Lately, in my work at NPR, I have become more aware than ever how important good typography is. My main project right now is as lead designer on NPR.org's redesign, which will go live sometime in 2009.
Luckily, I have inherited a beautiful typographic and grid structure from Schematic, the firm who did the initial designs. There are some tweaks we're making in terms of layout to ensure that form serves the function of NPR's editorial team (not an easy task, but an easier one thanks to my coworkers Scott Stroud and Maria Godoy), but the visual design is really beautiful. My one beef, though, is that Schematic used a total of six – SIX (Plantin, Din, Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, Gotham) – typefaces in this design. Too many; one of my tasks is to consolidate and edit the typefaces.
Anyway, I said all that to say that in this process, I am realizing why typography is the base of all good design. How the mark of a really good visual designer is evident in his or her typographic sensibilities (or, maybe more tellingly, one's lack thereof). How it really is a workhorse that must function first and foremost, and yet also provide that special je ne sais quoi that is emotional design. Something that has emerged as a very significant role in the redesign: how to express that special brainy quirkiness that is NPR through our use of type, color, and white space. For while we are a news organization, we are not the New York Times or the Washington Post or the BBC or any of those other great journalistic entities. We are NPR, a very unique, cherished, one-of-a-kind news organization. And we need good typography to help communicate that.
Pictured here is FF Milo, a typeface I discovered yesterday while browsing the latest HOW magazine. I love it. It has small caps and also a lot of different weights. I can't wait to use it! Maybe I will require it for a project in the Type II class I'm teaching at MICA next semester.
p.s. Happy goddamn New Year.
