When I came up with the idea of designing letter jewelry, back in 2017 (yes, it took eight years to get to this point, but that’s a story for another day!) I thought a lot about what I wanted my first design to be. Sure, I have literally hundreds of fonts to choose from and could start there, but I wanted to create something entirely new and designed specifically for this purpose. Kinda like my flagship design. It was a momentary ponderance, as I looked at my own monogram, my initials captured inside of a circle to make my decision.
I liked the idea of a single letter monogram — something simple and elegant that would look like a bit like a logo. I had recently designed my font collection Fairwater and believed that the script lettering would work well within the circle shape.
So, as usual, I worked late into the night, sketching, erasing, revising and perfecting single letterforms that fit into a circle. I second guessed myself every step of the way, often creating multiple variations of the same letter to make it work. It seemed like such a simple concept on the surface — stick a letter into a circle and you’re done, right? Alas, simplicity is often preceded by complexity and making letters fit into a shape is to ask the letter to be a contortionist and that level of flexibility takes time to work out.
But I managed to come up with a complete set that I’m mostly happy with. I say that because I plan to offer some variations of certain letters, such as the letter E. My sister Elaina (for whom I designed a font for, named after her) has let me know, under no uncertain terms, that she dislikes the uppercase E that, in her words, looks like a backwards 3. I just may create a Roman E just for her, and for anyone else who feels the same way. It’s a personal preference, sure, but all letter jewelry is supposed to be personal, right? Rondure is no different. It is simple, but with a lot of personality.
