One of my favourite MIX11 sessions, an hour long talk from Robbie Ingebretsen (@ingeretsen on Twitter or online at nerdplusart.com) gave a broad overview of the world of typography and explaining what type is and how it relates to users past and the future of type online. Frighteningly at one point he says ‘people don’t read words on the web’ – which is something I’ve been saying for years but no-one knows that, because no-one is reading this.
Drawing a parallel between choosing typefaces and a casting director and through a game of Celebrity Typeface shows how different typefaces can have very different personalities yet it is up to us, as designers and developers to decide which typefaces we’d like to use – there are no right answers when it comes to picking a typeface but there are definitely wrong answers.
Covering topics such as readability versus legibility, how to choose a typeface, layout and how to create hierarchy, The Golden Ratio and slipping into WOFF at the end accompanied (unsurprisingly) by great looking slides makes this a great overview, especially for developers who have crossed over to design.
Download the videos on the MIX session page: http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/EXT02
