Using what everyone else is using

Using what everyone else is using can be both a problem and a solution. It just depends on who “everyone” is.

When “everyone” is academics, the type faces that appear never seem to reach beyond what’s installed on their computer. And people use those default fonts to death. Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri... all get overused.

Here’s a shortcut to making your poster look more modern:

Use what everyone else is using – except that by “everyone,” I mean designers, not academics.

If you take a second to life your head up and look around at what people outside academia are using, you’re liable to find something that looks contemporary rather than tired. Heck, for a lot of academics, you that might even look edgy and daring.

MyFonts just released put out a big blog post of their most popular typefaces of last year, and you won’t find any of the familiar default computer fonts there. It notes:

Popular typefaces in 2014 seemed to come from two opposite directions. They were either clean and simple, or informal and festive, with a hand-made touch.

And this is good news for poster designers, who are normally looking for something in the “clean and simple” department. I see no less than four good candidates for posters. We’ve got Brix Sans up top. Here’s Texta:

And while many of the other typefaces might not be great for the main text body, they might do wonders for titles or headings.

Go to the post to see more! And don’t forget to keep looking at the kinds of typefaces you see on the opening and closing credits of film and television shows, on magazines, on billboards, and other places.

External links

Most popular fonts of 2014