Big Typography Poster Contest on MyInkBlog

Oooh... big typography poster contest on MyInkBlog.com! Submissions accepted until 10/10/2008.

I love ampersands!

I wanted to share a little love regarding my favorite personalities in a font's character set. The ampersand has been around since the first century A.D. where it began as a squared "Et" and has since become more connected and curved in many modern serifs and sans serifs ("&"). Ampersands to me have the most personality & flair as compared with other characters—if you agree here are a few things you might appreciate.

"More than just a pretty shelf sitter, these heavy ligatures can be deployed in a wide variety of household and office applications such as bookends, door stops, paperweights, dumbbells for power-walking or self-defense mechanisms."

Cast Iron Ampersand Sculpture from House Industries
www.houseind.com



Ampersand Organic Shirt from Service
www.serviceisgood.com



Beautiful Ampersand Plate from Cul de Sac
www.culdesacdesign.com



Hoefler & Frere-Jones' post "Our Middle Name" This article gives history of the ampersand and details some of the foundry's favorites.

"Ampersands with Attitude" article from Smashing Magazine that details 10 different styles of ampersands from different fonts


"The Funkiest Ampersands You've Ever Seen" from Spoon Graphics Blog This post includes some of the recognizable, some of the most beautiful and of course some of the funkiest ampersands out there. It's inspirational & fun.



The Ampersand Blog features every incarnation of ampersands that you can imagine. Hours of fun for ampersand lovers! Many images above were submitted to the blog by readers.


What are your favorite ampersands?

What does your kerning style say about you?

Communication designer, Valérie Madrill, applies graphological interpretations to digitally-typeset text in this intelligent & entertaining graduate project. With academic precision Valérie identifies the psychology of users of differing styles of margins, leading, kerning, tracking and even font choice. 

Widening left margins mean an "obliviousness to economic necessities", while narrowing left & right margins mean a "conflict between fear of people and inability to remain alone" and overlapping lines of text means "sign of mental disorder."

So, what does your typographic style say about you? My small even tracking says I'd make a "good homemaker" while my irregular right margins say I have "unwise thriftness" and "reserve alternating with loquacity." :-)

Check out the whole "Graphology vs Typography" project here.

A few snippets of her project below. Visit her website for the full project and other design treats (my favorite is the rabbit poster): www.valeriemadill.com.

TRACKING

LOWER CASE i
LEGIBILITY

CAPITAL LETTER M

A few typographic treats

I just wanted to share some fun things I've run across recently. I'm a big fan of the lovely treatment of type (both lead & digital) and really enjoyed these sites & games...

Smashing Magazine: The Showcase of BIG Typography
These little visual snippets come from the first edition and second edition of fun typography. Links to the real thing are listed below the image (though the links for the last two wouldn't work for me).

seanklassen.com

blog.fl-2.com

aigadc.org

wearitwithpride.commartinkonrad.com.au

I Love Typography: The Rather Difficult Font Game
Think you know your fonts? Give this surprisingly tough game a spin. I just barely graced the Hall of Fame on my second try, but I won't say it was a shining moment. Watch out, the game is rather addictive and definitely will give you a greater appreciation to the subtle & poetic differences of fonts created over the years. Click here to try it out for yourself.

The Extensis Community Blog: TYPEmatch
If you've given up on trying to get 34/34 on the Rather Difficult Font Game, this should give you a little mindless entertainment. This short quiz will tell which font personality you're most like and then you can set the different personalities up on dates that play out on screen.

I have mixed feelings about this quiz, as it told me I'm most like Comic Sans (is this worse than Papyrus?). I suppose the options weren't too flattering no matter what, but still! See below for a little insight into my [font] personality. Click here to play for yourself.