Colin McEnroe Show: Fonts & Typefaces
What's the font of our website?
Matthew Carter is the Oprah of fonts. He has created Georgia, Tahoma, Bell Centennial and Verdana. Everything he touches turns to gold. For his troubles, Carter recently received a Mcarthur Genius Grant. We're thrilled to have him on he show today, but even more thrilled by the topic of fonts and typography. We'll be talking today about how fonts sell movies, tip elections, and convey stability, austerity or prosperity.
We'll be exploring the notion that when you see a font, you have a series of psychological reactions and associations of which you're probably not conscious.
Or maybe you are. People have become passionate about fonts. Carter says he used to tempted to lie when a person sitting next to him on a plane asked his profession. Now it can be a lengthy conversation about what font they should be using in order to become more popular.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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(Comic Sans), it's lying to you!
Comments
Font Show Kudos
Really enjoyed this show. Being a Graphic Designer i live and breathe fonts daily. Many folks just take type for granted without any true appreciation for the craft and time that goes into creating a typeface. Especially enjoyed hearing Matthew Carter. Believe Colin could host many more shows on type and design.
Gary Holmes/Gariphic Design
-- Picking a typeface is like getting dressed in the morning.
EMAIL FROM SUSAN:
Did I hear you say you were doing a show on fonts and typeface? I suggest you get in touch with our brother-in-law, Ross MacDonald (home and studio in Newtown, CT) He's been collecting and setting antique wood typeface for years. And is a remarkable prop master too: http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/09/the-prop-master-ross-mac...
EMAIL FROM KARL:
If you can get a whole show out of fonts, there should be room for at least a mention of font credits in books. I can't remember the first time I saw one, but it seems they're here to stay. I'd love to know what happens in those negotiations and how they get there.
Cordially,
Karl in Bloomfield
PS The first thing I do after going to a new device is to "deformat" any email composition settings. Everything I send out is in plain text. Does that mean I only deserve to listen to your show as re-read through a mechanical computer voice?
EMAIL FROM DAVID:
Why is it that advertisers love Helvetica? I saw a great documentary about it on PBS.
EMAIL FROM SARA:
Hey there is a website called www.designyourownfont.com. Although you'd never guess from the name these people specialize in personalized font and they have a template you can download and scan your handwriting to them. They work their fonty magic and create a program you can put on your computer with your own handwriting. I think this defeats the point of perfect Lucinda or even crazy wingdings. Who wants to read imperfect human scrawl? The whole point of computers is to perfect our imperfections. From Facebook profiles to pro-tools computers have become tools that primarily exist so that we can look good-real good.
Sara
ps the 1 pm listeners are not threatened by your new passion for the 8 pmers. We all suffer equally and misery loves company. ( they should event emoticon fonts that can express tones like sarcasm and tomfoolery because really we all love all ya'll and that last statement was a joke so I guess I should do one of those LOL but I refuse to do that)
EMAIL FROM GARY:
Really enjoyed the Font Show + listening to Brit Matthew Carter + Chip Kidd.
Will this be available as a podcast?
Closet font to Facebook logotype is Klavika Bold.
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/processtype/klavika/
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