Archive | Originally published 2020-09-29. Ages, crowdfunding progress and current affairs are retained as reported at the time. Please refer to the product pages for current availability and licensing.
Roy Chan is the type director of Moodmen Font. At the time of this interview, the business worked across two areas: business-to-business commissions and products sold directly to consumers.
The approach was to build recognition through consumer-facing work and use that visibility to attract commercial commissions. Roy wanted expressive lettering to appear in Hong Kong’s streets and on social media, helping people see the variety possible in written forms.
A story behind the making of letters
Like many designers, Roy encountered missing characters when using a font whose appearance he liked but whose character set did not meet the needs of Traditional Chinese. He began constructing the missing forms from the design’s components and structure. That practical problem became a starting point for drawing letters.
He gradually developed products, including raised-letter phone cases and, towards the end of the previous year, the calendar 生於香港的無奈. Producing the calendar suggested that the business could be sustained, and he left his salaried job to pursue it full-time.
Roy felt that specialising in lettering distinguished the studio from broader design companies. Where other teams might be balancing illustration and many other design requirements, his practice could give the letterforms concentrated attention.
People often asked why the studio concentrated on Traditional Chinese. His answer was simple: it was not a deliberate rejection of English or Simplified Chinese, but the writing system he had used since childhood, and therefore the one he naturally wanted to draw.
Finding business clients was one of the main difficulties. ‘We began with products, and built our identity through our own Instagram presence. Customers might buy or share the work, but direct-to-consumer sales alone were not enough compared with the scale of commercial work.’
Another frustration was having less time to draw. Administrative and financial tasks, including managing expenses, took longer because they were not his specialism, yet they could not be left undone.
His advice to new founders was straightforward and practical: be prepared for demanding work.
‘I did not begin with a grand plan to run a lettering business. I made what I wanted to make and found somewhere to share it, such as Instagram. When people appreciated it and bought the products, that showed it could work. The calendar eventually sold out and gave us some capital to establish the company. I think continuing with work you care about can lead to a more durable practice than deciding in advance that you need a million dollars, a fixed number of staff and a complete operating model before starting.’
