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

[Thomas J. Johnson]

The first principal I worked for despised papyrus. The second LA I worked for insisted on using nothing but papyrus. I found this distinction to be quite humorous.

Personally, I think papyrus looks like a third grade font from 1983, the kind of thing you’d use on a homework assignment to make an aged pirate map stained with tea and burnt edges, but hey, if you’re paying my salary I’ll use whatever font you want… no questions asked. The funny thing is, it actually worked well for his concept plans. I took the liberty of using arial for all construction documents…

[Andrew Spiering]

haha…

[StephR]

lol, this cracks me up.

Where you’ll have project pinups in my studio classes, 3 of say maybe a batch of 12 will use this font…and the teacher commends us for using it. I particularly think this font wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so overused. You can always spend time going through the thousands of free fonts online…;)

[mark foster]

There was another thread about hand lettering, and now this one.   I just discovered that not only do I use Papyrus often, my hand lettering even looks like it.  Forever un-cool will I be, young skywalkers. 

Here are a few I think we need to develop:

1.  “Carpenter Gothic”– best when used with a dull knife-sharpened carpenter’s pencil, works well on 2 x 4’s (or larger format too)….

2.  “Car Hood Sans”– looks great on curved surfaces.

3.  “Panica Napkin”– a quick one, which while mostly unreadable, gives a great feeling of competence quickly

4.  “Telephone Italica”– only looks good when your head is tilted at a 60 degree angle

Ha!

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

The funny thing to me is that this whole thread is mostly about the fonts that OTHER LAs are using. Now for me, who spends half his time in a civil office dealing with plans by others including LAs, I am directly affected by it, but how much do the fonts of other LAs affect any of us other than looking better or worse than us? I’m probably the most affected by this of the people discussing it and I don’t lose sleep over it.

 

There is one landscaper in my area who has one crew dominated by women who specialize in planting and maintaining perennial beds. They go around in a nice PINK cabover dump. They get noticed and it works very well for them. The rest of the landscapers in the area would not be caught dead in a pink truck and it is kind of hideous.

The point is that you are in control of your image and what matters is not the consensus of your competition, but how it affects YOUR business. Undoubtedly, it is important to be aware of what others think and do, but more important to be in tune with what you do and your clientele and prospective clientele.

 

Too many young people put way too much stock in the belief that the overall image of “the profession” is going to make them or break them. The fact is that there is no image of the profession and only an image of the firms and individuals in it and/or doing work that falls into it. It is not a money market fund, but individual stocks.

[Scott Thomas Murison]

It does depend on whether you want people to remember what you’ve written. Recent research indicates that you are more likely to remember text if it is a little more difficult to read. Comic sans is apparently a good font for retention. I recall struggling to concentrate on a large slab of specifications written in a narrow text many years ago – it just made me angry even though it looked good!

[Scott Thomas Murison]

It does depend on whether you want people to remember what you’ve written. Recent research indicates that you are more likely to remember text if it is a little more difficult to read. Comic sans is apparently a good font for retention. I recall struggling to concentrate on a large slab of specifications written in a narrow text many years ago – it just made me angry even though it looked good!

[ALEX P]

well i guess if you dont stand for something you will fall for anything, right?  Im not one of those LA’s that is obsessed with the latest LEED standard, or how “green” something can be, or the latest “sustainable” gadget.  I believe that graphic communication is more than just something you decorate the cake with.  I just find it odd, that as “designers” some people dont carry that concept through.  Its stops with the design of the landscape.  Maybe this can be our economic strategy?  Get rid of papyrus, and stop global warming, all in one clean swoop. 

[ALEX P]

I would trust the principle.

[ALEX P]

I just looked at your website, and realized why you said what you said. I think its odd that you used it and you didnt even know it.  You would not use an invasive tree/shurb and not know it, would you?  Or destroy a native prairie for a development would you?  being conscious of all design decisions is something i thought “designers” were supposed to do. how is your website any different?

[ALEX P]

its like a horrible disease.  The teacher likes it, so everyone wanting to impress the teacher with a lack of graphic capability uses the font.  then people like me who actually try in the graphic design department get the snub from the teacher for having a board that is too well laid out, or dare is say aesthetic.

[Anonymous]

Someone please help me on this one. I think I may have been committing all sorts of font faux pas over the years. My only concerns with fonts have been, can it be clearly read across the room, is it large enough to be read when printed half size and is it simple so that it doesn’t compete with the design.

 

Personally I think the lack of good design is something that chaps my hide more than fonts and cool snappy presentation drawings. As a profession, I think we have bigger fish to fry than font dos and don’ts.

 

It seems like the more we focus on the tools of our trade, the less attention we put on creating great spaces. Some of the best built works were presented as crappy little drawings made with dull #2 pencils on trash paper. Let’s not lose our way.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

[like]

[ALEX P]

Well unless you are frank gehry, i think going out of our way to change the font ( i mean it takes approx 2 seconds.. 5 if you need to change it to bold, 7 if you mess with tracking, kerning, et cetera) is something we need to care about.  If we stop caring about the font, then whats next, planting a an invasive forest of Kudzu, just because i had bigger fish to fry.  I dont see *insert ASLA award winner here, choosing papyrus. The lack of good design starts with the lack of a good font.

[ALEX P]

I am not denying that there are not “bigger fish to fry” or that Big Jim Associates failures are my gains, I am just suggesting that neglecting simple things like fonts is not and option or excuse for someone calling themselves a designer.  Saying that it does not matter, or you that we should focus or attention on bigger things could become the underpinning of our very profession.  My mom says big problems start with small things.. one after another after another.  Next thing you know you have created a landslide from choosing papyrus (or not choosing at all).  I think its funny how so many people seem to think this is not an issue.

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