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

[Robot]

Thank you, Andrew G!!!  I’ve been biting my tongue during this entire thread, thinking the exact same thing.  If you don’t know the difference in your and you’re, their and there, or principle and principal, any of your superior font decisions will likely go unnoticed by those trying to read your words.

[ALEX P]

Trew. I doent no how too spell oar dew anything butt choose a phont.  I guess its a difference in priorities. I do believe i started a font forum thread, not english forum thread.  woe is my public school up bringing.  I have also heard the argument that no one will read anything, so what takes priority there? Dont bite your tongue, let it out, and bring issue to the fore front.  Start a forum thread about it.  Im a font crazy, and you must be an english enthusiast.  This whole thread is very enlightening and confusing for me.  It has made me realize my academic up bringing for the past 5 years has been some sorta aesthetic blur.  I usually have my writing proofed, but i guess i shoulda done that on here.  I apologize for my aweful english.  I at least can recognize i write like a 2nd grader, and realize its hard to sift through opinion and sarcasm on here.  Keep the opinions coming Rob. What is design other than a bunch of nuts who think their opinion is the correct opinion.

[ALEX P]

by saying freaks, does that make people who don’t care normal? Which begs the questions what is normal? This is a very deep statement. Great website find!  Yet another tempting reason to buy an iPad.

[ALEX P]

i call my self a font crazy, its just a difference in words.  No apology needed. i was being sarcastic.

[ALEX P]

and going by only one name is better?   my handwriting is all caps.

[Anthony Parziale]

I couldn’t agree with you more!

[ALEX P]

Yes, papyrus makes me sick.

It makes me want to part the red sea and find the 10 commandments. It is antitheism all wrapped up in a font. What about other world religions? 

[Alessandro]

LOL I Agree 😀

I think that it’s good to choose fonts in relation of what you want to comunicate.

If there’s no time to think about it… helvetica neue is always good 😉

[Matt Sprouse]

Alex,

It’s been entertaining to read through this posting.  I too am a font nut, and I feel it is extremely important in how it expresses one’s work.  It is hard to believe that any design professional could be lackadaisical in their use of fonts on their own documents.  If we as a profession are going to be fastidious about details in the landscape, we should be just as finicky about the documents we create.  

 

There is a great quote by Massimo Vignelli (one of the great modern Italian graphic designers) who said:

 

“A designer should only use these 5 typefaces: Bodoni, Helvetica, Times Roman, Century, Futura.”

 

I love this quote.  Our firm has made a number of critical decisions about the fonts we use.  We began using Futura on everything ( including our logo) and have now moved on to Helvetica Neue for most of our lettering.  

 

Let’s hope the days of simplex and handlet fonts are over.  In my opinion, using Papyrus on a serious document is just amateur.  

[Les Ballard]

im sure some of the recent fonts mentioned were designed by ibm for the golfball typewriter – point is, i see nothing i like lol

[ALEX P]

Whats a typewriter?

[Brandon Reed, CVO, ASLA / Rooftop and Urban Designer / Landscape Architect]

I love your take on fonts! I too am a firm believer in using the right font type style to accentuate and enhance your brand.  I think your font choice says alot about what your company represents.  Although it is very subtle, and obviously, most people don’t get it, it makes a huge difference in perception and giving you the added wow factor that alot of people recognize but can’t quite put their finger on why it looks so good.  I hope I am making sense. Its alot like great design.  Great design, i believe, is design that doesn’t look design.  It is the details and the subtelty by which a master designer designs space and all of the elements contained within.  You can’t quite put your finger on why it is so good but it just is.  Fonts are one of those great details that need to be seen as part of the sum of a whole.  Other professionals should pay more attention to their composition in seeing that fonts are part of that composition.

 

On the flip side, if papyrus font is the right fit for any given composition then i say go ahead and use it.  But I do agree that to just generically use it because it is some sort of a default font or you have seen others use it and like it then i would say that looking a little longer or investing in a more custom font is the best way to go.

 

Great post!

[ALEX P]

thought i would bring this up to the top of discussion again.  Whose with me?

[Robot]

I’ll bite.  It has become apparent that landscape architects seem to believe that using good grammar is NOT a necessity/priority.  I have seen more than enough spelling and punctuation mistakes to make anyone sick.  No, I’m not prescribing that everyone spend inordinate amounts of time editing their text to make sure their words conform to the highest grammar standards, but I am just suggesting that people stop using “there” when they mean “their,” “your” when they mean “you’re,” or “whose” when they mean “who’s.”  We are not a profession that should overlook detail in design, so why should we be so lax when using words to help describe design?  Grammar matters more than most people want to believe.  No, nobody will say “wow, great grammar!” but it is a not-so-subtle thing that people like me cringe over.  I am quite curious what other English-language communicators think about the latest trends, or lack thereof, regarding grammar choices.  Is “texting grammar” the new formal English grammar?

[Jason T. Radice]

Give us a brake, I wented to publick skewl.

[Author]

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