Confessions of a design addict
I admit it. I love design. I do judge a book by it's cover and one of my most loved facets of design is Typography. I can spend hours drooling over beautiful type treatments. It doesn't matter whether it is in books, on a new product on the shelf, a gig poster, advertising or a fresh new website, if it has good typography, I'm hooked. A quick search on photo sharing site flickr.com for typography will bring an astounding list of results and some will leave you speechless. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=typography&w=all
So what is typography you may ask? I'll let dictionary.com answer that.
ty⋅pog⋅ra⋅phy –noun
- the art or process of printing with type.
- the work of setting and arranging types and of printing from them.
- the general character or appearance of printed matter.
Here's some more links to wet your typographic appetite.
For the complete typographic addict, head over to welovetypography.com and typographyserved.com where all sorts of delicious serifs and non serifs are linked up. Wonderful!
http://welovetypography.com/
http://www.typographyserved.com
If you ever need inspiration for a project, a good book to pull from the shelf is a great way to get your creative juices flowing.100 type treatments is one I've often turned to.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/000-Type-Treatments-Letterforms-Perfection/dp/1592531598
Ever wondered about the difference between Arial and helvetica? One of my favorite typography sites (ilovetypography.com) compares the subtleties.
http://ilovetypography.com/2007/10/06/arial-versus-helvetica/
Love fonts? Typographica.org features their favourite fonts of 2008
http://new.typographica.org/2009/features/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2008/
Rhett Dashwood has trawled through google maps to find typographic evidence of letterforms in the landscape of the state of Victoria, Australia. I think he might have too much time on his hands but I'm happy he does as I enjoyed the results.
http://rhettdashwood.com.au/#16575
Florida based street edged illustrator/designer hydro74 has always been a designer to watch, his sharp typographic treatments are a treat indeed.
http://hydro74.com/H74/typetreatments.php
Over the last few years the rise of motion graphics has bought some outstanding kinetic typography. The art of telling a story with words, visually with motion. Here's an amusing example. Where is the US on a world map? Shouldn't be hard to answer unless you're Miss South Carolina.
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Miss-South-Carolina-Type-Experiment/80327
The term font, a cognate of the word fondue, derives from Middle French fonte, meaning "(something that has been) melt(ed)", referring to type produced by casting molten metal at a type foundry. English-speaking printers have used the term fount for centuries to refer to the multi-part metal type used to assemble and print in a particular size and typeface. Learn more at the ever growing wikipedia.
Font - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font
Typeface - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface
Typography - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography
