Jul 01

Facebook Just Updated Its Logo Ever So Slightly. Can You Tell the Difference?

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Facebook has basically used the same logo since 2005—its name in white, in Klavika font, on a blue background. But this week, the company, which is now allegedly worth more than Walmart, decided to change its logo font, opting for a custom font designed in-house, according to Mashable. 

Click the play button in this tweet to see the old and new logos overlaid on each other:

The new typeface is an attempt to “modernize” the logo and make it appear more “friendly and approachable,” says Josh Higgins, Facebook’s creative director. Higgins also noted that Facebook explored many options but ultimately landed on updating its logo instead of redesigning it completely.

So, what’s different? The changes might be hard to spot until you focus on the “a” in the logo, which is now rounder and thinner. 

It’s definitely a subtle change, though not as subtle as Google’s most recent logo tweak.

What do you think? 

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Oct 17

This Suite of Fonts Was Made From the Handwriting of the Homeless

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Homeless signs have been a font of ideas for creatives, but rarely has the focus been on the fonts themselves.

The Arrels Foundation in Barcelona has created Homelessfonts—typefaces based on the unique handwriting of the homeless people it helps. Each font comes with the story of the person who penned it and their personality. After all, few things are more personal than our handwriting.

The work not only helps fund the foundation, it humanizes the homeless and lets people see them as unique individuals, not as an amorphous problem. The video about the process is moving, but moreover, the fonts are actually good. The glyphs were captured with fat sharpies on poster board and then transformed by volunteer typographers.

If you are a typographer, you can donate your time and expertise to help create more fonts. If you just like the concept, you can download a free app to use the fonts in social media (be a nice person and make a donation, too). And if you’re a brand, you can purchase the fonts and the stories that come with them for professional use at surprisingly affordable prices.

Samples of the scripts as they might appear on packaging are included, so you can see just how beautiful and unique the font—and the people behind them—truly are.



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Apr 09

Meet Comic Neue, a New Version of Comic Sans That Might Not Make You Vomit

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A heartfelt hatred of Comic Sans is required for every graphic designer and anyone who happens to have good taste. But while most people use it as a cruel joke or ironically, Craig Rozynski, an Australian designer in Japan, set out to fix the font's many shortcomings.

Figuring there is value in having a casual script typeface for informal documents, Rozynski created Comic Neue to challenge Comic Sans's supremacy in that area.

Available in two variants and three weights, Comic Neue "aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy," Rozynski writes. "The squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape while maintaining the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular. It's perfect as a display face, for marking up comments and writing passive aggressive office memos."

In other words, it should appeal to the very people who are still defacing the world with Comic Sans.

You can even download the font for free right now. So get it for yourself and give it to friends. Together, we can stop the disease that is Comic Sans.

• Comic Sans

• Comic Neue




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Apr 07

Can a Sustainable Font Help Save the World? This Ad Agency Has Made One

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Ryman Eco, a new "sustainable font" from U.K. retailer Ryman Stationery and ad agency Grey London, uses 33 percent less ink than standard typefaces. According to Grey, if the world switched to Ryman Eco as its default print front, it could save almost 500 million ink cartridges and 15 million barrels of oil every year. Fuck you, Verdana, filthy planet killer!

Sorry. Like all right thinking people, I get mighty fired up about fonts.

Sustainable typefaces have been in the news since a 14-year-old American student took time off from going through puberty to suggest that U.S. federal and state governments could save a combined $370 million annually by changing from Times New Roman to Garamond.

Ryman Eco, which Grey says was developed at the same time as Suvir Mirchandani's idea, began as an internal project. Grey brought the idea to Ryman, the U.K.'s biggest stationer, and worked with Monotype's Dan Rhatigan to develop the font. Grey hopes to make Ryman Eco the default printer typeface across its global network.

Of course, using no paper at all would do a lot more to help the environment, but Ryman probably doesn't want to hear about that.

Actually, Ryman Eco looks kind of haughty and full of itself. It's OK for wedding invitations and christenings, I guess, but for down-and-dirty jobs like press releases and earnings reports, I much prefer Poo Corny.

Still, Ryman Eco sure beats Comic Sans, which is far deadlier than climate change and will surely destroy us all!




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Nov 27

Helvetica Perfume, ‘For Those Who Dare to Be the Same’

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What do you get for the designer who has everything? How about nothing?

Helvetica The Perfume is literally just water, or "modernism distilled." Created as a gag gift by creative collective Guts and Glory, each bottle costs $62 plus shipping. If you're interested, you might want to hurry, because all shipments go out by Dec. 5.

As you might expect, most of the copywriting around the pseudo-perfume is pretty entertaining, capturing the best of black-turtle-neck designer speak with an implied wink.

"This typeface was to have no intrinsic meaning, allowing the content to convey the message. … It is in this spirit that we have created the ultimate Modernist perfume–a scent distilled down to only the purest and most essential elements to allow you, the content, to convey your message with the utmost clarity."

The Twitter feed is pretty good, too. We've dropped in a few of our favorite posts below.


    

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Oct 18

There’s Finally a Video Game for Font Geeks

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Most of us can spot Comic Sans a mile away (or at least in an email forward from Aunt Connie), but now there's a video game for those who truly get worked up about typography.

Essentially a puzzle platformer, Type:Rider takes players on a journey of fonts and beautiful graphics. Each level is designed thematically based on different typefaces. For example, the Gothic stage has a Gregorian soundtrack and stark backdrops. As you maneuver your colon (the punctuation mark, not the organ) through each level, you discover the history and legacy of each font. There's even talk of a secret level featuring the aforementioned, widely hated Comic Sans.

Although a feast for the aesthete, the game does not come without complaints. Several iTunes reviewers have criticized the app for frequently crashing, but others say occasional bugs shouldn't deter the graphic designer or history lover from dropping a few bucks on it ($2.99 for iOS devices, $3.64 on Android). Hat tip to Adverve.


    

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