Journal

Typography rant

  • Posted on: November 26, 2004
  • In: Design
  • Comments closed

Sometimes, ‘designers’ just p**s me right off.

Let me explain.

I’m a regular reader on Stylegala, a website dedicated to css / web standards and design. It’s a great site. In fact my site was featured on it in August. On every entry on Stylegala you can comment on the sites featured. I had a quick look today and came across a comment thread which annoyed me so much I had to write about it here! The thread in question is the one about the site Epocrates. David at Stylegala gives it a pretty good writeup, but he is disagreed with, quite strongly, in the thread of comments. Have a read of them.

It got me worked up again about the state of the industry’s general understanding, and working knowledge of, correct typography. Occasionally I have a rant about this sort of thing, and today’s rant is not really any different from the others. It all began with a comment by some bloke called ‘beavis’ ...

OK maybe I should have added more. I have seen hundreds of sites like this. I cant see what makes this special. Its anything but original. Why say it’s good typography when it is absolutely awful typography? Please go to sites like misprinted type for excellent typography and look up the definition of the term.

I took his advice and had a look at misprintedtype. It’s ok, although nothing new. The typography is really quite dated - I remember all of Ed Fella’s work from ten years ago, this stuff hasn’t progressed much from that. So, in short I really disagree with his comments. It shows a real lack of understanding of typography, and more importantly of the tradition from which it was born. How can designers like this have so little respect for this? I just don’t get it.

Comments

I think “beavis” is a prime example of the type of person who stands in opposition to a productive flow of information on CSS gallery-like sites and communities. Seriously. We all know the trademark: All negativity, no name, no link, no help.

In my critique on the site, I noted that I like the choice of font on this site because it makes the site look more refined, not because it is fancy or dazzling. My comment was not restricted or even targeted at the fonts used in the graphics. It was mainly meant for the fonts used in the actual markup.

There is much restriction in typography for the web. That is where I’m really not understanding his and other people’s aim.

Some people have a false sense in thinking that everytime someone says they like something, it better razzle or dazzle and it better not have been done before. Furthermore, how would the target market for the site appeal to some of that great typography “beavis” mentioned, such as Horse Puke?

Fernando Dunn II's Gravatar

Fernando Dunn II
Fri 26th Nov 2004
at 9:19 am

That’s exactly my point. With correct typography, personal feelings shouldn’t really come in to it.

You shouldn’t choose a typeface because you like it, it should be chosen because it fulfills certain criteria. True, lots of designers have their favourites, but many still go through a careful selection process based on a number of objectives - target audience, business requirements, brand etc.

Horse Puke certainly wouldn’t be chosen based on that criteria.

Mark's Gravatar

Mark
Fri 26th Nov 2004
at 12:40 pm

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A picture of Mark BoultonI'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.

I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.

If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.