That's a tricky question. Type designers these days do all kinds of other things... mostly because it's very very hard to make a living at type design alone, so it's in large part a labor of love for many of us.

If you're shooting for type design as a career, I would suggest you try to wedge yourself into the custom type commissioning side of things. But of course you need a good reputation to get people with money to trust you... So -in the same way that people who shoot for retail success sometimes give away their font designs for free to get exposure- you might consider doing some free custom work for local clients, or people who already know/trust you through other channels. approach them and say "I'll make you a custom font, no charge. If you like it, give me more work in the future, and tell people about me." If you end up doing that, make the font minimally functional: if they end up using it to satisfaction, they'll probably end up paying you to expand/refine it.

Good luck.

hhp

I am just curious to get some type design stuff in my portfolio and what kinds of projects do type designers work on other then just making fonts. I know that it is a very tedious job, just from doing some of my own type faces, but interested in developing more. Thank you HHP for your reply.

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I know its me, but I have always disliked the word "just" in uses like the above "just making fonts". That aside, strictly speaking type designers design type. Some do other things like lettering, typographic design, or graphic design. But when they do they are letterers, typographic designers, and graphic designers.

Some even do their own web development and marketing, but again...

James

Nevermind...