Website Typography

Good? Bad? I'm the judge!

Good news first.
A high end jean company with a generally bangin' website.
There is some every exciting hand done type mixed in with pretty script. The big blocks of text are put away into little packages to keep the main page as clutter free as you wanna be. Some text blocks are in all caps, making it a bit hard to read, but it's not a great deal of information so I'll let it go.
The multi-layer drag and drop interface is quite fun.
http://www.prpsgoods.com/


and the bad news is...
http://www.ronpaul.org/
General organization is poor. The line lengths are too long. The underlining of the headings looks sophomoric. There is too much white space left on the right side. about & links are a different color than home & contact for no apparent reason. yeah.

Road Sign Font Change!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=street%20sign%20font&st=nyt&scp=1

Signs all over the US are changing from Highway Gothic to Clearview. This new font was created by Don Meeker, an environmental graphic designer, who "realized issues of readability were becoming increasingly important, especially at night, when the shine of bright headlights on highly reflective material can turn text into a glowing, blurry mess."
So some people got together to change it.

“I’ve always thought that design can be a form of social activism.” - Don Meeker

Check out the slide show.

Saarinen@ MODA Thursday Jan 31st

You are invited to the Public Opening Reception of The Furniture of Eero Saarinen: Designs for Everyday Living at the Museum of Design Atlanta.

January 31st, 5 pm - 8 pm
This exhibition features the furniture designs of Eero Saarinen, who was one of the foremost prominent architects in the 1950’s. Designs for Everyday Living presents examples of Saarinen’s early furniture designs, sketches, photographs and descriptions of each of Saarinen’s furniture designs and collections. Knoll International has provided archival examples and pieces of Saarinen’s timeless designs from current production.

Colorstrology

Color is a reflection of the suns light and all its glory.
There is a personal color that corresponds to the real you.
Imagine a color that could compliment your innermost nature.

www.colorstrology.com

Sponsored by Pantone INC.

Good Typography/Bad Typography

This is my example of good typography. Pictured above is an image of the book Fingerprint, by Chen Design Associates. I purchased this book a few months ago and it r0xx0rs. Anyway, the book is about handmade type that is both successful and visually !exciting! The type on the cover is good because:

A) It relates to the subject matter of the book (because it's hand done)
B) Reads easy
C) The space between letters is consistent
D) The rotated INs are clever and visually interesting
E) Hand done type that is done well looks cool



This is my example of bad typography. The letterhead for the estate agent/listing company, while the banner at the top is cheesy, generally gives off a serious/ corporate..trust us.. kind of feel. "STUARTS" is very strong in a nice sans serif, while "Estate Agents and Residential Lettings" tells you they are classic and conservative with a typeface that looks like Garamond.. or something like that.
THEN!
Comic sans!!
Noooooooooooooo!!!
The name of the font has the word comic in it! No one will ever take you seriously!
Especially when you're dealing with investments!
It does not speak to the target audience. The font choice is entirely innapropriate..not to mention tacky...

Typography vidyo

Here is a video that might be a fun way to review the basics we touched on last week.
Glyphs, ascenders, descenders.. and more fun things are explained in a visually interesting context.
I thought it might be a nice break from pdfs.
Enjoy!

oh, Barbarella.

This is an opening sequence from the 1968 film starring Jane Fonda.
As she removes her spacesuit, letters escape..bounce around.. then come together to form actors names, etc.
This is a really innovative approach to using typography in the title sequence scenario.
Love it!

* Brief nudity

Even the government in Switzerland has good taste

I recently aquired a new US passport. It was more tacky and terrible than I ever could have imagined.
Not that I really expected much, but it made me wonder...
Is there an attractive passport out there?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Thank you Switzerland .
of course the currency is wonderful as well.

I'm always excited when things that don't have to be pretty or well thought out, are.

* The subtle embossing on the front is really unexpected. and awesome.