Typecast?

Have you been out font-shopping recently? I must admit I haven't been.

Its not the fear of the overcrowded shelves or the shopfloor, or even the delay at the checkouts. Or spending too much time at your favourite shelf - of sans serifs or those block egyptiennes. Its just that time- slips out of our hands like fine white sands.

But grab a moment and have a look at Font Shop - a great resource, and almost after a year or maybe more, the site looks fresh, relevant and unobtrusive.

The new fonts (typefaces if you will, please) and the most popular fonts are great for the designer 'on the run' - a quick check on where fonts are headed for in a post-Brody, post-Carson, post-post-modernist era. The best feature, though, has to be the type navigator. I have often asked my friends in the past to help me recall a name - trying to draw or detail typefaces in the process. Its a bit like a Pictionary with types - just that in this particular instance even you yourself can't recall the name. And likewise, we have all struggled to put a name to the face or a face to the name. But the the type navigator is a great help in sticky situations like these - it is an intuitive way and promises a few happy accidents on the way.

Choose by form, font or designer - though it has to be the form search option that is appealing to the typographer in us all. The form gives a number of choices - in terms of weight, width, serifs or sans, angle, axis - and voila - at the end of it comes a list of your fonts. Some completely off from what you imagined it to be - but worth a go. I suppose its far more exciting out seeing and shopping for fonts rather than read my essays, jump to the type navigator.

Remember Segregation?

Few websites can claim to have the brevity of a Google's home page - Google's minimalism is packed with performance and high on the popularity list. The Remember Segregation home page beats Google's minimalism - it's home page is home to merely four words - and yet the idea is effective, powerful and potent:




Remember Segregation remembers the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and other illustrous figures from all walks of life who fought to make segregation history — in the US. The textured background, the grayscale images, the Grotesk and serif typefaces - all contribute to give it the look of archived material but not exactly dated. After all segregation didn't exactly end centuries ago.

I remember an Advert from my student days that eloquently put events into historical perspective. The full page advert (I can't remember who designed/wrote it) had the image of Neil Amstrong stepping out into the Lunar landscape - the headline below read: "And a year later black Americans could vote".

The "Remember...' site itself has this sense of serenity - of peaceful 'reconciliation' a term I found being generously used in South Africa - a coming to terms with the past and of moving on.

You may not notice the lack of colour on the site - the shades of black interplay with the tones of white - a hint of sepia in the gallery and the warm grey of the background. The minimal palette does aid a minimal but effective menu system, clearly laid out and demarcated by 3 horizontal lines.

I am reminded of Steve Krug (I had the good fortune of working in the same organisation as him) and his wonderful book - Don't Make Me Think. For those who haven't laid their eyes on the inside pages yet - the book simply demonstrates how clear and highly usable sites can be built with a big dose of commonsense and an simpler principle - let not thy visitor fret or fume or try and make sense of what the site is or where to go and how. In line with Krug's advice, the RS site is clear and it is highly unlikely that you will struggle with the navigational basics.

Although, site may be visually quiet - almost mild mannered and softly spoken - but its message is powerful. It is the that content makes you think. Spelled out loud and clear, lingering on long after you have closed your browser window.


As I write this - in one part of the world Martin Luther King Jr's birthday is being celebrated while in another part, over 20,000 complaints are pouring in on alleged racial discrimination/abuse on a (popular) reality TV show.

Sales versus Design?

The debate was getting emotional and charged. One side represented by the evergreen salesman - DR and the other side by yours truly. "Nothing happens until you sell it" - is DR's contention. "Good design can only make the sales process easier - it sells itself", I add pointing to the iPod. Can you imagine a door-to-door salesmen touting iPods or telesales agents calling up with deals?

Or think of time when the 'think small' advert became etched in a generation's minds. That may have driven a decent number to the VW dealership - though I have no idea what is the ratio of people who saw the adverts to the those who made the final purchase. A good few decades later the brand is still etched in the collective consciousness.

"Selling is equally creative" adds DR. I think creativity is an attitude - anything can be approached in a creative, inventive or child-like manner: as if seeing it for the first time and bringing a fresh pair of eyes, ears or head, to the issue. As long as one isn't creative with numbers, even accounting problems can be approached with a creative hat.

"What about the John Abraham's Flu Relief Lozenges?", quips in DR. I am sure design can help it sell better, possibly not faster. Though we must always remember that good design can merely make a bad product fail faster. I don't disagree with DR on the issue of selling - "until it's sold nothing happens" - but the process, structure, routine and ritual of sales are widely varying - and more often given a bad reputation by those who are out to make a quick buck. Perhaps I can get across the point that design is about enhancing desireability of a product or service, thereby making it more 'sale-able'. Or perhaps DR knows already.