I’m not the greatest at knowing type names and faces. Hell I can pick out a serif from a san-serif, but distingusihing two fonts with very similar characteristics I find a bit excessive. I usually go through my fonts, and actually choose the font I feel fits with my design – I hardly care about what the name is. Granted, it usually is a famous well-used font like garamond, helvetica, etc. But if the font fits, use it. Picking em out and naming them straight off – I would probably fail. I know I probably couldn’t pick that many fonts out from a line-up (this is excluding the usual suspects like comic sans, papyrus, etc). Saying this seems like, as a designer, I have no regard for typefaces whatsoever -that is completely untrue. I have great respect for type creators and the magical feeling you get when type fits perfectly together. I was actually laughing at myself as I sat there kerning each letter in a sign that was to be used at a baby shower. Yet, as I continue to gorw as a designer I find myself doing this more and more. It feels like designers, good designers, sort of have this minor OCD condition about type. I noticed it as a young designer in the actions of my mentors, and I am noticing it now as it comes over me. Perhaps this is a good thing. Type is important tool for designers. It is but one of the few domains we have rule over. It is one of our babies – cherish it. And Ithis blog entry was about something totally different and I wandered a bit there. So, yeah, I know as a graphic designer it is important to get a handle on a basic set of fonts that you know inside and out. And while browsing through other blogs I came across a nifty little game to help me, and you, brush up on our fonts. So, shoot to your heart’s content.
