Let’s suppose that fonts were alive. Lets imagine that they had the power to destroy. The power to ruin.
And what if they were everywhere… Crawling on the walls, on the floor, your food, your clothing, your home, in the news our computers our entertainment our lives.
How would we protect ourselves? What would we do.

The world is exactly like this. Fonts ARE alive and they are Everywhere, with the power to DESTROY.
But you might be asking yourself, Destroy, Destroy what?. Simply put, fonts have the ability to destroy our intended message to those in the world around us. Whether you like it or not, fonts carry their OWN emotions. Some fonts are so powerful that is does not matter what you write, the font will simply say something else. Our battle as designers is to find not just a compromise in this area but a compliment.

Suppose you have never given much thought to the influence of typefaces, -this is normal. Many people that do not deal with fonts on a day-to-day basis would not even understand the sense of urgency on this subject. Although they are the ones who are affected the most.

Everything in advertising has some sort of visual medium, if this medium includes language it most likely involves a typeface. Our food, for example is delivered to us in ‘neat shiny packages’ with some brand and their message plastered all over the front and back. We don’t think twice. It’s normal to us. most of these ‘shiny little boxes’ are poorly designed and will never give the proper message.

In order to find the proper use of typefaces, pay more attention to your use of fonts and WHY you are using them. I think now is a good time to reference a BAD choice of font usage by many people. Papyrus. -You may understand but you may not. This font has been so heavily used and has now forced the western united states and selected parts of the world into a massive “Papyral Breeding Frenzy”. Remember that this font is well designed, but, OVERUSED. Much like many of the “Great” fonts of our time: Helvetica, Times New Roman, Trajan, Lucida to name a few. Whether you think these are great or not, that is your decision.

A good idea is studying other designers and their Proper Use of typefaces. Check out Massimo Vignelli’s portfolio.
Here is a guy who understands type. Observing other designers such as Wim Crouwel, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, and Erik Spiekermann -(don’t get in a font war with this guy) will help you to understand that fonts are and always will be something to enjoy.

You may also be interested in How To Choose A Font

or the Top 5 Typography Resources of all time. Courtesy of http://justcreativedesign.com