Type

Here’s a neat video focusing on the basic premise of the letters we read, the media we digest, and a lot of our visual interactions with the world: type.

Since I’m usually doing audio reporting, I don’t think about fonts or typefaces very deeply or often. The last time I seriously considered the shape and design of letters  was when I worked on my high school’s literary magazine. I’ll admit that during those good old days I nursed a fondness for a bumper sticker with a solemn bespectacled hipster in a slender tie, reading ‘ban comic sans’.  I’m still not crazy about comic sans, but I’m no font aficionado either.

This video from PBS Arts is  a good reminder about the sheer amounts of type  we encounter, from street signs to graphics, from maps to menus, every single day. It’s neat to think that, down to the very letters you’re reading right now, much of the way we communicate is accomplished through shape and design. Plus, the video is really cool looking. It makes me wonder–do you have fonts that you particularly love, or fonts that make you squirm? Would you prefer to ban comic sans, or format the Constitution with it?