Font art geekery

[Gemini Cricket]

The new Walmart logo looks like it's advertising a cellphone company.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

I too love fonts. Back in the day of Letraset, before the all-powerful PC changed the design world forever, I would pore over those books in search of the right one for the project at hand, and had a knack for finding it. There is a font related art exhibit opening or just opened in L.A. It was featured on boingboing.net.

I am also keen on artists who produce work that emphasize the word and how it's presented - giving the word more weight or stripping it down so that is is a beautiful object devoid of meaning. Projecting sentences, in large blocks of light, onto buildings...

If you are interested, there are definitely classes in font design. I met a Yale student who was even majoring in font design.

I love reading a book printed in a pleasing or approproate font, and how the design is usually credited at the back. A lot of thought goes in to picking the right look.

Awesome post, CP.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Betty

The animal planet reminds me a dead animal with the letter on it's side.

Now that you posted that, I can't see it any other way. I guess what bugs about this change is what does the 'M' on its side supposed to mean? It kinda looks like a '3'.

[Ghoulish Delight]

There's nothing wrong with Best Buy changing from an iconic logo...if they had come up with something worthwhile to change to. That one just looks like crap.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Alex - so I guess you're not a fan of Gotham, though the letters aren't close together. I often like all-caps fonts.

I'm not opposed to all caps, but that does not mean all caps is always good. And I think "mindshare" all by itself in a sea of nothing is too long to benefit from it and long enough to suffer for it.

When it comes to design, there is but one universal: No matter what, someone will hate it.

But I'll admit my biases may be influenced from struggling with medieval Russian in college. Which was handwritten in all caps and with no spaces between words.

[Ghoulish Delight]

There's something ironic about a site touting the virtues of good design having their column spacing fouled up.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

If you are interested, there are definitely classes in font design. I met a Yale student who was even majoring in font design.

As part of my college education (Graphic Communication), I took a class called "Design With Type." We didn't get into font design, but more about the usage/selection of fonts in creating an overall look. We also got into kerning (the space between letters), leading (spacing between lines of type), etc. Not only does the font itself have visual impact, but how it is presented as well.

One of the things I was fascinated with is the adjustment made to individual characters depending on their size. If one blows up a 6 pt. version of a character and compares it to a 48 point version of the same letter, there are subtle differences to account for visual acuity.

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

There's something ironic about a site touting the virtues of good design having their column spacing fouled up.

One downside of the mass availability of information is how poorly it is sometimes presented. HTML, et. al. isn't perfect. But even a lot of printed items are just attrocious. A coworker (a former Adobe instructor and graphic artist) and I often just cry when we see some of the garbage that we are printing.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Even more than the font updates, I find it striking how many of those lean towards gradient/shadowing (which I'm not fond of; similar to online graphic designs that use reflections - wow, that's some shiny internet) and how many put more emphasis on oversized icons instead of the words. Tasty D Lite, Walmart, Mindshare, Stop n Shop, Woolworths, Quikcheck, Xerox... plus others, to a lesser extent.

I do love fonts, though, and find it all fascinating.

[Alex]

I believe most know about it. But if not, I recommend watching Helvetica, a documentary about, well, the history and use of the Helvetica font. (It is available for instant viewing on Netflix, which is how I watched it.)

It's very interesting and the people in it will demonstrate just how incompletely you love fonts.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

Even more than the font updates, I find it striking how many of those lean towards gradient/shadowing (which I'm not fond of; similar to online graphic designs that use reflections - wow, that's some shiny internet) and how many put more emphasis on oversized icons instead of the words. Tasty D Lite, Walmart, Mindshare, Stop n Shop, Woolworths, Quikcheck, Xerox... plus others, to a lesser extent.

I do love fonts, though, and find it all fascinating.

One of the painful realities is that flashy fonts and other gimmicks are often used in place of intelligent and creative design ideas. Too many people are suckered in by the flashiness of something, realizing that it would not have long-term staying power.

I see that in a lot of web-site design. People put all sorts of Flash animation and other dazzling effects without realizing that it takes away from the impact of the message. I am not saying that capturing someones attention and the use of these tools is a bad thing: I am just saying that it is so often done in a way that often distracts from the message that one is trying to communicate.