Typophile - What ONE typeface would you have rather not exist? - Comments

I generally avoid posts

Norbert Florendo — Sun, 9 Sep 2007 19:16:50 -0700

I generally avoid posts about “worst,” “hate” or “nuke it” since I’ve seen some brilliant pieces using what some think are terrible faces.

But I do have to say I have great distaste for designs that emulate other writing systems. For some reason it bothers me as much as ethnic jokes.

Hey Simon! How’d you know

John the Fontaholic — Sun, 9 Sep 2007 18:52:40 -0700

Hey Simon!

How’d you know that’s my name done in Times on the letterpress?? :-D

I agree that it looks much better done that way, more “real” somehow, if you know what I mean.

The print shop that I work for, still has a Heidelberg letter press which almost never gets used for print work anymore; mostly it’s pressed into service for numbering or crash-imprinting pre-printed NCR forms. But it’s always nice to see people using it for letterpress work, especially if the stock being used is a really thick one. But these days, most people don’t want to spring for the additional money and time of having an actual die made...

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey Simon! Yes its much

Stefan Seifert — Sun, 9 Sep 2007 11:41:33 -0700

Hey Simon!

Yes its much nicer in letterpress indeed!
A fumdamental probelm of Times (though it works quite well in text one has to admit)
is that it looks so sharp edged and stiff.

Stefan

Yes Fontplayer! HOBO! If we

jayyy — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 08:01:04 -0700

Yes Fontplayer! HOBO! If we could just remove it from the hands of all those sign shops we would be progressing.

That’s indeed looking

Quincunx — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 07:36:11 -0700

That’s indeed looking quite nice.

Agree Times in postscript is

sihep — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 02:44:57 -0700

Agree Times in postscript is horrible but find it looks surprisingly nice (and totally different) done with letterpress.

What about Times New Roman?

Stefan Seifert — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 01:50:28 -0700

What about Times New Roman?

Dan! During my second job in

H. Todd Duren — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 17:16:52 -0700

Dan!

During my second job in 1988 I spec’d enough Souvenir to choke a horse wearing bell-bottomed pants! It was dated even then. I so agree with you. Other FONTS THAT MUST DIE:

Hobo (unless you are actually hopping a freight)
Arial (a cheap imposter commissioned by Bill Gates)
Verdana and Georgia (great on screen, terrible in print. Sorry Mr. Carter...)
... and the easy two that you mentioned.

My favorite ugly font:
Brush Script ( I know, I know, but I can’t help it)

H. Todd Duren,
designer. educator. yada yada

myopendoor.net

It was a favorite san serif

Jackie T — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 09:19:50 -0700

It was a favorite san serif font of James R. Harris for a while. I paid a fortune for it and he only used three words worth. A few years later I made him use it for a book from Peregee — it never caught on - but you know, as I relook at it — it was nice.
Yep - even the “g”
http://www.fontshop.com/search/?q=wunderlich&site=d

Hi Jackie! Who is

Stefan Seifert — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 06:02:04 -0700

Hi Jackie!

Who is Wunderlich?

Stefan

Stefan - I have NEVER loved

Jackie T — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 00:45:35 -0700

Stefan - I have NEVER loved Rotis... Now Wunderlich was a different story...

Whitney, as I’m sick of

perardi — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:14:22 -0700

Whitney, as I’m sick of having to look at it at work every day.

You are certainly right, it

Stefan Seifert — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:25:23 -0700

You are certainly right,
it works so well. But sometimes (I do work also with Frutiger for job reasons) I wish it would be a little, just a little, a tiny little bit less perfect. More human.

Stefan

I give it a 5 actually fot this defect.
But please don’t say you love Rotis ;-)

Oh Stefan - please don’t

Jackie T — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:18:18 -0700

Oh Stefan - please don’t banish Frutiger - I love that font.
It is a great text font when looking for a sans serif font that’s not Helvetica...

I’m in the middle of a job right now and Frutiger is wonderful.

Looks like we are back to personal selections. I am reminded of a person named Emil who was looking at the head of a deer on a wall. He asked me what I thought of it - I thought it was horrible. He asked me about putting it on a scale of 1 to 10 — 10 the best. I gave him a 1. He then told me he was a hunter, it was a beautiful speciman, it made him happy that someone mounted it and gave it a 10.

And so a 10 to Frutiger.

And PS maybe it’s

Stefan Seifert — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:56:31 -0700

And PS

maybe it’s provocative
but wouldn’t it be a nicer and more charming world without the creations of Frutiger?
Just asking.

Stefan ;-.

What ONE typeface would you have rather not exist?

DanGayle — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:58:54 -0700

I asked this question to James Grieshaber, Kent Lew, and Stephen Coles with various results, but if there were ONE typeface on the face of the earth that you’d rather never see again, what would it be, and why?

(If you list P*pyr*s, C*mic S*ns, or any other typeface that could be found on 2002 Free Fonts, you’re not trying hard enough.)

So here’s mine:

ITC Souvenir (Particularly the bastard mono.)

This typeface is so ugly, yet it’s everywhere. The roundness doesn’t come across as round, it comes across as soft. And in that not-good soft way. Although designed by Morris Fuller Benton in the 10s, it’s too 70s, in the bad feathered hair and brown tinted eyeglasses way. I would rather live in a world where Souvenir does not exist.

Your turn.