It's no secret that your instructors — including myself —have a value-based point-of-view about aesthetic things that surround us. That's our job: to maintain a level of aesthetic and functional appropriateness and pass that along to our students. We are in one of the professions where "being judge-y" is part of the job. That's what you're paid to do: to have an experienced point-of-view and hopefully charge handsomely for that.
To that point, the ubiquity of things on the internet — whether it is free mock-ups or free typefaces come into play... enter: The Wine Mom Font. I did not name it, but was keenly aware of it even before it was parodied on national TV.
But let's take a step back:
In the attempts to relay some kind of hip-casual vibe, the internet has become overloaded with ersatz handwriting fonts — I won't even call them typefaces. These are used too often on platitude-plaques — things that profess "what you're all about" that you then litter your surroundings with. live, love, laugh... in this house we believe: ... etc. If you've paid attention to American home-decor trends over the past decade, you're aware of these. You might even have some in your house — and now either feel shamed or vindicated (because you never liked that piece of wood with the plucky statement anyway). These half-homey (and half-sanctimonious) missives used to be relegated to bad bumper stickers and t-shirts, but now proudly sit on the mantel in many American middle-class homes.
... To the point that the entire trend is now fodder for late-night comedy. Enter Saturday Night Live:
You might also remember when SNL (and Ryan Gossling) took on Papyrus a few years ago. That stuck with us — and if we were on the fence about the use of the face, it squarely put it in the //do not use// category.
This is why it matters:
When font selections are now in the cultural zeitgeist we need to pay attention... When the general public is now all up in our business we need to up our game. When your cousin Elaine — the scrappiest scrapbooker around — has a new favorite font... you need to pay attention.
This weekend, it got worse for me at a local hardware store. I saw a sign that was hand-rendered ... and instead of using natural handwriting, they hand-copied the wine-mom font. They copied a font — by hand — that was meant to copy handwriting. It's like doing a cover of another band doing a cover song... Like copying the copy.
So, what's the lesson here:
- Switch to decaf, Hunter...
- In order to distinguish ourselves as professionals, we need to keep our eyes open, realize what we're doing and why ... and try to do it better every day.
- Never, ever, use the wine-mom font (or Papyrus).
Comments