Typophile - Online type/design library - Comments

There is also Global

peter_bain — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 08:55:54 -0700

There is also Global Type:
http://www.global-type.org

Miguel, Thank you very much

Chris Allen — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 05:48:45 -0700

Miguel,

Thank you very much for providing all those links, it’s much appreciated.

Miguel, Thank you very much

Chris Allen — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 05:48:37 -0700

Miguel,

Thank you very much for providing all those links, it’s much appreciated.

I like this idea a lot! I

Miguel Sousa — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 00:09:35 -0700

I like this idea a lot! I can easily see font foundries, design studios and other players jumping on the bandwagon (à la Facebook) if the concept matures well. Right now we have many resources scattered around*, but none of them really lends it self to aggregate all the information about a typeface, and discuss its usage at the same time. So, having a site for this purpose sounds quite interesting, IMO.

*Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/fountaineer/408623655/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fonts-in-use/
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad_%28typeface%29
Delicious http://del.icio.us/stewf/book-cover
Typophile http://typophile.com/forum/7
Typographica http://typographica.org/001124.php
Font ID Guides http://bowfinprintworks.com/SerifGuide/intro.php
http://bowfinprintworks.com/Script01Pg1.html
Identifont http://www.identifont.com/find?font=times&q=Go

In terms of judging, I think

Chris Allen — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 15:02:16 -0700

In terms of judging, I think it would be closer to moderating, more of whether a piece is a suitable example of that typeface in use as opposed to the personal preference of the viewer. If means and time allowing there was a want for it to open up to provide extra resource for other disciplines, then that is something that I would have to consider.

The main idea for now is to have a central reference for design, focusing heavily on the typography and how it is used in context, not just to help judge the suitability or the usability of a typeface you might be considering for a piece, but also as a permanent record of that typeface and a research/teaching resource for students and academia (although I could see it open to all sorts of ’find this typeface’ assignment abuse). I wouldn’t want it to end up purely as an extended marketing tool for the type foundries, although I think if they were interested they could be invaluable to enriching the user experience.

I would like the focus when concerned with submissions to be more towards established studios/designers/typographers/etc. but I don’t see it as unfeasible to have an ’education’ section that works with universities to provide coverage of their degree shows, this way I would hope that the students might use the resource and then be showing, hopefully work that in some way has benefited from it. Also bearing in mind that todays students are tomorrows designers and with luck they would as they progress add to the library and essentially be giving something back to the design community.

“All of a sudden this is

aluminum — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 11:47:22 -0700

“All of a sudden this is beginning to sound like a train wreck.”

There’s a trade off. Any community site depends heavily on the community that participates on it. The more open you want the community, the more open you have to allow submissions to be. The more closed, the more administrative time and effort that would go into maintaining it all and filtering the submissions in some objective fashion.

Remember that a rating system is only as good as the knowledge of the raters. ;o)

Something as simple as a

Koppa — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 11:27:36 -0700

Something as simple as a 5-star system, suggested by Miss Tiffany, is precisely what I had in mind.

Regarding “judging” and subjectivity...this goes back to my previous post. It’s not about favorites or style...the proposed star ratings would be about “this is a good (as in the type is approriate and set correctly) example” and this example is “not as good.” This would only be necessary if it was an open portfolio like Flickr, which would undoubtedly attract posters of varying skill, knowledge, and experience, and likely be heavy with lesser experienced students and amateurs who cannot wait to see their work posted on the site.

I’ll assume that people who know what they’re doing wouldn’t need this resource and wouldn’t have much time to dedicate to it.

All of a sudden this is beginning to sound like a train wreck.

But maybe if it was typographers rating the use of type in work done by designers, there’d be some shared interest among both professional communities.

Chris, Not sure which

crossgrove — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 10:05:11 -0700

Chris,

Not sure which direction you want this to come from: Is it about typefaces, and examples of them in use, or is it about graphic design, with extra info about typefaces used? The first is a resource I think everyone would welcome, and the rights and permissions of that shouldn’t be terribly restrictive. The second sounds like a portfolio site, with lots of feedback, bickering and contention, and also doesn’t sound like something people need. I see no need for “judging” or other ratings or feedback; that sounds like it goes against the intention of a resource that helps people understand how typefaces perform. Who cares which one is your favorite? I think what people need is a place to see how type looks in various settings, and what it can do for them, before they buy it. Is that what you’re thinking of?

If it’s about the typefaces rather than the products using them, then you do have the challenge of selecting faces to feature. Over time, you could have a lot of typefaces in the library. But every free, grunge, and rip-off face doesn’t need a page of examples. Newer designs without a lot of popular exposure could very much benefit from this kind of demonstration/example site. People are always asking for specimens, and asking if anyone has used a particular face, and how well it works.

You could always incorporate

Miss Tiffany — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 10:00:12 -0700

You could always incorporate a voting system. Using stars for instance. And what it displays is the average of the votes.

@ Koppa and Aluminium I

Chris Allen — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:37:32 -0700

@ Koppa and Aluminium

I really like the idea of a wiki style section for feedback, I think possibly having a section like wikicommons for uploading of pictures where they can be linked to maybe a wiki article on the typeface itself, therefore reinforcing the emphasis on the type?

The actual judging of a piece and being able to moderate raises all sorts of issues, as I agree, how do you say what is good/bad, etc. when design and style is so subjective?

And to everyone, thanks for all your feedback, this is really helpful and appreciated.

This sounds like a great

Sharon Van Lieu — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:04:01 -0700

This sounds like a great idea to me.

I believe there are

Koppa — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:19:20 -0700

I believe there are specific, objective criteria that could be used to judge anything “good” or “bad.” Or, more objectively, “correct” or “incorrect.” Surely there is a lot of subjectivity involved in style, but I do believe there is a right and wrong...surely many of you Typophiles with more experience and knowledge than I can back me up. We do follow “rules,” don’t we?

Would the forum allow for us designers to be judged by our peers...or for designers to be judged by typographers? Wiki-ish? That would be interesting.

I think it’s a great idea.

aluminum — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 06:34:37 -0700

I think it’s a great idea.

The challenge, as always, will deciding if/how/when you decide to start moderating the submissions. For ’open call for uploads’ sites to work, you tend to have to take the bad with the good.

@ Aluminium Definitely along

Chris Allen — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 04:43:11 -0700

@ Aluminium

Definitely along the lines of what I want to do, really nice layout and usability, but I want to create something independent (or maybe linked with multiple design groups) but AIGA being an American-centric association, I think possibly loses to some extent it’s international appeal that an independent body might have? What do you think?

@ Sharon Thanks for that

Chris Allen — Wed, 4 Jun 2008 04:34:07 -0700

@ Sharon

Thanks for that Sharon, that’s really interesting to see and along the lines of what I’m looking at, however I want to create something more intuitive, with a nice GUI, with as Tiffany mentioned an open environment area that people can access to upload their own work, kind of encouraging design community collaboration and sharing.

Online type/design library

Chris Allen — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 05:32:20 -0700

Afternoon,

Just wondering what the views here are to an online library/catalog where work could be referenced and viewed in relation to it’s typeface (maybe by tagging in the meta-data), so that you could search for a typeface and see it in context as opposed to just as an alphabet list?

Do you think this would have any useful application, possibly for students/academia?

Really interested to see what you think.

Thanks

Chris