site of the week - thinking with type

Published 5.01.2006 by a•pril | E-mail this post

This noteable site is the on-line companion to the book "Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students," by Ellen Lupton. In a educational, surprisingly entertaining, and humorous fashion, Lupton presents the hows ands whys of type, and how best to utilize it as a designer. She covers a lot of typographical terrain, such as anatomy, x-heights, size, spacing, kerning, alignment, hierarchy and grids - and it doesn't put you to sleep... honest! I highly recommend taking a look at Lupton's summary of A Few Good Fonts (because it's all about about quality over quantity), and definitely download her presentation, "Make the World Safe for Typography," delivered at the AIGA National Conference, September, 2005. Her hilarious (though I believe truly heartfelt) plea is for all designers to ban together to fight crimes against typography -- well, hilarious if you're a typography nerd -- and you probably are if you've read through this whole post (not that there's anything wrong with that). Enjoy!