This week we’ve been talking about choosing a great name to grow your business and creating or revamping your logo to power you forward. Last point on these related topics, for the do-it-yourselfers and for those about to hire a design firm:
No System Fonts
Nothing says “cheap” like using the typefaces that came bundled with your Mac or PC to “uniquely brand” your company, or worse, letting your designer do it.
Your identity deserves better. No system fonts in logos, period.
Seven type resources your designer knows about, that you should check out for yourself:
MyFonts (Kelly’s favorite)
Some sell faces by lots of type designers, some only sell their own. There are loads of other sites. These are just a few to get you started thinking about the enormous world of type.
After you’ve clicked around you’ll realize that one typeface will not break the bank. Make sure the typeface you choose is less-well-known, so it can distinguish you from every other business using Sand or Papyrus or Times New Roman, and make sure you choose type that fits with your Vision for the company.
Bonus: I admit to being a type geek. When P22’s type newsletter arrived in my inbox last week, I checked out their new face, RTF Stern, eagerly. (It’s gorgeous.) But a YouTube video about “the making of” Stern? No, I wouldn’t click. Too silly. I couldn’t click. Should I click?
I did. The cool jazz! The hot metal! Delightful. Check it out:
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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26 July 2008, 5:32 am
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
26 July 2008, 7:51 am
Kelly,
That is a nice font, I agree – and the video, very cool. I like this sort of thing. I’m afraid that someday good type will be lost, because people stop reading – I hope not though.
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – burn the boats.
26 July 2008, 9:51 am
Brett,
Sowing the seeds of our own destruction here on the incredibly type-limited Internet, lowering the understanding of a fine face, getting folks used to holding a laptop instead of a good book?
Uh-oh. The type-lover’s dilemma, right there.
Keep reading the real thing (even though the MacBook is awesome)!
Regards,
Kelly
26 July 2008, 10:00 am
Kelly,
Yes, we are guilty, aren’t we…
I agree, I sat down with a nice book the other night, and am looking forward to many more nights over the next two weeks. I agree, too, the text on the MB is great. I also use a few reading applications to make it better (one of my favs is Tofu – it is free at http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/ ) and once installed, you can move text from a browser (or whatever) to it using the Services menu.
Tres cool.
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – burn the boats.
26 July 2008, 10:10 am
Brett,
Wow, that’s pretty neat. I just took a look, and I ‘m going to try it out. He doesn’t show how it would look by using it on his intro pages… they’re just standard web pages! Funny.
Later,
Kelly
26 July 2008, 2:21 pm
Kelly,
Let me know what you think – I’m always trying to collect neat and useful programs like this one. Maybe I’ll have to do a blog post about it, or start a new blog
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays – burn the boats.
27 July 2008, 12:09 am
Interesting post. I never knew about all the different types of fonts available.
Nice looking site. I look forward to reading your blog.
Phillip Hines’s last blog post…Vans Warped Tour 2008 at Virginia Beach Amphitheater Recap
27 July 2008, 8:54 am
Phillip,
A lot of people don’t—it’s a shame, because good ones are so readily available.
Thanks for your comment and welcome to MCE!
Chris,
Welcome. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Regards,
Kelly
27 July 2008, 2:34 pm
Kelly: Very cool!! As a former typesetter and book layout designer (but long ago, in QuarkXPress), I’m all about this kind of stuff. Thanks for these resources!
There’s one book, *Rush Home Road,* everyone recommends to me. But every time I open the novel, I just can’t. I HATE the font they used!
steph’s last blog post…In Other Words
27 July 2008, 8:32 pm
Steph,
As always, glad to help. I enjoyed reading that you got an hour’s play out of the sites. They are dangerous for some folks. Maybe I should have put a warning, lol.
I go off to myfonts, type in “sporty” or whatever style I’m looking for, and find myself jumping from sporty faces to edgy faces to modern faces… and wind up back at sporty again but oh, so informed. And an hour or two older. Oops!
Yep, type is critical to book design. Fatigue a reader’s eyes and they’re going to blame the writing, not the typeface. That can wreck a budding career. I had one recently that I had to abandon for the same reason. I can’t read 500 pages of your jumpy type, no matter how much I wonder how it ends. Ugh.
Until later,
Kelly