Type-spiration for everyone

Ever since I found out about abcdefridays, I have been bookmarking some of the more notable sites and images that I've found across the web, beginning with...

I found this on my twitter feed. The site that I originally found it on is refusing to load, so I did a Google search and found the original creator of this amusing chart. This is a compilation of various "Top Font" lists including "Typefaces no one gets fired for using," all listed in the fine print at the bottom. The typefaces are sorted by style (top to bottom: san-serif, serif, slab serif, display and black letter, script) and the designers as well as the year the font was designed, is listed. I saw this and I just thought it was really amusing, as well as helpful to first-year design students. We know Comic Sans doesn't quite make the cut, but seeing many styles of good typefaces all in one place is usually beneficial to narrowing down choices when working on projects.

And Now For Something Completely Different!

We are all working on the bird project. Kelly suggested to me that I look at the 50 and 50 project for inspiration since my project is very typographical. I would have never found this on my own, but I really like what these designers have done as typographical treatments for the state mottos. 

These are just a few of my favorites, Tyler's own Jess Hische did the one for PA!!

When looking up other examples of type treatments, I came across this December Design Challenge.
The site is a little funky, but I liked the concept of the whole project and the way all the contributors were able to elaborate on every single decision that they made. Essentially, everyone had to choose a word to reflect on their year and then design it.

In this case, I don't really think the images do the project justice, I appreciated this more for the stories that were told by the people who made these type decisions. Like the fact that redemption is backwards because it is facing its designer and not the rest of the world, they did not see her redemption on the same plane that she did. Also that maturation has subtle gradients because the designer learned that subtlety and simplicity are important for design.
It was just really interesting to see someone else explain their personal designs, instead of seeing them in the real world and simply seeing what an audience is intended to see.

Last But Not Least!
http://webdesignledger.com I found this while looking for our books for class because there is a guide in the freebies section for free typography ebooks. I have since followed this on Twitter and while it may be more design-based than type-based, there are many articles and lists that focus on typography. Such as this little article on Mastering Font Combinations.
Of course, no article will be of any use without Bart's little advice: practice practice practice!