A Thing About Fonts

I was having a lazy Sunday watching the football game and enjoying reading some books with my boys, when an ad came up on TV for the new Nicole Sullivan sitcom "Rita Rocks". The ad looked funny enough, but to tell you the truth I'm really tired of fake backyards, cheesy neighbors and corny jokes with laugh tracks. Give me something worth while TV! Anyways, at the end of the ad they had some sad 3d pictures that were actually cut out quite nicely, but the font they used for "Rita Rocks" was atrocious. I was disgusted that a company in broadcasting would allow it. Slathered together on the top right of the screen was 'birth of a hero' font all snug together. There is no way anyone who had any design taste would allow that on the screen in between plays of an NFL game... thank you CITY TV! Disgusting, it's really sad when you have an opportunity to speak to someone and you ghag. Think about it, we are bombarded with advertisements ALL DAY, and then we give someone the chance to let them speak to you and they ghag up some papyrus or birth of a hero all over your shoes. Sad, really very very sad.

All that said, let me share some pointers with you about fonts. 1) When looking to pick a font for whatever you're working on, think about your audience/context of the meeting. Are they young? Are they older? Is it for a professional meeting? Or more laid back? Pick a font accordingly. Let it speak to your audience. 2) Pick two fonts at MOST. Pick one font for the title(s) and pick one font for the body. Your title font can be more fun and crazy, but don't get too crazy and don't go so main stream and boring, find a happy medium. For the body a nice Sans Serif font would be best (if using PowerPoint - go with 36pt font minimum) Did you know: Sans Serif has no accents at the end of it's stroke (ex. Arial, Century Gothic like the one I'm writing with) Serif has fancy accents on the end of it's stroke (ex. Times New Roman) 3) Learn about tracking, kerning, spacing and leading. Learn what size fonts work best in the context you're displaying them. As mentioned above find a minimum size for PowerPoint that works well. In your proposal letter find a size font that works well with your Header and Footer. Make sure the body isn't overpowering or difficult to read. 4) Stay away from the following fonts, they are overused, not used properly or lack creative choices in picking a good font. Trajan, Payrus, Birth of a Hero, and Times New Roman.

I find that a lot of people think that design doesn't matter to them. They think it's out of their hands, or not their thing, but think about it; Your resume, your cover letters, your emails, your blogs, etc. all say something about who are. Make simple design count and learn how to use things like fonts, lines, adjustments to your advantage. You'll be happy you did.

Good resources for fonts

Make your own Font with help from Go Media's Katie.

Lastly

Have a great day!