Tag Archives: Typefaces & Fonts

The key to good creative work? Do a lot of it.

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Ira Glass of This American Life reassures creative types that frustration is normal early on. (Thanks to Maria Popova at Brain Pickings!)

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

David Shiyang Liu’s kinetic typography brings Glass’s words to life in a way that combines reading and hearing.

My favorite lines:

The most important possible thing you can do is to do a lot of work … because it’s only by going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap [between your expectations and the quality of your work].

What we create isn’t supposed to be brilliant when we first start out. It’s normal for our early work not to meet our expectations. Just as Anne Lamott counsels us, we have to get through the not-so-good material in order to discover the really good material.

I feel much better now.

The Weather Channel’s new iPhone app: Darn near perfect

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In mid-April, I purchased my very first iPhone. The weather app that came with it was barely functional and looked like a mid-’90s NetScape refugee. I needed something that worked well and matched the sleek, efficient design of my iPhone. Why not the Weather Channel’s new (and free) iPhone app?

While I’d read some high praise for TWC’s new and improved iPhone app, I was still suspicious. Their far-too-busy local forecast page, another recent redesign, had me thinking the app would be a disaster. Thank goodness I was wrong!

Well, mostly wrong. Continue reading →

Even if it’s bold italic

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A classmate pointed me to this hilarious parody of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” Whoever said you can’t mix typeface geekery and pop music obviously didn’t know what they were talking about.

Creativity strikes in the strangest ways, at the strangest times. “What font should I use for this invoice?” Hey, it happens.

I’ve blogged before about my love for some typefaces (fonts) over others, and Continue reading →

More fun with Tagxedo

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A couple months ago, I posted about the wonderfully fun Tagxedo word cloud generator. At that point, I hadn’t been posting regularly to either of my blogs, nor had I been Tweeting very much. The results were cute, but a little sad. Neither blog had enough variation to make a really interesting word cloud.

So I made a mental note to Tagxedo them again after another couple dozen posts. Both sites look a little better now, but could still use some improvement. Below is the word cloud for my gardening/architectural history/local history/amateur botanical private eye blog, Forgotten Plants & Places. Continue reading →

Working from home? Stay on track with a Work Log

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Working from home is a special treat for many of us. We don’t have to leave the house or fight traffic or even get dressed when we work at home. However, some people find this freedom overwhelming, and wind up working in circles all day long.  Continue reading →

Anatomy of a logotype FAIL

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Several weeks ago, my tech comm classmates and I had a long discussion about logotypes. Which logotype would we recognize anywhere? To what did we ascribe its power? Was it designed well? Or just ubiquitous?

At first, I had a hard time thinking of a well-known, instantly-recognizable font. Irony of ironies! Finally, though, it came to me:

Figure 1: The old Wal-Mart logo, discontinued in 2008, still appears on the store's plastic bags in some markets.

Well, why not? Continue reading →

Favorite (and fickle) fonts

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My mom often visits while I’m working on graphics projects. No matter the document or purpose, Mom will get around to asking, “Does [name of software] have Desdemona?”

She still misses it from Word 1995. Back then, it was among my favorite fonts, too. But when she asked me the other day, I hadn’t thought of that type in years. When I hear “Desdemona,” I think Othello. Would that my mother’s favorite typeface were available to all font-slatterns! O, a pox on thee, thou bilious-gutted and capricious arbiters of fontly tastes!

Thank goodness Mom never asks about Comic Sans or Papyrus. Those fonts can stay far, far away from my documents (unless I’m being ironic). But to satisfy my and Mom’s curiosity, I did a quick Google Crapshoot for “Desdemona font.” Lo and behold, it’s still available…
Continue reading →