Music?

Typofactory
Typofactory Posts: 56
in Type Design Software
Hello,

If you make typefaces, I am just assuming that you listen to music while doing so (hopefully I am not wrong in that intiial assumption). I was wondering what type of music you listen to while making fonts? For me, that is slightly different than what I normally listen to, and different than my work music.
As for me, I listen to mostly 90s and 2000s alternative/rock, and some newer (and older) stuff. It almost all alternative or rock. I also listen to copious amounts of Bastille (Their main song is Pompeii)
For example, I am currently listening to You Get What You Give by New Radicals, and prior to that I was listening to Divide by Bastille.
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  • James Montalbano
    James Montalbano Posts: 101
    edited November 2023
    Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed is the only thing I listen to when designing fonts.
  • Enrico Sogari
    Enrico Sogari Posts: 47
    I use this after 6pm
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,216
    I used to, but prefer silence now.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,998
    edited November 2023
    Lately I’ve been listen to live EDM DJ performances on YouTube. There are seven hour sets by Armin Van Buuren that are incredible. The good DJs remix every song at every show so you can hear a song change over time as the DJs learn what the crowds like.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    I often like silence for type design work nowadays.

    If I am listening to music, I tend to prefer Mozart. Occasionally “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull is good (the full album, not just the single).

    (This is not the same as my general music-listening preferences.)
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    I don't like to have music playing when I'm working. I don't really notice it or enjoy it.

    If I'm going to listen to music I prefer to do nothing but listen to music. Although I do listen to music sometimes when driving, especially for long trips.

    When working on fonts, I either listen to nothing (especially if I'm writing feature code or similar), or I listen to spoken word stuff—podcasts, audiobooks, etc., especially when I'm kerning.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,225
    I find that music can help me persist at work when my energy is flagging or I might seek distractions. I almost always listen to music when kerning. When doing other kinds of font work, I sometimes listen to podcasts or lectures at first, and switch to music as the day goes on. If I really need to concentrate on something difficult, I prefer silence.

    Music varies quite a lot. For some reason, Lana Del Rey is particularly good for kerning. At the moment, I am listening to Lambchop, whom I just discovered.
  • Dominic Stanley
    Dominic Stanley Posts: 32
    That New Radicals song will haunt you your whole life
  • Grzegorz Luk (gluk)
    Grzegorz Luk (gluk) Posts: 161
    I like ambient/electronic music when I work. It's not distracting but it changes my mood
  • stuarthazley
    stuarthazley Posts: 9
    Whenever I'm working on fonts, I find that listening to music helps me get into a good flow state. Though it could be purely a placebo effect, I feel more productive when I listen to music. When it comes to music, I prefer low-fi as my go-to genre while working.
  • Paul Hanslow
    Paul Hanslow Posts: 175
    Death metal
    Post metal
    Sludge metal

    Kerning playlist has higher BPM.
  • Dominic Stanley
    Dominic Stanley Posts: 32
    Mark Simonson said:
    I don't understand why someone would disagree with someone expressing their personal listening preferences. What does that even mean?
    It's not a disagreement. I wouldn't do that either. I just meant that song is hard to get out of your head. You've got the dreamer's disease - What does that even mean?
  • Igor Freiberger
    Igor Freiberger Posts: 279
    It varies: 
    1. Baroque music. 2. Silence. 3. Rain sound. 4. Renaissance music. 5. MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) 6. 1980s rock. 7. Kitaro. 8. Pärt. 9. Medieval music.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    edited November 2023
    Sorry @Dominic Stanley I was just commenting on someone weirdly disagreeing with my earlier comment, not yours. No worries. An unfortunate consequence of the flat nature of this forum.
  • Dominic Stanley
    Dominic Stanley Posts: 32
    Mark Simonson said:
    Sorry @Dominic Stanley I was just commenting on someone weirdly disagreeing with my earlier comment, not yours. No worries. An unfortunate consequence of the flat nature of this forum.
    Thanks @Mark Simonson, sorry I misunderstood. No problem at all. 
  • James Hultquist-Todd
    James Hultquist-Todd Posts: 420
    I find I often end up working in silence but when I do have music playing, I’ll usually do a dive on a record label or musician/band. When I’m doing something particularly intensive, I’ll listen to music that doesn’t have English lyrics (I usually go with French).
  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 307
    Fun topic! Most of the time while working I listen to different music than usual.

