Fonts In Use

FONTSINUSE

So I wasn't really sure what I would focus my blog posts on but I figured the best thing to do for me and my fellow designers was to try and find helpful sites that could assist us in making some of the best work we can come up with. Sometimes you just don't have those creative juices flowing or maybe are just unsure about what to do in certain design situations and you need a little push or inspiration.

This site is called Fonts in Use

                                                                                Fonts In Use helps designers like us choose the right typeface and what it would and could look like in certain designs. You can search a certain typeface or just go through the images until you find a typeface you like. It even shows other typefaces that were used in that design so you know what typefaces work well with each other. This site includes a lot of the most well known typefaces like Arial and Helvetica but also a few not so well known. However, The more common, the more images. You can also search based upon the type of design you are creating and what it will be used for. You can search by industries (like fashion or architecture) or even formats (like posters or magazines) to get a clear cut idea of what typefaces to use or ideas on how to use it. 

Another cool feature is that if a design particularly interests you you can click on the image and it will give you a brief description of the image, maybe the designer and even a location of where they found the work.

I think this is actually a decent site, even though pretty new, seems to have a lot of potential. I think it also could help come up with an idea or a better way of using any typeface and give you creative strategies. I've already started looking into fonts for some of my projects! You can visit the site at www.fontsinuse.com

Hand Drawn Type (and why it needs publicity)

   I've always been infinitely jealous of people who have this talent. To be able to render words with the clarity of a machine is a skill that I don't think is nearly publicized enough. When we are younger, good penmanship is always stressed but never for the right reasons. We have to lean cursive and honestly, how useful was it? Compare that to this for just a second and think, "That looks way cooler and could definitely be useful to me now." Hand typography and calligraphy are like lost arts in today's society and that just bothers me. I wish there was a class somewhere in this school where we could learn how to do this because it just blows me away with the level of detail. I'm assuming the key to it comes from lots and lots of practice along with having reasonable artistic skills.
   There are scores upon scores of blogs and such on Tumblr that can give you more examples of beautiful work like this. We as the next generation of designers should try and spread awareness of just how awesome this skill is and try to do it ourselves. Before this class I had no idea how much effort was put into the creation of words and letters. People outside of our field find this science and craft typically boring or confusing so it should become part of our responsibility to show just how awesome and important all of this is. If everyone in the world had just a little bit of this skill, we will have drastically reduced the number of chicken-scratch writers out there, myself included.

Kern Type

Typography is a vital part of any Graphic Design composition. Knowing basic and advanced techniques of kerning, leading, typeface use, contrasting typefaces (serif/sans, weights, etc.), sizing, arrangement, alignment and various other parts that make a successful design. For me, kerning is something that is always tricky, even when you 'optically' align the text on a project. Manual kerning is a great skill to have and very important so you don't look back on something and have it stick out like a sore thumb.

I have seen this site a while ago, but it came back up in one of my subscribed design blogs. Kern Type is a site that quizzes you on your ability to properly kern the word displayed. This fun game of kerning different words allows you to see your accuracy and displays the percentage of how well you did. Each word that appears also shows the font, typographer, and the year the font was created, which gives you some typeface knowledge for later use or sparking an interest to find out more about the typefaces! And they made this site multitouch friendly for all you iPad owners.

I personally learned a few things from the tricky character shapes in some typefaces of different words. How did you do?

What Font Should I Use?

            I found this awesome article on Smashing Magazine called “What Font Should I Use?” It has some key points & reminders for graphic designers when choosing fonts.  First off a little bit about Smashing Magazine; It is a website that publishes articles mostly on web design, but is not limited to, for designers to come & read for some insight.  I find it very useful not only to just browse articles & see if one appeals or applies to you but also to search for examples for your own inspiration.  There is also a breakdown of subcategories in the left column of the website if you want to browse particular areas of design.  I think this website is another great reference for any designer for inspiration or insight into parts of the design world.

            Now about the article “What Font Should I Use?”  I think this article is a good reminder for designers of how & why we should choose the fonts we do depending on what it is for.  I thought one good point was how designers need to know the types of font families (geometric, humanist, old style, transitional, modern, and slab serif) in order for a better understanding & application of these fonts to our work.  I think as designers we a care more about the feeling & mood the font conveys(which don’t get me wrong is important) for the particular piece & forget the importance of having a fundamental understanding of the fonts structures as well.  This is also important for the next point they make with mixing fonts.  I like the key part of this point: “keep it exactly the same, or change it a lot.”  Sometimes it can be challenging deciding which fonts to mix together & why.  This fundamental point is always good to have as a guide in the back of your mind when placing fonts together.  Overall I think this article is a very useful reminder of the basics of choosing fonts & is a good reference that I think designers should reread from time to time to keep themselves in check!