Font Men
In the first video, Font Men I learned about the design process of making new fonts and
how font typeface grew in the 90s. In the video Tobias Jones explains how in the 90s he would
often receive font catalogs in the mails and would look at them as soon as he got them and
discuss his opinions on them with his friend and former competitor Jonathan Hoefler. Jones also
explained how back in the 90s there wasn’t many companies creating font type faces which is
what inspired him and Hoefler to create their own company together. As they began their own
company, they soon got a team of people to expand their company and produce more font
typefaces. Later in the video they talk about the design process they go through when creating a
new font which fascinated me. It fascinated me because it seemed so simple and I never
considered where to start when designing a font. The way they began creating a font was with
the letters H and O because H is a square lettering and O is a round Lettering. With this design
process it makes it simple to design a font for the whole alphabet because the rest of the alphabet
is a combination of both round and square lettering. Another thing that interest me is how they
were able to create and use that same font within the same day.
The Sign Painter
In the second video, The Sign Painter I listened to Mike Langley express his passion for
painting and his work on sign paintings for shops. It was pleasant to hear about Langley express
his love and passion for painting as well as intriguing hearing him talk about how his work feels
like art more than work and likes to paint signs for shops because of the imperfections of the
lettering when painting the sign. Langley makes good points about how when painting no letter
will be the same and how the imperfections of the lettering is what makes the sign unique. I also
agree that although painting signs can be hard work it is a true art form because of how unique it
is to paint the lettering rather than creating it on a computer. In addition to that I agree with his
stance about going into shops and supporting more shops that hire painters to create their signs
rather than ones that use digital designs.
Dan Rhatigan on Ryman Eco
In the third video, Dan Rhatigan on Ryman Eco Dan Rhatigan speaks about the
importance of having and creating different typefaces and how to make them more eco- friendly.
Rhatigan makes some interesting points about the reason there are a variety of typefaces which
are to give a personality to the letters as well as make an impression on people when interacting
with it. In this case I agree with the Rhatigan’s reasoning on the reason there are a broad range of
typefaces. Rhatigan also makes a very thoughtful reason as to how certain typefaces are printed
on paper and how this has somewhat of an impact on the environment. The typeface he creates
enforces all of his reasonings and provides an answer on how to create a font that looks full when
printed but is not in its design. This font not only is unique artistically, but it also is much more
ink efficient. This makes the font eco-friendlier because it uses less ink when printed saving both
ink and plastic which is used to contain the ink. I believe we will see more fonts like this in the
future and is the start to a design model when creating fonts.