Monday, July 07, 2003
It's done.
The much-vaunted (at least in this blog) CD-ROM collection of 1001 fonts is complete; actually more than complete, because somehow I ended up with about 2,600 fonts, give or take a few. What drives a person to spend hours collecting TrueType fonts like stamps, butterflies or the bellybutton lint of faeries?
Because they're there. Because you never know when you'll need a use a typeface like Red Circle, Saucy Millionaire or Dustbowl Clementine. It may be never, but never say never.
And, because they're charming, esthetically pleasing and many of them are absolutely free - they're like the gratis Coleoptera specimens of the World Wide Web. Do people actually trade fonts? I imagine they do, although I haven't plunged quite so far into the madness. Yet.
This year's world convention for fontophiles, font freaks, fontsuckers and typologists is TYPECON 2003, and will take place July 17-20 in Minneapolis, Minnesota...imagine - a world convention dedicated solely to the appreciation, art and science of type.
Just as clothes make the person, a font can make the message. Creative and juducious use of fonts can maximize the effectiveness of any message, and in some cases even define it: a typeface often becomes a logotype, viz, Coca-Cola™, IBM™...sometimes the font is more recognizeable than the product.
I love the House Industries Gothic 23 font collection - there's just something "right" and visually proper about that funky face, and their Simian font collection is very nice as well. It isn't freeware, but if you're a fonting professional the list price is probably well worth it. Apostrophic Labs is a source of high-quality freeware fonts, including the "world's largest type family," Republika, which boasts 300 individual fonts. Individual fonts I really like are Albertus (the Prisoner font), Adler, Medusa, Garamond...too many to name. To me, fonts aren't just a source of visual appeal. Fonts can be musical, sonic in nature: perhaps that's a touch of innate synesthesia. ESL Music would understand. Check them out.
"My name is Lenka, and I am a font freak."
(Flatly, in unison) "Hi, Lenka..."
