“Web design is 95% typography,” and the type that designers choose shapes how we experience the web. Several people have asked lately about how to tell which font is being used on a website. Here are two ways–one slightly technical and one fairly simple: Slightly technical: The “Inspect Element” tool Buried in your browser is […]

This article is in: Book Design, Design, Type Design, Typography, Web design

I was recently asked what the best font would be for designing material for kids who are learning to read. The truth is that the best font for kids, or for anyone, is always going to depend on the context. Readability is relative Readability in a font has a lot to do with what the […]

This article is in: Book Design, Books, Type Design, Typography

Hermann Zapf, the designer behind Zapfino, Palatino, Optima and many other typefaces, passed away last week. The world is more beautiful because of him.

This article is in: Community, Design, Type Design, Typography

Salient thoughts from WordCamp Minneapolis 2015 For the past three years I’ve attended the WordCamp conference in Minneapolis (and have heard and made jokes about “NerdCamp.”) But each year I’ve learned a surprising amount for a one day event. As in the past, the volunteer presenters gave some solid sessions on web design and development, […]

This article is in: Community, Design, The Nerdatorium, Typography, Web design

As a parent teaching my kids about letters, it’s sometimes difficult to know which A to focus on.  What is the Platonic form of the lowercase A?  It may also be an occupational hazard that I want to tell them about serifs and italics and the difference between a two-story “a” and a one-story “a.”  And […]

This article is in: Book Design, Books, Community, Design, For EMM, Type Design, Typography

I’ve been getting more and more interested in typeface design over the past year.  A carpenter needs to know how trees grow and a chef should know something about the origin of the food that ends up on the plate.  In the same way, a designer who works with text and letterforms every day should have […]

This article is in: Community, Design, Identity, Travel, Type Design, Typography

Hard-to-read headlines in a brochure are obnoxious, but hard-to-read highway signs can be a hazard. For decades the typography used on US Highway signs was a patchwork, each sign maker creating letterforms according to his or her style.  Most of the early signs were hand-painted, and painted in uppercase letters because the lowercase is more […]

This article is in: Design, Illustration, Type Design, Typography

Typographical maneuvers by the US Navy.

This article is in: Design, Typography

It’s not easy to consider the forms of letters without taking into consideration their meaning. I recently traveled to see some friends and family in China and Korea.  While I was there, I was intrigued by the variety of typefaces used in signage and printed material for both Mandarin and Korean.  It presented a unique […]

This article is in: Design, Identity, Travel, Type Design, Typography

It’s not easy to consider the forms of letters without taking into consideration their meaning. When I saw Chinese characters, however, I didn’t have any choice. The only thing I could understand about the signs and ads in China was the emotional tone or mood created by the way the characters were presented. Take these […]

This article is in: For EMM, Travel, Type Design, Typography