Typography : The Crystal Goblet

I was over at the FontShop blog when i saw this link: Typo-L : The Crystal Goblet.

It’s an interest article using a crystal goblet as a metaphor for typography. I first (well, as far as i can remember) became familiar with the term when watching the Helvetica doco, and so this was interesting to read.

To sum up: Beatrice Warde is advocating that good typography (how text is used in book design and advertising) should be like a crystal goblet is with wine, where there is nothing to get in the way of message, nothing to distract from the communication. 

I really like this concept, especially in book design where i just want to read the story and not get stuck looking at the type. Where this falls down for me is in the boredom factor, fonts like Helvetica are often touted as being the crystal goblet as they are so common and used for so many things that they have little feeling or meaning in themselves, as i would agree. But, the other side of this is that they become very stale, and users will often overlook these messages as they look like so many other messages they see everyday. 

So, i guess what I’m saying is i will try to create crystal goblets in my design, but also seek a certain freshness as well, whether that is by using newer types or older types in a different way… I’m not sure, but i know that i will be pushing myself. 

thanks for listening

byebye – sye

Wordle

ok, so at the FontFeed they told me about this Wordle thing… so here are a few i made using the rss feed from this blog…

Wordle made using the RSS feed from this blog.

Another Wordle created using the RSS feed from this blog.

Another wordle made using the RSS feed from this blog.

 

check it out. it’s cool.

thanks for listening…

byebye – sye

Helvetica Cafe?

hello, my friend perri just txt’d me this pic she snapped:

Helvetica Cafe in Melbourne, Australia

it’s a cafe in melbourne called ‘helvetica cafe’. that is pretty sweet if you ask me… but is does beg the question, did they name the cafe after the typeface, or choose the font after the name?

this cafe has been mentioned before on the helvetica film blog.

(btw if you have not seen the film ‘helvetica’ you really should. check it out here)

this kind of thing has happened before, there is a good flickr set about it here and it’s been dubbed LTypI or Lack of Typographic Imagination.

thanks for listening.

cheers

- sye