Archive for March 2011
4 Flowy, Flirty, Feminine & Free Fonts
I have so much fun testing out fonts to find just the right ones for my clients. I particularly like feminine fonts, cause I’m just girly that way.
The following fonts would be great choices for logos or website headers if your personal style leans toward feminine and flowery with a professional feel.
Honey Script No longer available.
Angelina No longer available.
Do you have a favorite font? Leave a comment and let me know, I’m always on the hunt for new fonts to collect.
Good Fonts Gone Bad
Comic Sans & Copperplate have now left the building.
For the record, I have nothing against Comic Sans and Copperplate. Once upon a time they were lovely, lovely fonts. So shiny and full of potential.
Then, every time someone wanted to emphasize a quote, they used Comic Sans. When the vibe was playful Comic Sans showed up to party.
Banks and corporations staked a claim on Copperplate. They wanted Copperplate for their logos and annual reports. Drive by your bank today and chances are the sign out front is typeset in Copperplate.
Overexposed Fonts
Comic Sans and Copperplate, along with quite a few other fonts, suffer from extreme overexposure. Because of that, many professional designers, me included, won’t use them in design. They are no longer considered professional.
As famous fonts (and celebrities) do, Comic Sans and Copperplate have now retired and are sipping margaritas in Mexico. Rumors are they may never come back to the U.S.
They aren’t the first, or last, fonts to fall out of fashion. So what do we do when fonts retire? We find new ones of course!
Finding Better Fonts
There are many, many sites offering free fonts. However, the projects I work on are all commercial endeavors (logos, headers, print pieces, etc.) so I prefer to work with fonts that are professionally created. Some of these fonts are offered for free. Most have to be purchased.
Professional fonts differ from many of the free fonts in two key ways.
1. Professional fonts offer a full range of characters and glyphs. This is better for me because they include copyright marks, other symbols and accented characters like the â in château.
2. Professional fonts are formatted correctly to work with the full range of graphic design software programs I use and to work with the software professional printers use. I don’t have to worry about Illustrator not recognizing the font or my printer calling with a font issue.
Two great places to start exploring fonts are:
FontSquirrel
Hand-picked free, commercial use fonts.
Myfonts
Easy searches for commercial fonts. Great tools to help you identifying fonts you’ve seen elsewhere.
Comic Sans and Copperplate were last seen on a beach in Mexico. I’d like to join them there soon and I’ve promised not to talk design!
Why I Love What I Do
Everyday I get to meet people like you.
People with a story to tell. People who are doing their own thing.
Business types who are launching out on their own after years of working in a corporate cubical. Entrepreneurs who’ve never even set foot in an office. Moms who are starting something up on the side so they can be at home full time with their kids.
I get to be a small part of your life story. A dot along the path to making your dreams come true.
I don’t help you come up with your big idea — that’s all you. I refine that big idea, and translate it into a logo, a tagline, a website, a brochure, a marketing strategy.
I do this by helping you get out of your own way.
How many times have you said to yourself, “There’s no way I can look that profession, I don’t know how.”
I want you to stop saying that to yourself. Stop limiting what your company can look and sound like.
You may not know exactly how to make your website look professional, but you can certainly find someone who can help you do that.
That’s why I love what I do. I get to meet and help people like you.
I do this by pulling your vision for your business out of your head and putting it down on paper. Photoshop, Illustrator and WordPress are just the tools.
The real work is in figuring out the best way to tell your story.
In doing this work I get to be a designer, writer, investigative reporter, editor, marketer, publisher and cheerleader.
I get to watch you become even more than what you thought you could be.
What’s your story? What’s your big idea? Where are you going? Comment below and if you like this post share it on Facebook and Twitter.