Bad font decisions, yes I’m talking to you Papyrus users!

Just think how much more of advantage you have over those using crappy fonts. If it makes a difference, why not own the advantage?

I cringe too when I see papyrus font.  And city blueprint drives me nuts as well.  Comic sans…pfff.   Keep it simple, people. But I must be immune to some of the font subtleties that seem to irk you, Alex (I’ve also got to admit that I know little to nothing about fonts).  What is so irksome about Myriad Pro.  It seems rather simple, and somewhat similar to helvetica.

1. It needs to read well.

2. If you exchange files with others and have text within blocks, don’t use something weird because it will get converted to something else (see this a lot with LA and Arch firm’s logos that go right off the sheet).

3. After that, it is a reflection upon your office and up to your office how you/your employer want(s) to present your office. If Big Jim Associates wants to use papyrus, it isn’t going to change my life unless people hate using him and come to me instead (go for it Big Jim).I’ve never sold a design because my fonts were cooler than someone else’s and I’m pretty sure no one beat me out based on their fonts either.

Its your thing, do what you want to do.

I grew up in the seventies, but there is not enough flamable vegetation available over here to get me to look at a website devoted to dislike of a font, never mind dedicate a website to it.

There are stupid looking fonts. I like to think that I don’t use them, but I really don’t care what others use with the exception of those odd fonts embedded in an attributed block that get substituted to something else that does not fit. That is a bad reflection on someone else which I have no reason to be bothered by outside of what I explained above.

If some other LA wants to use something that does not read well or leaves people with a negative impression, well, that could only make my plans and my image look a little better, don’t you think?

The mediocrity of others does not bring you down. Don’t worry about them. See it as one more opportunity for you to out perform your competition. Use your own sense to do better rather than get frustrated by those who you can outshine. It is a very competitive time. Leave them in the dust.

I’m looking at it more from a professional practice issue. Not everybody has all the fonts loaded on their machine, and many do not print well. Some are also very illegible when running prints or copies of prints (remeber, original documents are hardly ever sent into the field, and are more likely bad copies). I don’t know how many times I had to clear up dimensions for the last firm I worked with whos lettering font was designed to work with pen plotters and they never updated their corporate standards. They liked the look of the font, but by gen 3 of the copies (which is what the subs get), much of the dimensioning was illegible. Because it wa all caps as well, it made reading notes and specs a real chore.

Even with transmitting PDF, if you don’t include the font in the package, it might not appear correctly on the other end. Same with e-mails. Funky fonts and large type don’t always look right, and fancy fonts really are kind of unprofessional for corporate communications. Forget about using colors. You may be trying to be different or set yourself apart, but all you are really doing is impeding professional communications and making yourself look gimmiky.