futura alternatives, spudart forums

I came upon an interesting article today, and under most circumstances it would come off as a bit snobbish.  Now there are certain fonts that designer's have an unwritten law not to use, the two that immediately come to my mind are Papyrus and Comic Sans.  The focused distaste for those two faces in particular (one of which was designed by Microsoft), seems to be derived from its overabundance and misuse in design.  It is a claim that anyone that sees themselves as artistic will use either of these fonts on their menus, spa signage, store signage, flyers, websites, the list could really go on forever.  The truth of the matter is, the fonts being "pretty" or "fun" being used by hack designers seek to devalue the art and craft in good design.  It is therefore easy for me to understand that these two fonts should not be used.

That is why I was taken aback when I saw an article by Jessica Helfland commenting on how many young designers she had seen using a personal favorite of mine, Futura.  Now this whole first semester at Pratt, my professors have been speaking out against the word, "Like" when it comes to defending any of our design decisions.  Rightfully so, our design decisions, especially with type, should not necessarily be chosen just because we "like" the font.  Helfland comments particularly on one student that redesigned a series of Freud covers, and then was only able to loosely defend the reasoning behind using Futura all over it with guidance from Helfland.  

It was just recently that I started to move away from using Futura, mostly because my Typography instructor was critical of my usage.  Afterall, a typeface is meant to reflect, in abstract thinking, a voice based on its appearance; I do want to make sure my voice is understood. 

The Law of Simplicity...

james goggin, olafur eliasson, the weather project, 2003

A month or two ago, James Goggin did a lecture at Pratt.  I attended, arriving late, when the lecture was already about 15 minutes in.  This being my first experience with what could subjectively be called a "Big Deal" in the design world, I was interested in the experience.  The lecture confused me, since much of the work Goggin showed, was kind a re-appropriation of other people's work, with many of them, it was almost a direct lift of the other design.  When I asked a professor the next day, "When does that [re-appropriating other people's work] become OK?" to which my professor quickly replied, "Never," with a smile, it kind of affirmed my belief, now I only wished I had asked Goggin the same question.


He is afterall an artist though, and his reply I imagine would have been a well thought out reply that he had prepared since he started his DuChamp-ian approach to "ready-made design".  I still wonder how far one can take that though.  Many artists attempt to copy others as a means of finding their own voice.  Picasso directly copied artists of the past until he developed the style he was famous for later in life.  Realistically I always look at the work of others as a means of inspiration, even if I end up biting on it pretty hard, but to directly copy the work of others into my own design, I'm still not comfortable with that.


For now, I think I'll leave that to the established artists like Goggin for now, but his credibility to me will always be in question (even though like the piece above, a lot of his work is pretty amazing, this current though withheld). 

As a point of inspiration...

 

creative grab bag by ethan bodnar, 2009

 Today I decided to hit up the friendly neighborhood Borders, in an attempt to find a design book or two as a means of inspiration.  I eventually rounded it down to two books, and Creative Grab Bag by Ethan Bodnar won out.  The other book will end up on my Christmas List, but both books did something I liked more than the general collection of Logos, Letterheads, Postcards, etc., each design in every book has a small snippet of insight from the original designer.

 The main reason I picked Creative Grab Bag, was because it basically tasked each designer per spread with developing something outside their comfort zone.  I loved the idea, mostly because I haven't really established where my comfort zone lay, and I will attempt to complete as many projects as possible from this book within a year's end to establish that.   I will post all my progress here on the blog, for all (including me) to develop a love/hate relationship with my work.

King, Queen, Knave, designed by Peter Mendelsund

Found an interesting collection of book covers.  Apparently publishers, every decade or two, will update book jackets to keep everything a bit fresh.  I've never heard of Nabokov, which I think I'll live with, but seeing how all of these designs were done solely by hand, makes me envious.  Fine artist first, graphic designer second is something I really need to start brining to my work, and seeing things like this are the inspiration for that. 

via printmag.com 

Subjectivity is dynamic...

Art forms of the past were really considered elitist. Bach did not compose for the masses, neither did Beethoven. It was always for patrons, aristocrats, and royalty. Now we have a sort of democratic version of that, which is to say that the audience is so splintered in its interests.

-David Cronenberg 

Have I ever felt that art is purely subjective?  Well, prior to beginning courses at Pratt Institute this past September, I always did.  I thought people always "liked" something for the weirdest of reasons, or more so they didn't have a reason.  In my two years working as an interior designer, I would ask why a client doesn't want any shade of the color red anywhere inside their office.  "We just don't," they would often say in similar situations.  Arguing with them beyond this point seemed asinine, they had made up their mind, everyone really is a critic it seemed.

But what gave them the right to reject my expertise and education?  At that time, I wouldn't have been able to reflect on the precise reason.  After reading Rudolf Arnheim's Art and Visual Perception though, I can better gather some insight into the rejection based on their perspective.  Their subjectivity could be developed from so many factors up until that point in their life that I could only hope to find the needle in a pile of needles.  And it is because as a designer I am selling my abilities to nearly anyone who will pay, I am to a certain degree, at their mercy.

An argument like this would seek to devalue design that is actually "good", but in reality it further reinforces that good design will always stand far and away from the unresolved.  But subjectivity, perspective, these things are an important part of working in art and design, much to either my good fortune or hindrance.