Playing games is part of the fun

Okay, last post about games.

As mentioned here and here, I had to play games for this publications course. Best assignment ever even if I did get super competitive on Typewar.

This last game, however, made me feel very accomplished and like a true designer. Or designer in training at least. The game is called Kern Type and the point is to “achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters.” Or kerning. Once you have spaced the letters in the best way according to your eye as typographer you can choose to look at the solution or overlap your design with the solution.

I started off in 70% and 80%. By the time I started getting 100% I really felt like a pro. The best part of the game is that it really does train the eye to see the right spacing needed and why it’s different for each type face. You get instant feedback from your mistakes.

It’s a nice tool to pass the time and there’s no doubt that training the eye for detail can’t hurt a typographer/designer in training.