While redesigning my logo, my dad took one look and said, “Your logo is just Times New Roman, what’s so special about that?” I almost choked. Times New Roman?! He obviously can’t tell the difference between a modern serif font and one from 1932. When you study the characters, spacing, height and weight of a font, you’ll start to see the beauty in various typefaces (or the awkwardness of others).
While you may not be a font geek like me, you can still learn to distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly. While this is completely subjective, you’ll never view fonts the same again. You’re welcome.
Some on my “ugly” list may have been the most popular font of their time, such as Cooper, Courier, Impact and Times New Roman. Since their creation, there have been a ton of beautiful fonts created that can do the job better. Some of these I just find tacky – like Curls and Herculanum. And then there are my favorites: Comic Sans and Papyrus. And by favorites, I mean, they actually make me want to hurl. No, HR Director, using Comic Sans does not imply that your corporate event is going to be “fun.” Sorry, Indian restaurant, Papyrus doesn’t make your cuisine look more authentically ethnic… it makes it look cheaply designed and a copycat of every other Indian restaurant.
