Allowing type-use topics (graphic design, typography etc)

Eris AlarEris Alar Posts: 420
I was looking at the rules and the first one is:
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Post topics appropriate for TypeDrawers, and post them in the appropriate category. Dialogue should remain about typeface design, lettering, and subjects that affect the community as a whole. If the topic you wish to discuss doesn’t fit in any of those categories, it’s because there are better venues for subjects like typography advice, typeface identification, and graphic design feedback.
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For me personally, I don't know of any forums that are dedicated to using type, and I've learnt a lot about type usage from Typophile and Type Drawers. Equally, back in the early 00's when I join Typophile the Type ID forum was the major draw, I found it useful and also the place I wanted to spend most of my time. 
So my question is, if there was a dedicated section for using type, would that be so bad? Maybe if those posts did not appear in the global feed (in case it was popular)?
I can see how the laser focus of the forum is a blessing, and I support that, I just don't know the 'better venues' for talking about using type in detail (and maybe the fix is a listing to places people do know about). 

Comments

  • Assuming we were to create new topics in this vein, what would you like to see? 
  • Nick ShinnNick Shinn Posts: 2,131
    The original post should include an image, at least.
  • Eris AlarEris Alar Posts: 420
    The original post should include an image, at least.
    How? Of what? 

    I think that this is a bad idea. Typedrawers is supposed to be about type design. Adding sections for more general graphic design stuff is going to flood the main page with people asking the same basic garbage over and over: which book should I read, here is my first school project, what is the best font for this project, etc. This is why the design subreddits are all crap and there are few experienced designers posting there.
    Yeah, I worry about that too, and honestly if the leadership and majority felt that way I’d support it. As I said in my OP, if there way a way to not have the usage discussions appear in the main feed that might help, or maybe there are two sections ams you choose which one to show as default for you when you log in (type design or type usage)?
  • KP MawhoodKP Mawhood Posts: 294
    edited June 2021
    Isn't typography already included, but without dedicated categories?

    These days, I refer a lot to UX design blogs to resolve typographic issues for digital products. Yet, there are a lot of solutions that use type badly (and are easy to improve).

    A couple of immediate questions spring to mind:

    (1) Which typographic conversations help the type business/community? With better understanding of typographic needs, both users and makers can be encouraged to explore type solutions that better fulfil those needs.

    (2) Would typographic categories/tags be helpful to find content?
  • It seems to me that there is, already, a forum for some of what’s been suggested: Fontsinuse. Fonstinuse is not, however, a dialogue; you have to look and draw your own conclusions. Something else it doesn’t do, at least not consistently, is disambiguate the sources of the fonts. So, for example, you cannot be sure whose Futura or Baskerville you are seeing—and that’s a real problem, at least in the showings of contemporary work. It would be great if the moderators of the board insisted on that level of font identification, wherever it’s practicable. Nevertheless, Fonstinuse is a great source of information and typographic design.

    @EricHu writes:

    Type designers and people who use type don't always see eye to eye—it feels like two different worlds but I don't think it has to be that way and I think it would be a great opportunity for many people to step outside their bubble.

    What Eric describes is a very sad state of affairs. If type design is not at the service of typography, then what use is it? This is, in my opinion, a fundamental flaw of this forum. Yet, many of the important issues discussed here—the technical ones—are outside the considerations of most practical typographers. Like Chris Lozos, I operate in both worlds, but we are in a very small minority among the denizens of this board. Perhaps the one place where we all meet is in the area of type history. Speaking of history, it should be remembered that until about thirty-five years ago, there was no real possibility for such a thing as type design for its own sake. (Please don’t cite for me exceptions; any you can name are negligible in the greater scheme of things.)

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