lettering for life

i don't know how it started, but somewhere along the way, i got really into fonts. it was probably around three years ago when i started hanging out with design-oriented kids that i figured out that other people were really into fonts, beyond a universally accepted hatred of comic sans. my interest in lettering has taken two roads: computer-based typefaces and fonts, and hand-drawn lettering. in this post, i'll talk about the former - in a soon-to-be-written second post, i'll delve into lettering of the hand-drawn variety.

my favorite fonts seem to fall into a couple categories. i understand that serifs are easier to read in blocks of texts, but overall i prefer sans serifs, either very light or very bold. i like well-placed, creative, and non-gratuitous flourishes. here are some examples of beautiful fonts:

this is avenir. i like using this one for simple posters. also my resume uses this font.

this is brandon. i don't love the weathering on this one, but i do like how bold and simple it is. 

this is carolyna pro. i love the interplay between line widths, and also it's just really pretty to look at:

lastly, this is true north. a really sweet and clean cursive that's not too overwrought:

being really into fonts is fun but can get really expensive. i love getting my font newsletters and reading blogs, but balk at the prices of downloading the actual products of my desire. if you want to and can invest in nice fonts, myfonts.com is a good resource. but if that's not in your budget, there are websites out there that allow you to download some great fonts for free. a lot of them are not necessarily in my taste (i won't say they're bad, necessarily, just something i wouldn't be caught dead using). but there are some gems in there.

i'm going to skip 1001freefonts.com because it may have some good things but the user interface is just unworkable.

i do like these sites though...

Font Squirrel because if i'm turning to a website for help with aesthetics, the website itself better be pretty - which font squirrel is.

da font is not as pretty as font squirrel, but they do have a lot of fonts that i like.

lastly, this blog has compiled a list of 100 great fonts for the design-inclined.

i'm sure there are a lot of other good font sites out there, so if you have a favorite, please let me know! in the meantime, go forth and type beautifully...