04 Feb Fun with Type
Super cool websites for typography and game lovers alike. There’s nothing to do but dig into the fun!
Kern Me
This online game that will help you learn the art of “kerning” – what a fun way to perfect your typographic eye! Your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning. Your solution will be compared to a typographer’s solution, and you will be given a score depending on how close you achieved perfect kerning. Good luck!
Type Connection
Type Connection is a game that helps you learn how to pair typefaces. Start by choosing a typeface to pair. Like a conventional dating website, Type Connection presents you with potential “dates” for each main character—without the misleading profile photos and commitment-phobes. The game features well-known, workhorse typefaces and portrays each as a character searching for love. You are the matchmaker. You decide what kind of match to look for by choosing among several strategies for combining typefaces. Along the way, you explore typographic terminology, type history, and more. By playing Type Connection, you deepen your own connection with type.
Typographic Terminology A to Z: Our list of typography terms that every designer should know.
Learn the language of design via this animated video on typography. Strengthen your design skills by learning (or relearning) these important typographic terms and terminology.
Tabletto
Tabletto is a typographic game consisting of ten shapes, with which you can design all letterforms, numbers and punctuations in any language. Besides making type, you can use the Tabletto shapes to create illustrations, icons, or anything else you like.
Spell with Flickr
Want to have your name spelled out using Flickr photos? or what about the name of your website? This program allows you to do just that! Each time you use this nifty little program, you’ll get a new result. What a fun way to play with type!
Typogami
Designed by Calango, Typogami can be tweaked in a number of ways–by adjusting the color, fold angles, where the light falls, and the intensity of the shadow. For those who love print–the typeface is a free for download on Facebook–consisting of three styles (the frontside, backside, and shadow). It can be layered on top of one another to form the entire alphabet. Calango also provides an Adobe Illustrator file containing all the glyphs on a single canvas – cool, right?!
T Y P E F L A S H
Type your name or a short message and adjust the color, language (yes, there’s Arabic!), and the play/pause buttons. There are huge implications for modular type design and expression. So. much. fun.
Typetoken
Typetoken has some wonderfully inspirational examples of the type design process and projects – along with promotional approaches to sharing the work using both digital and print methodologies. Below you will find a few of my favorite examples to inspire your own process, but I definitely recommend checking out all of the projects on the site.
Grow typeface System
BD Pankow by Lopetz from Büro Destruct
Font Guide For All Occasions
Check out another fun tool that was recently shared with me by my new friend Diane Miller and her superstar student, Mia. It’s a guide to fonts on beau-coup with some helpful info on web typography and font creation. The font creation section is especially handy since it elaborates on typographic characteristics/structure and shares some nifty resources. Thanks for sharing, Diane!
