Question Favorite Font

[kcollinsdesign]

Helvetica is a great font when used properly. It has a mid-century modern feel and works great with a lot of corporate designs (think John Massey and Paul Rand). It needs space to work and cannot be distorted or manipulated with arbitrary leading, spacing, and tracking without looking clumsy.
My secret weapon font for signs is Workhorse (Charles Borges de Oliveira and Greg Reid, Borges Lettering, available through Letterhead fonts).

 

[bob]

The dubious notion of a 'favorite font' [it should be 'favorite typeface'] come around on the big wheel of time every now and then. Asking a sign maker [nee sign writer] what its favorite font might be is about the same as asking a mechanic what its favorite wrench is.

 

[Geneva Olson]

I let the customers pick out fonts. If I have to pick a font to cut, I steer away from the thin scripty fonts. If I don't have to cut it, I am all about whatever font the customer wants.
I do a lot of DOT numbers for truckers. I tend to use IMPACT font because it's easy to see.

 

[bob]

I let the customers pick out fonts. If I have to pick a font to cut, I steer away from the thin scripty fonts. If I don't have to cut it, I am all about whatever font the customer wants.
I do a lot of DOT numbers for truckers. I tend to use IMPACT font because it's easy to see.

In this shop, the client gets to review a complete layout. Little, if anything, below that level is made subject to the client's prejudices. Clients most certainly don't get to select typefaces. That way lies madness.

 

[Bobby H]

Yeah, it's usually a bad idea to allow clients to pick typefaces. Most people have little if any actual creative talent. Fewer have the design sense to choose typefaces effectively. It takes a certain talent to choose typefaces that are appropriate to the specific project and choosing visually compatible typeface combinations. Some people working in our industry lack that particular talent. It takes know-how and experience to understand what kinds of typefaces work within certain constraints of geometry and legibility needs. Laypersons will just choose a typeface based on if it looks "pretty" or "cool." They don't think about anything else past that.

We'll let customers make certain big picture decisions about the direction of the project up front. But they're limited on what they can do to nit pick a design. Speaking of nightmares: the big one is to allow a client to sit next to you and "collaborate" on a design. More than a few request doing that and we shoot it down immediately.

I tend to use IMPACT font because it's easy to see.

I don't love or hate the Impact typeface, but I rarely ever select it. One problem is Impact has been so over-used as the meme font. And then there is only one weight/width of the typeface. That often pushes me to other alternatives like Haettenschweiler and Helvetica Compressed. These days I'll select a couple type families I purchased that are quite superior to Impact, such as Resolve Sans or Heading Now.