Author Archives: The Fontografist

The ULTIMATE designer’s guide to using Typekit

Get ready to embark on a splendorous journey. A journey to a world that includes matching typography on both print and web, without having to resort to Verdana or Helvetica. Now there is nothing wrong with either of those fonts, but on this particular journey, you’ll encounter multiple weights, faces and type families. It’s a […]

Properly using and distributing Typekit fonts on print files

Since the latest release of the Adobe Creative Cloud, designers a plenty have rejoiced at the fact that, since the purchase of Typekit by Adobe, they can now take advantage of the font libraries available for use under the Typekit fonts license. Being able to use and package Typekit fonts on print files, fonts which […]

Typography in logo design

Anyone can take a nicely illustrated graphic, plop the latest and greatest font on it and call it a logo. It takes a responsible and smart designer to understand that a logo is much more than that. Simply typing out a name in a font and adjusting the kerning won’t do either. You need to […]

Learn how to interpret feedback as if your job depended on it… because it does.

Make the logo bigger. Make the logo smaller. Increase the font by half a point. Make it pop. It doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know what I want, but I will once I see it. We’ve all heard it at least once. Feedback from someone that either doesn’t know how to give feedback, […]

Haters gonna hate!

As creatives we are compelled to critique. It’s basically hardwired in our brains. Is it because, as creatives, we have an innate need to be heard? Is it because we believe things can always be done better? Who knows. At least I don’t. What I do know is that some creatives tend to go for […]

Convert outlined text to live text. No re-typing required.

Let’s say you have this multi-column Adobe Illustrator file, and you need to get some text from it. So, you open the file, only to realize… IT’S ALL OUTLINED. OK… Don’t freak out! You won’t have to re-type all that text. I can show you how to re-text outlined text. It’s quite simple actually.

Design a portfolio that will land you the job.

So you’re ready to hit the pavement running looking for a graphic designer job, but do you know how your design portfolio is going to stand up? A good resume will always make a great impression, but the reality is your portfolio is probably going to be reviewed first. With a portfolio that is designed […]

The case for originality.

Lets face it. Design is borrowing. You can cry rules of balance and negative space all you want, but at the end of the day, it really is just borrowing. We take inspiration from one thing, and apply some of it to another. A very high level copy/paste if you will. Now, don’t pull your […]

Design a winning resume.

As a creative director, a ton of resumes fly across my desk, some are awesome and some are OK, but then there is the vast majority that are straight up bad. If you are applying for a design job, your resume is your foot in the door. This thing needs to have fireworks and horns […]

Creativity will happen. Or not.

Creativity has a mind of its own. You can try to harness it by following rituals and lighting some incense, but at the end of the day, creative thought will come when it wants to. I don’t know what sparks it for me. Maybe someone has figured this out. It happens sometimes at the perfect […]