{9} Typography & Dragons
{9} Typography & Dragons
Knowledge from Pablo Lara H, Erik D. Kennedy, and Felicia Day
Chat #1: Pablo Lara H
Illustrator. I was young, I needed the work.
Pablo Lara H:
⚫️🔴 Learn the logic of great typography An Interactive Type Tutorial by Erik D. Kennedy.
Interactive Typography Tutorial
Dane Lyons:
Amazing tool! It would be tricky to generalize, but I'd love to see something like this baked into a browser extension. That way designers could get interactive help improving their own designs.
Pablo Lara H:
Yep! There is an extension covering some areas. I do not know if it has been updated lately: "to show how close your line width & line height are to the recommended setting for an average paragraph..." Typography Inspector by Bram Stein @bram_stein.
Dane Lyons:
An extension that focuses on the average paragraph can work well.
It's trickier if you are trying to help determine how much space to put between 2 elements. It would be hard for an extension to understand the visual hierarchy and relationship between elements.
Erik D. Kennedy:
It would be pretty tricky to generalize! You'd have to input some information about your brand and goals. But agreed, that would be *amazing* 🤩
Dane Lyons:
In one context, a font size range could look great. The same range in another context might be awful. It's tempting to personalize. But the more I think about it, the more I prefer the current approach.
If you embrace the current approach, why not publish an interactive blog on typography that allows readers to fiddle with settings as they read?
Erik D. Kennedy:
Ha – that's a fun idea too. I could imagine the text changing as you change the settings, describing whether a certain setting is too high, low, etc.
Conclusion:
Learning design can feel random at times. It’s not often clear if font A or B is better. Or if it’s better to add a little or a lot of space between 2 elements. This tool lets you fiddle around with design choices, then tells you if you are in the sweet spot or if you are making a bad choice and why.
It’s a great model for how we should be using tech to teach. Students should be encouraged to experiment and make mistakes.
Creator News by Felicia Day
Actress, New Media Geek, Author, Gamer, Misanthrope. I like to keep my Tweets real and not waste people's time. she/her.
I’ll admit it, I play D&D as a grown man. In fact, I’m headed out for a session immediately after publishing this. I know that makes me a nerd, and I don’t care. We should all carve out a non-work creative space to explore. D&D is a great option.
Wizards of the Coast isn’t profiting enough from the D&D brand and are doing whatever it takes to extract a larger share of the profit from indie creators. They’ve gone from a system that encourages open creation through the Open Gaming License (OGL) to a feudalist system. Now they make up rules as they go and demand a heavy tax.
The community is rebelling. Loyal gamers who’ve spent decades collecting D&D merch are now canceling subscriptions and looking for something new. While it’s sad that such a loved brand is abandoning and exploiting its fans, this creates an interesting opportunity.
Indie content creators will help fill that void. If you’ve been thinking about writing a fantasy book or developing a game, now is the time.