quinta-feira, março 1

What makes a good typeface? (by Erik Spiekerman)

What makes a good typeface?

Here are some answers.

1. What makes a good typeface is decided by the users, not the designer.

2. Most good typefaces have been designed for one purpose, they do not come
from a designer’s whim.

Bodoni designed all his faces for specific books,
Times was designed for the newspaper,
Frutiger for signage at Charles de Gaulle airport,
Helvetica to appeal to certain graphic designers,
Bell Gothic for the American telephone books,
Gill for a shopfront,
Century for a magazine,
Meta for the German post office,

3. there are certain laws of perception as well as cultural traditions which
a typeface has to adhere to

4. it has to look almost like all the others, but

5. just be a little different

quem é Erik Spiekerman?

segundo o MyFonts:

Erik Spiekermann of Germany

Born: Stadthagen, 1947

Internationally renowned graphic designer, typographer and type designer. He founded the multidisciplinary design consultancy MetaDesign in Berlin, 1979, opening a major San Fransisco office in 1992, and another in Zurich.

In 1989/90 he co-founded FontShop International with Joan Spiekermann and Neville Brody. Their own brand of fonts is called FontFont.

Spiekermann’s best known, very influential typeface is FF Meta.


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