A Meditation on Fonts

As a “content guy” with roots in editorial – one of my earliest jobs was helping actors select the right scripts for their voiceover demo tapes -- I surprise myself sometimes when I find that I’m as invested in visual elements for a brand campaign as I am with the tagline or a script. I expect myself to get hung up on the rhythm of an introductory paragraph on a web page, or the flow of information in a product detail page for an e-commerce endeavor. But we’re now in a world of “user experience”, and a orphan word or a misplaced pull quote can provide a mild disruption to how we absorb new information. So, yes, I get hung up on fonts, too.

Words may do the heavy lifting of a brand story or a documentary narration, but that homepage layout or the display of images on a Pinterest page gives us a visceral understanding of a company’s essence. As creative professionals we tend to see through “clever words”, but holy Helvetica, it’s quite amazing the subtle way the title design and palette for Spike Jones’ “Her” conveyed qualities of pathos, futuristic otherness, and wistful longing; or how AirBnB is conveying both a sense of diversity of destinations and far-flung travel experiences, and “feels” like personal social media. The lowercase, bubbly logo font conveys accessibility while the wide, breathing layouts conveys the open road and wondrous options.

The fact is, words are the domain of human communication – but design is at the heart of all human interaction. Whether it’s a personal statement made by one’s personal fashion sensibility, their use of a handheld device that adds enables both their efficiency and creativity expression, or their decision to check out a new neighborhood eatery based on the logo/signage, design dictates how we approach the world around us.

As a content producer, I’m particularly sensitive to how design extends to verbal and visual communcation – and have a great appreciation how the “look and feel” of a text piece, video, or any screen content can be determine whether someone lingers and appreciates a bit of information – or overlooks and dismisses it.

Ultimately, design is personal. I most enjoy working with companies that exspoe the heart of this new era of personalized interaction. A visual identity turns a transaction to a story. It creates an impression. It allows our lives to be made up of moments. Design humanizes us rather than categorizes us, allows us to be more present to the world around us, and we’re better off for it.

So, yes, as a Content Guy, I do believe that “the words we choose are more important than the fonts we choose”. But that won’t stop me from going all Haettenschweller on a designer’s keister if the user experience is being served.

Onto the Futura, (Sorry, couldn’t resist.