list. I’ve also been featured in Hand to Type by Middledorp, Slanted, MyFonts Creative Characters, CreativePro.com, and Computer Arts Magazine.
My home is in the Pacific Northwest. Nothing makes me happier in my professional life than spending my workday experimenting, conceiving, and painstakingly creating hand lettering for typefaces, sitting, dogs at my feet, surrounded by the trees.”
