Computerlove™

May 20th, 2006

Your Font Sucks

Pardon my use of improper grammar. I wrote this in a fit of rage!*

This is a Font. You are reading a font. Fonts are everywhere. You will never escape their presence. The emotion conveyed by a font can mean success for a product, or the eventual doom and imminent destruction, of its entire reliable being, if it ever had one. Since fonts are everywhere, there are different styles, But just because a font exists, and was created, does NOT mean it is reliable! Typography IS and always WILL be something to Enjoy, also something to despise. I never gave any thought to the motive of custom fonts, or the fonts in general! Until... Papyrus!

Alright, First off, I want everyone to know that 'Papyrus' is a well Designed font, Excellent! Created by Chris Costless, this font in effect, has swept the western united states into a massive "papilla" breeding frenzy. Here is just a taste of the short description created by Fonts.com : "This unusual roman typeface effectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letter-form with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy. An extra set of initialing capitals is included to enhance its unique style. Created by talented American designer Chris Costless."
TALENTED? Yes! But does chris really know and understand the way his creation has been slapped in the face to become the most 'Trendy' & Exploited, Downtrodden typeface to ever be cut out of iron! Literally!

Take a little jont to southern Utah, Papyrus is everywhere: grocery store, car wash, hospital, phone book, business cards, on billboards, trail maps, gift shops, tee-shirts, Kanab (by the way I hate Kanab), metal working shops, fences, and anything that has "red" or "cliffs" in the name. Utah, is a desert, so is Arizona, California, and Nevada. These deserts states in effect have adopted a rugged but elegant and traditional, oh and we cant forget "hand crafted" form of advertising.

"Hmm. It looks good" or "Wow, how that text sure does match its surroundings" - These are just a few things you may hear from on lookers, who have NO experience or Education, What so EVER, in basic design or even in the day to day "Thats what i like" kind of stuff! Take this example for just a moment! Suppose you are invited into your neighbors home. As soon as you enter, you first are greeted by a succinct smell. You soon dismiss the smell thinking its all in your head! Now as you make your way thru your neighbors abode, you see home-decor so poorly arranged and fastened that you soon want to dryheive into a constant lung startling convulsion, that soon ends in a large upheaval of a warm and acidy substance known as "vomit". But to your surprise you maintain your composure and continue... Your host now begins to tell you where and under what circumstance they were able to purchase & hand-craft such wonderful accompaniments to their place of living. You then notice the hand quilted bear and a poor pot of popery with a sad airbrush painting of a landscape...You start to cry inside! You then find every excuse to leave the house and return to your place of residence for a rejuvenation process.

This is just one example. I hope you are still with me. These kinds of people have no idea that they are surrounded by the most blatantly obvious grime of the arts and crafts world. Yes, you may have created that yourself, and you may have some inspiration, but you really think it looks good?

I guess i will just never understand! So far the design world has brought us fine things to enhance our Quality of life! Typeface's are at the forefront of that Quality. Information is everywhere, and because this information requires Text, we therefore assume that any font will do. NO. If a designer simply uses a "rustic" more "earthy" looking font to produce a logo, is it their creation? Is just using the font with no graphical accompaniment, the easy way out? Because the font has such a broad and "artsey" look to it, Does that make it "auk" to use as your logo? or to put it at the front of your marketing proposal to the client? just think about it.
Just text.....Just the font, No creative outlet of any kind?
You may now understand my frustration.
(i will soon add to this)