The History of Typography Told in Five Animated Minutes

The following is a fun "paper-letter animation" video about the history of fonts and typography. It was created using 291 paper letters and 2,454 photographs. Created by Ben Barrett-Forrest.

Typography is one of the most interesting elements of graphic design. Whether you are designing web pages, art for album covers, posters, promotional materials, brochures or any other type of design, typographical inspiration can be a great resource for designers.

Typography is much more than just graphical design or illustration with some text thrown in. It should be both attractive and functional at the same time. This centuries old art form in itself combines carefully chosen and arranged fonts with visual elements, sometimes as a relatively straightforward communication device and sometimes as artistic expression. 

The following are links to some of most beautiful examples of creative typography designs for your inspiration.

Typography artwork which embody a broad variety of techniques and styles, but they’re all brilliant in their own way. You'll also find some helpful links to resources, font libraries, blogs and tools:

• 60+ Examples of Creative Typography

• 100+ Top Resources for Typography and Hand-Lettering

• 53 Mind-blowing Uses of Typography

• Google web fonts directory

• www.linotype.com :: Linotype.com library is part of the Monotype libraries committed to serving the design community.

• www.fonts.com :: The Fonts.com store from Monotype offers more than 150,000 desktop and Web font products for you to preview, purchase and download. 

• chicksandtypes.com :: This is an intimate love story between illustration & typography.

• ilovetypography.com :: Founded in 2007, I love Typography blog was born out of a pure passion for typography, type design and lettering.

• Open Font Library :: The Open Font Library promotes your freedoms as it relates to the use of type. All the fonts that appear on this site come with the freedom to use.

• 38 Typography Tools for Designers (Better Than Adobe Suite) :: A comprehensive list of the best typography tools online for print designers. Many of these resources will help you create and manipulate typefaces in a way that’s easier than using Photoshop or Illustrator.

• spoon graphics :: a range of high quality fonts by professional designers available free on the web. 

• WhatTheFont (What font is this?) :: Seen a font in use and want to know what it is? Submit an image to WhatTheFont to find the closest matches in our database. Or, let cloak-draped font enthusiasts lend a hand in the WhatTheFont Forum.

• www.thinkingwithtype.com :: Thinking With Type was designed as a classroom companion to the book Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students, by Ellen Lupton. 

• fontfeed.com :: The FontFeed is a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world.

• typekit.com :: Founded in 2008 and now part of the Adobe family, Typekit offers a library of fonts, from old classics to new favorites, which can be used on the web. Built around web standards, it’s a subscription-based library of hosted, high-quality fonts to use on websites.

• Typography in 10 minutes :: The author here makes a bold claim. It may be true however. "If you learn and follow these five typography rules, you will be a better typographer than 95% of professional writers and 70% of professional designers. All it takes is ten min­utes—five min­utes to read these rules once, then five min­utes to read them again.

• If you're going to get ONE book on typography, The Elements of Typographic by Robert Bringhurst comes very highly recommended. Now in it’s 20^th Anniversary Edition, it is both a history and guide to typography, praised by Hermann Zapf, who said “I wish to see this book become the Typographers’ Bible.” It has also been quoted as "THE finest book ever written about typography".

The 5 best typography podcasts

Podcasts discussing font design and inspiration from some of the best type designers in the business.

• Type Radio
• RWD
• On The Grid
• For Graphic Designers Only
• Design Guy​

When it’s used thoughtfully, typography is a powerful brand tool that can add visual meaning to what is communicated.

Thinking about the theme of your overall design while you choose your typefaces will help you make decisions on which ones to choose. Whether it is web site, business card, letterhead, brochure or poster — each will have their own objectives and considerations. 

When planning your design, it’s important to identify hierarchy and structure in your layout. How big or how bold should your headings or titles be? What about sub-headings, your body copy or figure captions? Also consider that using different typefaces can help you create distinctions between different text levels, but it is also important not to use or mix too many styles as it will look too muddy and confusing. Creating a logical hierarchy in your designs make them easier to scan and read.

Over the years we have manufactured advertising coasters for some of the biggest brands on the planet:

Coca Cola products; Pepsi Products; Smirnoff; Molson; Labatt; Guinness; Budweiser; Red Bull; BMW; Volkswagen; Microsoft; GoPro; Dreamworks; Walt Disney Animation Studios; Cirque du Soleil

This short-list is like reading a Who's Who of the biggest brands in the world.

From bands and radio stations to major hotels, casinos, museums, galleries, sports teams, festivals and popular theme parks, we have covered the gambit in the tourism & entertainment industry not to mention several Tony Award winning Broadway shows, block buster movies, CNN, ESPN and HBO just to name a few.

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Great Prices: We offer competitive pricing on any size coaster order, from 1,200 into the millions! We have standard value pack pricing for most common quantities and can provide quotes for larger or customized orders. Have your artwork, logo, picture or design printed full color on both sides with many size and custom shape options.

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blog posts by Alex Zafer