Friday, February 20, 2009

Article on Type Designer

Interesting article in yesterday's "Washington Post" about type designer Matthew Carter. Carter is responsible for creating Verdana (used in this blog!), Georgia, Tahoma, and other fonts that we see and use every day.

Here's a highlight from the article:

" . . . when Carter designs a typeface, he typically starts with a lowercase h. It has an ascender (the stroke going up on the left), but it also reveals a lot about the character of the typeface. From a lowercase h, he explains, you can tell what a lowercase l, m and n will look like. Graphic designers, however, usually identify typefaces by more flamboyant letters of the alphabet, such as a capital "Q" or a lowercase "g." The fact that Carter is more of a lowercase h guy says much about his design style.

He creates "the fonts that do the heavy lifting as opposed to being flashy," says New York-based type designer Jonathan Hoefler. . . ."


We like to think that Carter's approach to design is similar to ours, and that the Jonathan Hoefler's quote could apply to the Identia Sign System as well.

Link to the article