The Big Bad Book Blog

When the first promo material for James Cameron’s groundbreaking 3D sci-fi eco-parable Avatar was released, pretty much anyone with any aesthetic sensibility was shocked and appalled by the use of the much-maligned typeface Papyrus for the titles and captions. Particularly for a film with a budget in the hundreds of millions, it seems inconceivable that they couldn’t spring for something a little classier and a little less hole-in-the-wall restaurant menu. We’ve talked Papyrus before in discussions of font-related missteps in book design, so we thought we’d mention this truly hilarious letter from a design blog. Says one anonymous commenter, “At least he didn’t use Comic Sans.” (more…)

It was with my burgeoning interest in design several years ago that I first became aware of the art of typography—how fonts are set in a design to appeal to readability, practicality, and aesthetic tastes. I’ve by no means since become a font aficionado, though I am something of a snob about choosing just the right font for my creative work.

There are those—typographers—who have made this their goal: to create just the right font for any situation. It is a true art. The intricacy of font work lends itself to a great deal of vision, patience, and mayhap a bit of oddity. (Check out “Being a Typographer” at CreativePro.com).

It is the same as any other unique image—and has just as much of a claim over copyright. But that fact is something we occasionally forget. ‘We’ being anyone from a personal user creating a poster for a band to a business creating a website for their product to, say, a very large company using the fonts for their ads.

Such was the case with NBC, which is currently facing a lawsuit from typographic firm The Font Bureau over a mishandling of font licensing. The Font Bureau, which is a big shot in the typographic world (having designed over 1,500 fonts for over 300 companies, according to their website), claims that NBC did not secure the rights to use a handful of fonts that appeared in their fall marketing campaign. A big mistake, as without proper licensing, all of that advertising can be pulled and would need to be redone. And that is an extremely expensive process.

Even large companies running intricate and expensive advertising campaigns make mistakes. But the fact of the matter is that, whether this or other incidents were purposeful or honest mistakes, people occasionally see a font as something they have an automatic right to—because it’s there, and it’s only text, and hey, who cares anyway? (more…)

In a previous post on Fonts That Make You Look Lame, we included Comic Sans in a list of five typefaces that are either played-out or just downright atrocious. And who doesn’t hate the goofy, amateurish font? The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about the man behind Comic Sans, Vincent Connare, and the couple who founded Ban Comic Sans, an organization with “global ambitions” to eliminate this ominpresent affront to aesthetic sensibility. Fortunately, Connare seems to have a sense of humor about his creation—according to the article, he and the founders of Ban Comic Sans are considering doing a picture book together. Good idea! I’d buy it.

However, Comic Sans is merely the most visible in a huge group of stale typefaces. Papyrus is a personal pet peeve and also has its own mockery cult. For an interesting debate on Comic Sans, other lame fonts (Souvenir is a “crime against humanity”), and whether anyone even cares about fonts, be sure to read some of the WSJ article’s comments.

Being a “creative” is hard. I cringe at the label. I’m the first to admit that maintaining the level of inspiration needed to constantly churn out good—no, great—ideas and execute them well is really tough. So I thought I’d share some thoughts on my creative process.

Sometimes it feels like the planets are aligned and projects go super crazy well.

Everyone likes it when that happens. But there are so many factors that go into a great idea that projects often start more like this: continue reading

After spending years carefully crafting your manuscript, it’s tough to subject it to the judging eyes of others. Typically, the first round of reviews brings mostly positive feedback: Family and friends will read your work and be impressed by your tenacity and hard work. You’ll probably enjoy an ego-stroke or two when they ask for autographed copies, looking forward to having a published author as a friend or relative.

The next round may be a little tougher. Industry people won’t candy-coat their opinions, and you may receive feedback that’s less than rosy. Take the good with the bad when it comes to criticism of your book, remembering to appreciate fresh perspectives that may illuminate problems you couldn’t see before. No matter how it may feel at times, most people don’t enjoy raking you over the coals–they just want to know if this is a book they can sell.

So what matters to these book people as they evaluate your work with an objective critical eye? Here are six factors they’ll always look at: continue reading