    Ambient pieces like Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie...or that Lo-Fi Girl. I need the mood but not intense emotions that would distract me. From time to time I just use one song that feels convenient and listen to it on repeat. Radio Paradise also.

    I remember that while I kerned my last font I used these two videos:

    - Carl Reinecke - Flute Concerto, Op. 283 (1908)

    - CARLES TREPAT - Teatro Colón A Coruña 2014

    This Serbian medieval church music was inspiring while designing some promo images with historical themes for my font Razumec:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEueSZk_g6k
  • Brian Dove
    Brian Dove Posts: 11
    edited November 2023
    For deep focus work, I go instrumental or ambient. Recent faves: 
    Wind by Gigi Masin
    First Thought Best Thought by Arthur Russell
    Partly on Time by Kinloch Nelson

    For the more creative/exciting bits, I like loud guitars. Recently:
    Domino by Diners
    A Distant Call by Sheer Mag
    Peace Loving People by Pardoner
    Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub
    EGG by Fat Spirit

    Fun thread! Nice to see what y'all are listening to.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,216
    @John Butler
    Of course the nationalities don’t line up, so it might be jarring to associate Baskerville with Mozart, etc.
    Still, one can imagine Baskerville visiting the London pub where Mozart was trying to make a few pence in 1765, and had a pint as young Wolfie tickled the ivories!
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,225
    I associate Baskerville more with Handel, albeit at a remove, since Baskerville was based in Birmingham. Handel’s life and career overlap directly with the development of the style of written and engraved forms, primarily in London, that Baskerville would translate into type.

    Handel’s house in London is preserved as a museum, and is worth visiting. It is made available as a practice space for music students, so one sometimes encounters string quartets or similar playing while one walks through the house.
  • LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
    LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland Posts: 723
    Music is somewhat intertwined with my type-design and related teaching practice. There is the DTL Type & Music Project and, for example, at ATypI Amsterdam 2013 I organized a concert in the Grand Ballroom of Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. Before the concert I ended up with a harpsichord in my suite, because Krasnapolsky’s management did not know where to place it. Once transferred to the ballroom on the evening of the concert, the instrument was completely out of tune and had to be tuned for the second time that day.

    Moreover, I like to refer to music in my lessons, as my (former) students from The Hague and Antwerp who are reading this can confirm.
  • James Hultquist-Todd
    James Hultquist-Todd Posts: 420
    Brian Dove said:
    ...Recently:
    Domino by Diners
    A Distant Call by Sheer Mag
    Peace Loving People by Pardoner
    Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub
    EGG by Fat Spirit
    ...
    Nice to see Philadelphia represented here. 

    Grand Prix is a fantastic album. Power Pop is one of my go-to genres.
  • Simon Cozens
    Simon Cozens Posts: 752
    edited November 2023
    If you want ambient/EDM music by type designers, I would humbly recommend Twice Shy on Soundcloud or Spotify...

    I'm sure there are others too - show off your side-projects!
  • John Butler
    John Butler Posts: 297
    edited November 2023
    Letterror used to have some MP3 tracks, fun sample-y stuff. They might be Dutch giants. My favorite was “Live Violence.”
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,435
     I made a few songs and put them on Soundcloud.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,225
    I have tapes of the experimental, arthymic percussion group I was part of in the late 1980s, but I wouldn’t recommend them for a type design soundtrack or, indeed, for listening to at all.
  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 641
    Simon Cozens said:
    If you want ambient/EDM music by type designers, I would humbly recommend Twice Shy on Soundcloud or Spotify...

    I'm sure there are others too - show off your side-projects!
    My band HUSS has a few indie pop/rock songs on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4636NJWKS3pz2PhreL95L8?si=Phw6zQlcQS6wparzWJ-rZA 
  • Yves Michel
    Yves Michel Posts: 183
    • Mozart and contemporary music of Mozart
    • Baroque music (many Czech composers) 
    • 50's & 60's pop/rock (my youth)
    • Christmas songs as usual in December (a bit early!).
    • Web radios like Radio Addictive 50's, Click your Radio-Oldies

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