I recently started on “Just my type” by Simon Garfield. It is a very enoyable book about typefaces, and I’m planning to start on a small series of posts on the subject, because this particular part of the design world has been nagging me for a while: Why can people get so angry about Comic Sans, and why can’t you use the powdery frailness of Papyrus without being hit by the chilly winds of dissaproving silence?

First a little provocation:

Because I’m a social constructivist my first reaction is to whip out Bourdieu, arguing that it is completely arbitrary what is considered “good” typefaces and typography. It is just defined as good by people that have achieved a position within the pecking-order of this particular sub-field of design. A sub-field that isn’t fundamentally different from any other nerdy hobby with an established jargon, creative productivity, and an ongoing debate… Except that they have managed to convince the general public that typefaces and typography is somehow more important than other things like designing LEGO spaceships or cosplay costumes?
And one final provocation: Couldn’t we just use something like Helvetica for everything and be done with it?

Personally, I have a tendency to agree with Beatrice Wardes’ Cristal Goblet-argument, that printing should be invisible without disturbing the mental images created by the words of the text. Because my love of writing makes me focus on which emotion, mental images, and insights the words create – instead of how the letters happen to look on the page.
However, typefaces can add something extra to a text, and if you want to sell stuff, everything from content to appearance counts.

This makes typefaces obviously important from an economic standpoint. We live in an industrialized society with participation of labour, where the continuous battle for attention and desire means that everything is being more thoroughly designed from the product itself to visual identity and training of sales personnel.  It’s natural that type designers and graphical designers get their share of this development, and well known companies can often get a surprising amount of media coverage by making slight changes in their visual identity or logo, while a few companies like IKEA has even attracted a lot of critisism by simply changing their standard typeface.

So from a tactical perspective, playing the typeface-game is not only necessary to keep up with competitors, but can also occasionally create attention and brand visbility.
But typefaces is also a lot about feelings, and feelings are very important for developing an attractive brand personality, more on this topic next time!