I’ve come to a crossroad for Nofont.com … and I haven’t even started to build it for real yet. A year ago I was sure that this was the place where all my material should end up, and that would form the “killer content” that would draw the masses. In a “If you build it he will come” kind of way.

I remember when I was 17 or 18, I used to watch Field of Dreams every weekend. It was not for Mr Costner, not the love of baseball, not the history or the culture of the game. No it was that feeling when the single man put every thing he had into what he believed in, every breath he took aimed at reaching his goal. He knew he would do it, the rest of the world just didn’t give a damn. It was the poetic justice when Karen said “Dad, there is a man in the field” and Doc Grahams “When a place touches you like this, Ray, the wind never blows cold again”. It made me cry sometimes.

I have had that feeling for this site ever since I first started it (or actually got the domain from my friends on my 25th birthday ten years ago). I have had the feeling that this will be my safeplace of pure passion, that this is the place that I would retreat to when other things failed.

I didn’t realise until a few days ago that Nofont.com is my field of dreams. But as soon as I realised that I wasn’t sure any more. I’m not sure that if I build it they will come, and I’m not talking about the subscribers, followers and the unique visitors. I’m talking about passion, and the love I have for what I do. What if I build it and I loose that feeling, then what will come?

What if all this effort that I’m about to put into it and everything I have done up til today makes me lose my passion for the whole thing. Maybe the whole point of it is that it cannot and should not be built or completed.

I don’t know.

Right now I’m feeling forced to bring to much business and strategy into this site that is drains the love and passion. It has become a long list of must-dos instead of a long list of love-to-dos.

So the obvius thing is to remove the must-dos and bring in the love-tos.

… to be continued.

So this is, as far as I have found, the first ever design/production I have made. I was 7 years old, drew a magazine and walked around the block selling it. I sold it for 25 swedish öre a copy. I’m not that impressed with the graphics/design/typography but I’m quite impressed with the content; crossword puzzles, competitions, jokes, comic strips, recipes and even a secret-dingbat-language that I made up.

I remember me and my dad photocopying it at his work. And after stapling it together he asked me “What’s the first thing you do after finishing a magazine?” and hopefully I answered something really visionary (but more likely “Öööhhhhh?”). So he said “Check that the pages are in order”.

I also remember one person buying it asked me what I would do with the money, and surprisingly I came up with a brilliant answer; “Buy more paper for the next issue” while in the back of my head I went “Candy, sucker!”

We’ve (me and Jaan Orvet) just released the Noded book and the site (guess you haven’t missed that if you follow my tweet :-).

So things are going to be a little bit different here at Nofont.com in the future. The “Running a business”-section will move over to Noded.biz.

The Nofont.com site will be more focused on typography, both online and offline.

So if your main reason for following my rss was the business talk please head over the Noded.biz and pick up that stream and you won’t miss a thing.

Finally the office is starting to appear, a few days behind our original schedule. The delay is mostly because the paint we are using for the furniture and the floor was supposed to dry after 12 hours but in some cases it took up to 24 hours. Sucker paint. But it’s shiny and beautiful, the paint is originally intended for industrial use on hard metal surfaces but the high shine factor of it made us use it for the office, and it truly looks beautiful.

Only the first room with the workplaces are finished, but to be honest something else would have been impossible since I have about 40 boxes of reference work, inspirational material, books and stuff that I need to sort before we can start decorating the back area.

My workplace

My desk, it looks like … I don’t know a German DJ booth from hell? Well I really like it anyway, I will have external harddrives underneeth my desk for easy access and current stuff on the lower right section. The desk is made minimal so that I’m forced to keep it clean and not clutter it with magazines, paper, cups or any other crap.

Mine and Malins workplace, the typographic tree will be a divider to the others sitting next to me.

The beloved wheels of steel. Vinyls goes in the shelves beneeth.

The collaborative space with the Thai pillows. Yes, that ugly shelf in the back will be painted white.

I finally managed to get my hands on and old hospital scale, will use it as a magazine stacker.

Some of our beloved boxes that needs to be sorted and taken care of.

Today was a good day, good but strange. It was supposed to be about surfaces, shapes and wet paint …

… but instead today became all about those waiting. Waiting in the back to come out of their boxes, to come out of their jars and their cans. Those impatient ones that want to come out of the dark and engage into battle, get down to work, play that music again. Those who want to be dusted off and serve a purpose, to be lined up in the windows and shelves again after all these years. Today was for all those crazy ones … and Gad have I missed them too.

The plan is to have the office up and running on monday 1st of September.

Read part I, part II and part III of this series of posts.