Confessions Of A Type Nerd
I am not ashamed to say that I am a full-on, dyed-in-the-wool font-ophile. I can’t help myself. I have just always loved and been drawn to (no pun intended) beautiful typography. Driving down the road, I call out the names of fonts on signage and billboards, offering impromptu critique on style, placement, and other design considerations. You get the picture.
As a graphic designer, typefaces are an essential and versatile part of my creative palette. Type is functional art. It communicates on so many levels. Aside from the purely utilitarian aspects of type, each individual font has its own distinct personality and communicates something unique and powerful.
We see a lot of companies choosing clean sans serif fonts to send a message of modern, smart efficiency. Countering the widespread use of these sans serif typefaces, there’s currently a trend toward more playful-and-chunky serif fonts (check out the Chobani yogurt label). That whimsical approach works great for a yogurt company, but for a buttoned-down financial business? Not so much.
I could go on and on. I actually have a mood board for a current magazine project on my office wall featuring nothing but artfully arranged blocks of type. It feels good to just gaze at the shapes and colors they make on the page. Go ahead, call me a type nerd. I can take it. In fact, I can take it and do wonderful things with it!
No Comments