highly sensitive power

Typography, like cartography, lures me with the promise of esoteric depths. What secrets do the seers of these realms know? A recent foray into the world of typography captivated me to the point of near-breathlessness. There are worlds of joy within even a font style.

It doesn’t surprise me that Robert Bringhurst, author of The Elements of Typographic Style, now in its third edition, is also a poet. This is from the first page of his book:

“In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be read, it must relinquish the attention it has drawn. Typography with anything to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a clear superiority to fashion. Typography at its best is a visual form of language linking timelessness and time.”
~ Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

Another seer of the realm, John D. Boardley, channels his love for typography into his website, I Love Typography. Monitor your bottom lip as you browse this site – the inclination to drool over the contents (like this letterpress poster from Cameron Moll – scroll down to see it) may catch you by surprise. Further, the site’s links provide more worlds within worlds to learn from and ogle over.

I found Boardley’s two-part article “So You Want to Create a Font,” particularly interesting after my recent receipt via regular mail of a card that baffled me. The handwriting in the card looked like that of the friend who’d sent it, yet not. Spooky. Then I found out that she’d had her handwriting digitized into her own personal font.

You can digitize your handwriting, too, on Fontifier, or invent a font from scratch, on FontStruct. For inspiration, browse through FontStruct’s Gallery.

“Typography exists to honor content.”
~ Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

Flickr photo: Ampersand, by adactio.

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