Sunday, May 20, 2007

13 ways of looking at a typeface

michael beirut very eloquently describes the thought process behind selecting a typeface.

"Liberated from monogamy, I became typographically promiscuous. I have since, I think, learned to modulate my behavior — like any substance abuser, I learned that binges are time-consuming, costly, and ultimately counterproductive — but I've never gone back to five-typeface sobriety."

(this link was sent my way by my good friend victrola nachtmuzik. he's been lurking here for months, but for some reason refuses to make any comments. therefore, i will just keep referring to him here as victrola until he decides to chime in with a username of his own choosing.)

12 comments:

gray said...

that's funny, i was at pentagram this past week and when asked his favorite typeface bierut said bodoni.

massimo is known for his top five which are:

A group:

1) garamond
2) bodoni
3) century exp.
4) futura
5) helvetica

and B group:

1) gill sans
2) optima
3) times roman
4) univers
5) clarendon
6) didi

concerned citizen passed those along after one of her students asked his fav list and he scribbled them down on a sheet of paper. the sheet of paper will be sold on ebay for 10 kazillion dollars.

Victor said...

Bodoni is trash. The only typeface I ever use is Comic Sans. All hail Connare!

powkang said...

awoken from silence! yay! i thought i was going to have to threaten with shameful photos.

powkang said...

i was also going to recount a funny anecdote about gill sans from type ii class last fall, but i've since forgot the names of everyone involved in the story, hence it is no longer funny. i think of the punchline, though, everytime i think of, see, or read reference to gill sans and i give a little chuckle.

gray said...

there are no lurkers on this site. since chris malven introduced me to google analytics i am obsessed with checking out who is looking at my blog and where they are from. it's also lead to some sadness, like the realization that my portfolio site has only had about 10 hits in the past two weeks.

i strongly encourage incorporating eric gill into any discussion you have with any human being. if you can't talk about a guy who was into beastiality and intimate relationships with his daughter then what fun is it? if nothing else was learned from one semester of your life then i am just happy it is this information. though you forgot his name. you get a half point.

powkang said...

wow! nothing gets past you. my ip must come up a plethora of times, then, because i keep in the habit of opening a ton of tabs, forgetting to close them, and then continuously refreshing all of them. you never realize people are spying on your neurotic behavior until it is too late.

its not eric gill's name that i forgot. it was the name of the kids in the class who were discussing it that i forgot. i remember very clearly how the dialogue unfolded.

gray said...

damn. there goes like 99.9% of my traffic. at least i have a few peeps over in asia randomly finding my site.

powkang said...

that's right. you can blame it on me and my itchy refresh trigger finger. it never occured to me that my secret compulsive tics are affecting other people's lives. go fug yourself, apartment therapy, the sartorialist, and project rungay (back in the day) must be getting similar treatment from my now-famous ip address. ooh, and salon, npr, nyt. brooklyn vegan. pitchfork... all of my sites! my secret tic is out!

Captian Marzipan said...

I suffer from a similar tic, although I'm not sure my finger is as itchy as yours...

F5 just works SO WELL.

powkang said...

i'm all about the rightclick + "reload all".

gray said...

really this crap doesn't get updated enough for a constant refresh. and if it does get updated it is usually by you.

but thanks for the right click refresh thing. the whole right click is something i'm still getting used to but i swear if you click it in the right place it will perform a magical act and make your boobies grow like hermione.

powkang said...

adding right click functions was the best thing to happen to the mighty mouse. that and the awesome scrollball. my loftmate calls it a clitoris, which weirds me out. i guess i'm a prude, though. no talk of boners. no porn. i don't want this thing making my boobies grow, either. because then i'd have to replace all of my bras and that's not cool. and i have enough back problems as it is.

i am a ruiner of all fun.