Type Overload
As I sit here writing out an article on type I am surrounded by different typefaces. I can count ten just within my field of vision. It seems like a typeface has been created for every purpose, every emotion, every circumstance we might need. Other times the one you need just doesn’t seem to exist yet. Font creation takes less and less skill the more software develops. This makes it easier for a non-type designer to create a font, while at the same time making it easier for low-quality fonts to flood the field. Does this create a type overload? Or does it fuel innovation?
In the early days of type each letter had to be handcrafted out of wood or metal. Later on with the advent of computer software, it still took a high level of knowledge to create a well design typeface. With newer easy to use software the Internet has become flooded with thousands of overly trendy, grungy, poorly designed fonts. Is the problem too many bad fonts? Maybe not. Its up to the designer to choose the right typeface, and there are many well designed free fonts out there.
A great example of a well-designed collection of free type can be found sites like The League of Moveable Type, or FontSquirrell. These sites feature some great families like League Gothic, a bold sans serif with a vintage aesthetic. There are also classy serifs like Prociono and Linden Hill. While these might not compare to designer typefaces like Gotham, Tungsten or Archer, they provide and cost effective alternative.
In the end easier accessibility to type creation is a good thing for the design community. Someone may start out making lousy fonts, but may also learn more about the field and become a better typographer. It really is up to the designer to choose the right typeface that communicates their message the best. Natural selection should eventually separate the good typefaces from the bad, as long as we make the right decisions.
Finally got around to finishing the vector illustration for my sophomore portfolio review!
Working on some experimental typography for class done using xerox transfer and a simple stencil.
Garfield minus Garfield is an awesome comic that removes its main character, Garfield, in order to reveal the existential existence that is Jon Arbuckle. To quote myself, “lol, hmmm.”
Hmmm… forgot to do a daily creative these last few dailys.
Oh well. Here’s one from a recent typography project. We had to do morphologies and one was for the style “mutilated.”
I’ve decided to take on the regimen of designing something outside of class once a day, every day. Nothing in particular, could be anything!
It begins today, with this! No, not the chicken-scratch in pencil, the chicken-scratch in pen.
After looking at other hand-drawn type I wanted to give it a go myself.
My kind of site: business in the front, party in the back.
