But as I’ve been setting the face quite a lot in the last few months as a typesetting consultant for WIRED magazine’s redesign, it’s grown on me. I must admit, it was not an ‘a’ I loved easily.
The lowercase ‘a’ in this typeface is so distinctive and unlike any other in its category that anyone would recognize it in a second. However, there are a few faces that render my typeface identification abilities rather underwhelming. If only this magnificent skill helped me make new friends at parties, I’d be all set. Much like those contestants on the TV program “Name That Tune” who could identify a song in one note, I can often identify a typeface by one letter. The skill has its advantages: 1) An ‘a’ is a common letter, so even a small quantity of text is likely to contain one 2) Lowercase ‘a’ is often a rather distinctive letterform in a typeface, so it requires only a small fraction of my visual memory to retain a great number of them and, lastly but importantly, 3) It’s impressive. Ever since I learned how to tell the difference between the lowercase ‘a’ in Helvetica versus the lowercase ‘a’ in Univers, I’ve been cultivating my ability to identify even the most similar of typefaces by this single letter.
0 kommentar(er)
