Typography: don’t think, feel

I saw a really interesting presentation at @Media last week, where the panel included Jon Hicks. Jon was responsible for the design of the Firefox and Thunderbird logos. Unfortunately I picked that day to wear a Firefox t-shirt, so ended up feeling like a bit of a groupie, or whatever the equivalent is in geeky circles.

Although this is probably a lifelong undertaking, I’m starting to learn about typography. I find it fascinating how very subtle changes in the structure and shape of a typeface will result in a completely different message being conveyed with the design.

This was demonstrated rather nicely by Jon by putting up the original Sex Pistols poster using a different typeface. The result is very amusing, and makes it very obvious how the correct use of typography in a design will have a massive impact on the impression that people come away with.