The Elements of Typographic StyleRobert Bringhurst This is the typographer’s bible. No other tome is more important. It is dense and richly fortified with indispensable lessons on how to properly craft type on a page. Modernism at its heart, this book still applies to David Carson disciples. Don’t be intimidated by the academic quality of this book. You will be rewarded for plowing through it.
Thinking with TypeEllen LuptonEllen Lupton is one of the most prolific writers on design theory and practice. She applies her ample skills to a type book directed toward students and young designers in Thinking with Type. This book is a primer and guide that you should keep handy if you’re early in your career.
Fonts & LogosDoyald YoungThis book is difficult to find and expensive once you track it down. I got my copy from Hennessy & Ingalls bookstore in Los Angeles and it was well worth the hefty price tag. Doyald Young (that’s not a typo) is legendary. I have yet to see a designer manipulate and understand type like this man. This book is a series of case studies for the famous custom lettering work he executed throughout his illustrious career. If you’re a hardcore typophile, you will definitely cherish this book.
Designing TypeKaren ChengIf you’ve ever wondered what goes into designing a typeface, this book is a must have. It is a technical but accessible guide that will lead you through all of the counter-intuitive considerations that go into designing both a serif and sans-serif font. No one should attempt to craft letters without reading this book first. Perhaps it should be called Designing Modernist Type but the lessons contained within will do you tremendous good.
There are, of course, countless other fantastic books out there that cover typography but these are some of my favorites, and ones that I consider most valuable throughout my continued development as a designer and conjurer of type. Be on the lookout for these books and be prepared to invest the money when you see them. The information and lessons contained within their pages will pay you back many times over. Have some favorites of your own? Let me know about them in the comments. I’m always looking to add to my library.
The Creative Outfit recently started working with Typekit, a font embedding web application that will allow us to use a variety of previously-non-web-safe typefaces on our clients’ sites. As the design kingpin here at TCO, I am particularly excited about this implementation.
For the web neophytes out there, it goes like this: you see the same typefaces on every website because designers and developers must use a typeface that the web user has installed on their system. The website basically tells the user’s computer to load the web content in Arial; so the user’s computer calls on the Arial font file and properly renders the content. If the website calls for Garamond and the user’s computer doesn’t have the Garamond font file, the website won’t render as the designer intended. Instead, it will render in a system default typeface.
Why does this matter? As designers, we like to think the decisions we make for rendering content have an impact on how you consume that content. If a typographer has done a good job you will have never known he was there.
Right, but why does this matter? Typekit exponentially grows our options as designers for displaying content on the web by embedding fonts into the website. Now instead of defaulting to Helvetica or Georgia for headlines, I can use one of hundreds of typefaces that might be much more appropriate for the character of the content, further immersing the user in the media they are consuming.
Ultimately, the user shouldn’t know the difference on the conscious level or care about why we couldn’t effectively do this before. Typekit simply better arms designers to work on the web and I for one am thrilled with my shiny new weaponry.
