Test of Typography

In order to familiarize myself with the use of different type fonts, this assignment asked me to play three different typography games. As an enthusiast of aesthetics, I was excited to learn how different fonts can convey different messages and ideas through typography design.

The first game that I played was called Type War. In order to excel in this game, I had to correctly identify one font between two font choices. For example, I was given two fonts (e.g. Didot and Garamond), and I was asked to identify which font was Didot between words displayed in Didot and Garamond font.

In order to progress to the next level, I had to consecutively answer more and more questions correctly. For each incorrect answer, points were deducted based on the relative difficulty of the question, which was reported by the percentage of correct responses from fellow players. Likewise, points for correct answers were awarded based on their relative difficulty. Furthermore, a new type font was added into the mix of available choices with each progressing level. Although I thought this game was quite difficult at times, overall I found this game was informative and a fun way to make font identification almost second nature. Ultimately, I was able to reach level 10. Huzzah!!

For the remaining two games, my roommate decided to join in on the type font mayhem. The first game we chose to play together was called Poster Letters. This game required us to guess the correct movie name associated with the font of one letter from the original movie poster. We found this game to be the most entertaining of all, but also the most difficult. We were only able to identify nearly 10 movies correctly out of a total of 46. Although we were not extremely successful, we strongly recommend playing this game, as it will incite some lively discussion and many laughs.

The final typography game we played was called Type Connection. This game was by far the most peculiar game of all. In this game, we had to make a love connection between two different type fonts based on their attributes as well as how the fonts wanted to be matched (e.g. seek the familiar, rely on family, embrace the other).

Although a very unexpected and unusual way of familiarizing oneself with different type fonts, we were able to understand many of the intricacies of how different type fonts illustrate different messages. Ultimately, however, we decided that this dating game was the typeface equivalent of gluten-free singles – quite obscure and pretentious.

In all, I would say these games are a valuable means of identifying different type fonts and understanding how each should be used to convey a message tailored to a specific publication. I encourage you to play these games as well and share your experience in the comments section below.

Until next time,

S