I've made a living with words my entire professional life. I am often disappointed with the limitations of expressiveness of the written word as we most often use it today.
Most of us are limited, when we type, to expressing tone with bold face or italics. I might underline for emphasis or combine what's available.
I might be rude and SHOUT with caps.
I might go really wild and use a different color or point size.
In the end though, my attempts often fall short of the tone I am trying to convey. I come across as amateurish and the nuances of spoken language are lost.
But who has the time to write by hand any more?
And writing by hand is not great for editing, or producing longer works.
Back in the day, I used to work at a company that printed wedding and other invitations. I could identify fonts by sight. I could tell you by name if it was a serif or sans serif font. But sadly, that's as far as my ability with type goes. I'm more the wordsmith and proofreader. I can tell you when something is wrong with type. Whereas my sister has the gift for design.
It's something of a family tradition. Our grandfather worked in printing. It's nice to know we both carry that on in one way or another. I recently told a friend that I am genetically predisposed to reject broken type.
This bit of design envy I have concerning the limitations at my end of the medium is why I've been enjoying a blog I came across this morning.
Typeeverything is eye candy for those of us who like to see how expressive type can be.
The first entry I saw was this one, which sums up my attitude on many a day--usually when arguing with my cats. I like the expressiveness of the "Hell" and the absolute firmness of the "No!"
This entry makes me envious because I tend to be a huge fan of well placed sarcasm, but it's often lost in translation when I'm writing an email.
And it led me to another site http://friendsoftype.com/, which is full of more fun visual distractions.
Both of these images need to be up on the wall in my office and I could spend the whole day scrolling through these sites if I didn't have important work to do this weekend.
So back to work it is, but I've added these sites to my list of blogs to read. I'm looking forward to more typesetting deliciousness later.
Most of us are limited, when we type, to expressing tone with bold face or italics. I might underline for emphasis or combine what's available.
I might be rude and SHOUT with caps.
I might go really wild and use a different color or point size.
In the end though, my attempts often fall short of the tone I am trying to convey. I come across as amateurish and the nuances of spoken language are lost.
And writing by hand is not great for editing, or producing longer works.
Back in the day, I used to work at a company that printed wedding and other invitations. I could identify fonts by sight. I could tell you by name if it was a serif or sans serif font. But sadly, that's as far as my ability with type goes. I'm more the wordsmith and proofreader. I can tell you when something is wrong with type. Whereas my sister has the gift for design.
It's something of a family tradition. Our grandfather worked in printing. It's nice to know we both carry that on in one way or another. I recently told a friend that I am genetically predisposed to reject broken type.This bit of design envy I have concerning the limitations at my end of the medium is why I've been enjoying a blog I came across this morning.
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 All rights reserved by Hannes Beer |
Typeeverything is eye candy for those of us who like to see how expressive type can be.
The first entry I saw was this one, which sums up my attitude on many a day--usually when arguing with my cats. I like the expressiveness of the "Hell" and the absolute firmness of the "No!"
 |
| http://friendsoftype.com/ |
This entry makes me envious because I tend to be a huge fan of well placed sarcasm, but it's often lost in translation when I'm writing an email.
And it led me to another site http://friendsoftype.com/, which is full of more fun visual distractions.
Both of these images need to be up on the wall in my office and I could spend the whole day scrolling through these sites if I didn't have important work to do this weekend.
So back to work it is, but I've added these sites to my list of blogs to read. I'm looking forward to more typesetting deliciousness later.
