Great design resource covering the basics of typography, with a strong focus on practicality and readability. Although written (as shown) for lawyers, it's relevant to anyone who creates/handles/processes high volumes of 'boring' documents over the course of a work day, since its main aim is to make sure your Boring Documents are as painless (and perhaps even pleasant) to read as possible.
Sample stuff - lots more goodies where it came from!
Good typography is measured on a utilitarian yardstick. Typography that is aesthetically pleasant, but that doesn’t reinforce the goals of the text, is a failure. Typography that reinforces the goals of the text, even if aesthetically unpleasant, is a success.
Now that particular paragraph is something I wish more of the baby designers I've dealt with understood.
via virusfonts.com
Wonderfully silly and witty specimen book for Tourette, a font by the foundry Virus.
Woohoo!
Our shiny new corporate site, for which I did 80% of the design/conceptualisation, all of the illustration, and all of the copywriting, was featured on Smashing Magazine!
(80% of the design because I extensively reworked someone else's original 'base' design.)
Video of Bartle's presentation at GDC gdcvault.com
Wonderful talk. One of the things Bartle repeatedly mentions is that when designing, you need to know WHY you are doing it in the thing that YOU are designing.
Not because someone else has done it, not because everyone ELSE is doing it, but because it has a definite purpose in YOUR system.
Also has a great rant towards the end about how people don't do things better, because they don't realise that they can - that they're allowed to.
Some great quotes:
I won't be telling you how great text is over graphics, because that's an argument I've won many times... and still lost.
I won't be telling you how great permadeath is - God uses it, it can't be bad.
It behooves you all to understand WHAT you are designing, and WHY you are designing it.
What we wanted to do was say unpalatable things about the real world - within the protective frame of a game.
You must understand what's in the paradigm - then you can throw it away.
We put in the level system because it let you OUT of the (British social) class system!
Much of what he says isn't specific just to game design, but to learning and perfecting any craft.
I've noticed a few nick-names former FreeHand users have given Illustrator since switching and all prove to be accurate ironically enough. Here are some I've heard. (Feel free to share more in your comments below)
- Frustrator
- Castrator
- ill-luckstrator
- #$@!stratorSee a trend developing?
Yes, the nugget is one of those who still mourns her beloved Freehand. :(
And yes, I use Illustrator these days. Because I'm forced to.
Meet Your Type(52 pages)Why settle for casual flirtation when looking for a long-lasting relationship? Finding the perfect match is easy if you know the rules. Meet Your Type will help you overcome common obstacles, and keep your heart thumping for your one true love: typography.
via fontshop.com
Hilarious (and educational!) field guide to typography.
Amazing stuff on product development and design, and the stuff you can learn from just watching customers - if you're watching right.