April 13, 2006
On forming fonts: Design prof discusses book on typefaces
Karen Cheng, an associate professor of design in the School of Art, has written a new book about creating typefaces titled Designing Type, and will discuss it tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Henry Art Gallery.
And for fun, Cheng said, she might answer a few questions her students have had over the years. One in particular got right to the point. The student asked, “Why should I care about type design?”
Because type is a tool for expression — classy, artistic and emblematic of its times, according to Cheng. “Type is like a language, like a voice,” Cheng said. “If you see letters in Times New Roman and see the same in sans-serif, you get a totally different feeling. Like jazz versus opera singing.”
Basically, Cheng said, hers is a book about how to design a typeface, “and it’s most suitable for people who are really graphic designers or who are studying typography.” The volume joins a slim group of others on the subject, seeking to fill a need Cheng said designers have for information that has not always been fully documented over the years.
“There are technical books out there with information on software and font file formats, but this is more about theory, and about how to craft individual letters,” Cheng said. “It’s information people didn’t write down very much — type design is something people learned mostly in apprentice mode. They started as draftsmen.”
Cheng said she came to design through an unusual path; her undergraduate degree was in chemical engineering and she even spent time in the advertising world before returning to school for advanced degrees. “Type design is fascinating. In many ways, it’s the most science-like aspect of design — there are rules of perception that make type design function in a certain way.” She added later, “It’s really kind of shocking how important type is to communications.”
Typographers, it turns out, are an outspoken breed, and Cheng is no exception. As someone studies the world of type, she said, “You realize there are a lot of terrible typefaces out there and a lot of beautiful ones.” Asked — and who could help it? — for an example of a terrible typeface, Cheng answered without much hesitation. “Comic Sans! It hardly qualifies as a font!”
A quick Web search shows she’s far from alone in this view; Comic Sans, designed by Microsoft in 1994, was created to approximate the lettering style of comic books. Emotions, it seems, run high on this controversial font. One Web site dedicated to a worldwide ban on Comic Sans breathlessly states, “We are summoning forth the proletariat around the globe to aid us in this revolution! We call on the common man to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance.”
On the other hand, Cheng said she quite likes the font Rotis. “I think Rotis is beautiful but can be used badly,” she said. And indeed, in the world of typeface criticism, appropriate use of a font seems almost as important as its design style. Cheng added, “Fonts, like anything else, go in and out of fashion.”
Cheng said her book, published by Yale University Press, has a run of 21,000 copies, which is very good for an academic title. “It should be pretty popular. It’s been translated into German and French and Spanish. One of the nice things about type designers is they are people who like books.”
To have a sense of type, Cheng said, is a personal thing, like being an artist or a musician. And personal responses to typefaces prompt the answer to why people should care about typography.
As students begin studying such matters, Cheng said, they really don’t look at type the same ever again.
She said with a trace of wonder, “There’s this whole world you never knew before that exists right under your nose, in a way.”
A reception and book signing will follow Cheng’s appearance at the Henry Art Gallery. Her talk is sponsored by Peter Miller Books, the Henry and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. For more information, call 206-221-3330 or e-mail atthehenry@petermiller.com.
