Sqwink Album Art Blog

25 Reasons why you’re a Typography Freak!

I studied for my Graphic Design Degree at the Coventry University School of Art & Design, England, a few years ago. During this time, the tutors really drilled into the students how important typography was—indeed the University is well-known for it! One aspect that sticks-out in my mind was reading the famous book ‘Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works’. Ever-since completing my coarse, I have been obsessed with Typography, so I thought I’d write a factual, yet humorous blog about how to know if you’re also addicted to type!

You know you are a Typography freak when:

1. You have a favorite typeface.

2. You can’t look at a magazine cover without analyzing the main font.

3. You get angry when you see incorrect use of letter-tracking.

4. You cannot bear to see Conic-Sans used on Business Brochures.

5. Every-time you see an ‘I Love NY’ T-Shirt, you wonder if it would look better in a different font.

6. You see Bank Gothic on TV so often even you’re spouse knows the font name!

7. You often read letterheads and despair at another horrid use of Times New Roman.

8. You simply want to harpoon any ‘designer’ who sticks an ‘@’ symbol in words to try make them look c@@l…Ahhhh!

9. Every-time you see pixel-based, non-vector text utilized in professional print, your face turns to disgust.

10. You recognize a few professional logos that make use of free-download fonts.

11. You muse over why CMYK has been used on 12pt text rather than a spot color.

12. You use the ‘em’ dash while typing—and know what one is!

13. You go Crazy when there’s no €(euro) symbol in the typeface you have purchased.

14. You have actually purchased a typeface!

15. You scour the Glyphs and special character pallets because you’re sure that there’s a symbol there you want…and you won’t rest until you find it, no matter how long it takes.

16. You’re on a mission to minimize and sort out your font library, but all you do is add to it instead.

17. You abandon a typeface because you simply can’t embed it into a PDF.

18. You fall in love with a font just because its got a funky ‘&’ character.

19. You really appreciate good use of drop caps.

20. You can spot the difference between type that has italic and bold type applied to it—and ACTUAL specifically-designed italicized and bold variations of type.

21. You own a Type Foundry poster.

22. You constantly analyze every snippet of text that crosses your line of sight!

23. You can tell, with razor-like precision, if a typeface letter or word has been stretched or compressed.

24. You can spot a poster generated in MS Word a mile away.

25. You write a blog on Typography!

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Review by Andrew Kelsall, Sqwink Design

Technorati Tags: typography

I was looking through iTunes yesterday when I saw one of the most startling CD cover design I’d seen for a while. The image artwork I saw for the EP ‘Invincible’ by MUSE was just breath-taking - and I found myself loving everything this CD cover had to offer instantly.

The track ‘Invincible’ is from MUSE’s 4th studio album Black Holes and Revelations (image 1), which incidentally also featured fantastic album artwork which was political and thought-provoking, yet original and graphically-mastered professionally.

Obviously, a popular band like MUSE have got a lot of money to throw behind a great CD cover design, but this doesn’t mean that big bucks equates to great design. However in this case, a big budget and a lot of creativity has resulted in an imaginative and powerful CD cover design.

The CD artwork (image 2) for Invincible displays an image probably rendered by a 3D-Graphics application - and has been executed well. I find many CD cover design produced in this way tacky and uninspiring (just like the ‘Now’ CD series), but the image rendered for MUSE truly emboldens what their sound, music and live act is all about. MUSE concerts are award-winning not just for the musical performance - but for the whole experience for the fans who go to watch. So, the lasers, lights, smoke and atmosphere at these gigs are perfectly represented in this design - and fitting with the track ‘Invincible’. Within this design, two faces luminesce with colorful emotion, which merges metaphors for what MUSE is all about - and what this particular song is all about.

I’m aware that there are alternate/additional editions of this EP and a picture disc - which look as stunning as this one, but I’ve run out of time to review those additionally. Although, one thing I will say is that all the typography and logo, as you would expect, seamlessly match and continue the MUSE brand we all have come to admire.

As a Graphic Designer and fan of Muse, I see no reason why this CD cover artwork shouldn’t be awarded 10/10 in my opinion. It’s good to see that well-thought-out CD designs are being produced - and that the sound/artwork relationship, in this case, is maintained and understood by the designer.

If you agree/disagree with this blog or have any questions or comments for me on this review, please feel free to leave them below.

Review by Andrew Kelsall, Sqwink CD Design