Here is a great list of the favorite fonts of 2006. The list is a little late but they mention that the reason is because of the large volume of new fonts they had to go through. There were at least 1,800 new commercial typeface released in 2006.
Check it out at Typographica

Labels: Fonts, typography

Helvetica had been very popular lately with it's birthday being on May 9th and written up on the BBC News. It is now featured on Business Week with a article about it's use in well established logos.

"Every typeface is made to solve some type of problem. They're design tools. Helvetica wasn't designed with anything specific in mind. It was designed to be a jack of all trades," observes Tobias Frere-Jones, director of typography at Hoefler & Frere-Jones in New York, and critic at Yale University School of Art.

Labels: Helvetica, typefaces, typography

Once there was a typeface called Helvetica.
It was extremely popular.
Later came a software company called Microsoft.
They "borrowed" Helvetica for their operating system and called it Arial.
This inferior typeface is now on millions of desktops all over the world.
Can you tell the difference between the original and the rip-off in these ten examples?

Labels: Arial, Helvetica, typefaces, typography

Do you love fonts and typography? Then check out The 100 Top Typefaces. The typefaces were chosen by a panel of experts: Roger Black, Stephen Coles, Jan Middendorp, Veronika Elsner, Ralf Herrman, Bertram Schmidt-Friderichs and Claudia Guminski. It is presented by FontShop. Oh, and do you speak German? If not, good luck reading it but it is still nice to look at as far as design and layout. Plus, all the typefaces are still the same name.

Labels: top 100, typefaces, typography

For anyone that is new to typography or needing to freshen up here is a good article to help, Typies.
Although it takes a lot more than just reading an article of typography to know what you are doing. There is a lot more to learn and many hours needed in applying these principles to fully grasp what "good" typography is.

Labels: typography

Every day when I come into work there is a company close by that when I look at the logo I just shake my head in disgusts. Why? Because the of the kerning. (The term kerning refers to adjusting the space between two letters.)

This logo would be nice but I can't look past the bad kerning. This is a classic example of someone not knowing the rules of design. I don't even think you need to be a designer to see the awkward spaces in the logo. With a little more time and investment the logo could be a big hit. If there is one thing you should know as a designer, it is good kerning.

For anyone needing a recap on kerning or any element related to typography visit Thinking with Type. Here is also a nice little summary.

Labels: design, kerning, typography