I love typography. Well, not really love, but I truly understand that typography can make or break a design, so I have the utmost respect for those little serifs and ligatures. As a designer, you need to know all about typogrpahy and sometimes it can get a little tedious and boring. When this happens to me, I know that I have to clear my mind by either trying to find a place that has no typography to sit and relax (which will never happen… it has infiltrated society) or look at what other typogrpahers are doing to get some typography inspiration.
If you are looking for some inspiration, I’ll link to some of my favorite typographers and some very useful websites.
I Love Typography
Suitable, as that is my first few words of this article. Great site if you want some typographical information. Also, made a game for the iPhone and iPad called the “Font Game”, in which you have to guess which typeface is being used.
Sagmeister Inc.
ONe of my favorite typographers. Believes in the typography being memorable and will go to any length to do so. Like getting someone to cut letterform into his skin for a poster. His ideas are amazing, his home page for the website is all about his philosophy about design; It’s all about the process. Just amazing.
typetester.org
Web typography is annoying. You are limited to the screen dimensions, everything seems harder to read on the screen. This website is a godsend for web designers, you can see what your body text will end up looking like and compare different typefaces/tracking/leading/anything. You can also get the CSS code for your chosen block of text.
Type Theory
Interesting articles, even a walkthough on how someone created a typographic logo from sketch to vectors. Interesting reads, and they have themed specials for christmas and other things as well. A very nice mix of experiemental and classical typogrpahy.
Letterbox
Stephen Banham’s website. Another of my favorite designers with a penchant of not linking the overuse of Helvetica on the streets of Melbourne. Great if you want to look at typefaces and how he uses them for identity purposes.
U&lc
Stands for “Upper and lower case,” U&lc is a publication about typography. Get some insight into what typography in the 1970’s was like!
Herb Lubalin – Type Basher
The creator of U&lc, this is one article which I found really really cool. He started breaking the “rules” of typography. Understand how we break rules, but there was always someone who broke them first (and it most likely would’ve been Lubalin.)
Ban Comic Sans
Comic Sans. Reminds me of the recent April fools joke that Google did. Ban comic Sans is a website dedicated to the stopping the use of comic sans in any situation. Great stuff to look at if you get bored enough.
Typography Served
Need some inspiration? Browse through a whole heap of typographical images, videos and more. Very experiemental, this website focuses on designer’s works.
Typographica
Want to do some light reading on typography? There are a heap of things to learn from this site, and great images to look at. Follows the rules compared to Typography Served.
Conclusion
These sites are the ones that I browse when I am in need for some typography. Some just make me want to play around with type, others give me more insight into the typographical world. Typography is rich, and is everywhere! So the more you know about it, the better off you are.
