Frances—

I've had a chance to think about the plans here for a font so far, and to me it's turned into not such a good idea for a few reasons:

First, Steve Ledger told Barbara last week that Bill was part Cherokee. So forget all the art I sent to you; none of it is Cherokee artwork.

You can't just go doing a font with Native America patterns in it and call it a tribute to Bill Taylor. That's like lumping the Irish, the Scottish, Brits, and Australians together. Except for the US Government enforcing some territories on our Native Americans, there was no one single "Nation". In New York State alone, there are the Onondaga, the Seneca (who run the Turning Stone casino just north of here), the Mohawk, and the Massapequa originally in the Long Island area. My own ancestry includes a member of the Massapequa.

So I really, sincerely, honestly encourage all of us—that if you want to make a typeface in honor of Bill, that you do some hours of research on what the Cherokee Nation created for patterns on home goods, weapons, and other markings intrinsic to the tribe.

I do know for a little research that there was a concentration of the tribe in Oklahoma during and after the US treaty with them, and there was also a treaty in 1888 in North Carolina with the Cherokee Nation.

This font deserves authenticity and accuracy. You can't begin with volunteers, I don't believe.

You need to begin with research.

Here's a link to some historic basket-weave patterns of the Cherokee of N. Carolina:

Cherokee basketweave patterns

Spark any ideas?

My Best,

Gary