So You Need A Typeface is a humorous look at the process of selecting type
Danish graphic design student Julian Hansen created So You Need A Typeface, a tongue-in-cheek flow chart to walk you through the process of type selection. There are nuggets of type-selection truths sprinkled throughout this piece. For example:
• Not afraid to be asked if you live in the nineties?
• What is your opinion of Eric Gill?
(If you’re not familiar with the contentious life of Eric Gill, you should probably read up about him so that your usage of Gill Sans or Perpetua can be in used in full knowledge.)
• (Do you need) A champion in usability?
…this one leads to Caslon as a logical conclusion. I couldn’t agree more!
This one made me LOL…
• Everybody loves Garamond
Although this piece was made with humor in mind, in actuality there are far worse methods of arriving at a decision about type (anything that involves the word ‘funky’ would qualify as worse). In fact, following this chart to the letter wouldn’t be a bad strategy because the outcomes of each scenario end in the age-old well-vetted production typefaces such as Garamond, Futura, Palatino, Didot, and Helvetica and the chart routes you into classic usage of each of them. So, a tip of the hat to Julian for creating a useful resource. And he’s made it available as a poster.
