Typography

Typeface Selection

Choosing the right typeface is important, but up to a point.

A lot of designers faun over type as if it’s this delicate thing that you, too, need to faun over in the same way in order to be successful. You don’t. You just need to understand how to choose the right typeface and why, and stress less about what your choice says about you as a designer. Type is a tool.

There are thousands of great faces and families available now. Narrowing it down to an appropriate list of dozens is your main concern.

Typography is kind of like coffee or pizza. There’s terrible coffee. There’s acceptable coffee. And there’s great coffee. Terrible coffee exists only in the places where people need it, but couldn’t care less about it, i.e., truck stops and gas stations. Acceptable coffee is the most abundant, now available almost anywhere you go in the first world. Great coffee is more rare, but it’s not that difficult to find or make if you put in minimal effort. Some people will try and tell you there is exquisite coffee that is sheer perfection and if you drink anything less, you’re failing. Tell those people to fuck off. You are probably drinking coffee just as good as theirs, only not being an ass about it.

Type is like this. If you truly care how type looks on a page, you’ll notice if it’s terrible. You’ll find it easy to choose and work with acceptable faces. It does take more time to select great typefaces for projects, but it’s always achievable. Perfect typefaces don’t exist, so don’t stress if you’ve narrowed it down to a few and fear someone will call you out on your mistake. Those people probably don’t exist, and if they did, they are sad and lonely.

The mistake they might be making is confusing quality with personal taste. Taste can and usually should affect your decisions, but don’t let favoritism lead you into telling someone else their favorites are wrong.

Caveat: Sometimes your type pairings do feel like they’ve snapped into place. In design work, it is possible to have that feeling of having done something exactly right. My point is that you shouldn’t aim to please self-described experts, but to follow your own intuition. If you care, you’ll be successful.