Add Inspiration With Illustrations

Which comes first, the concept or the artwork? The assumption has always been that you first figure out the concept, then find the art to fit. But even if we leave many things in our life unquestioned--design shouldn't be one of them.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design

The Best Faces for the Screen

It doesn't matter how many hours of video and megabytes of graphics can be stuffed onto a silver platter, typefaces still serve an essential function that can't be duplicated by other means--transmitting complex intellectual and emotional messages in a very concise and precise way.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile. Design>Typography>Fonts>Emotions

A Bitmap a Day

I like bit-mapped screen fonts. In fact, I prefer old-fashioned bit-mapped screen fonts to anything that ATM, TrueType, or Speedo can throw up on the screen. If we're expected to read documents on screen, we need better type than they can offer.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (1996). Design>Typography>Fonts>Online

The Changing Vocabulary of Type

If a ligature falls in a paragraph and no one notices, does it make a sound? Or an impression? When people are no longer aware of old 'standard' typographic conventions and they've lost their meaning, does it make them archaic?

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Typography>Glossary

Choosing and Using Type

Type is important because it's an unconscious persuader. It attracts attention, sets the style and tone of a document, colors how readers interpret the words, and defines the feeling of the page--usually without the reader recognizing a particular typeface.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Typography

Color on the Web

You're seeing red. They're seeing orange. Not the same, is it? More often than not, color on the web is approximate. So how do you choose colors that are going to work best? Are you forever stuck with the old 216 color 'web-safe' colors? Is there technology that ensures what you see is what your visitors get?

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Color

Could Stravinsky Have Made Fonts? or: Fear and Loathing in A Minor

Is something being lost in the translation to a digital world?

Rakowski, David. Typofile (1996). Design>Typography>History

Finding and Using Art on the Web

So you want to add graphics to your site, but you don't know where to get them? Well—first you have to learn that you can't just take graphics off someone else's site unless you want to go directly to Jail, do not pass go, and do not get $200 (though your Lawyer will get at least that per hour).

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design>Intellectual Property>Graphic Design

Five Keys to Building a Better Site

I'm working with a client now who just wants to start. He won't stop to ask himself what he really wants to get out of the site, what his visitors will want to get, or even list the items that he must have on the home page. If he doesn't stop and think about it clearly, he will end up with an ineffectual site that satisfies no-one.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design

Type Was Meant to be Read

Disparages the loss of real typesetters. If you weren't around to know what they did, or how they did it, Gary tells you what you missed.

Priester, Gary. Typofile (2003). Design>Typography

Typofile

Almost everything we know in the world can be described in just 26 letters--isn't that amazing? Yet this most visible art--which we all see all around us each day--has long been invisible in most people's minds. Part of this was intentional-- because the content, not the type, is the message. With type, the media is not the message. But type also adds to everything we read in subliminal and powerful ways, and Typofile is about people who love type, and why.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile. Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Blogs

Words on the Web

Pundits say people don't read on the web. Baloney. You're reading this, aren't you? Don't be fooled into nothing but bullet points. People will read a lot, you just need to know how to write for them, and how to make your words easy to read.

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design>Writing