In Our Opinion… Favorite Fonts

Brice — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:50:31 +0000

Over the course of a design project, it is often necessary to explore a wide variety of typefaces to find one that is just right. Well, just like most things in the world we develop some favorites. Today we have put together a couple of our designers’ faves, three each to be exact: one sans-serif, one random or display typeface, and one serif. Below are the results:

AMANDA:

Trade Gothic Std Condensed No. 20

Kewl Script Regular

Adobe Caslon Pro Italic

BRICE:

Helvetica Neue 45 Light

Ohrada Regular

Electra Regular

And, just for fun, some fonts we’d love to have:

Costa from Veer

Cyclone from Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Mercury from Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Adios from Veer

Have you seen a font you love? Please share it with us and add a comment below.

Three Simple Words: Ease, Of, Use

Brice — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:53:06 +0000

On a daily basis clients ask, “How can I get more people to use my website?”. On an hourly basis I find myself asking, “Okay, now where do I find the info I need?”. The Internet has become the go-to source to get our questions answered quickly, but there is still a real breakdown between the media and the user. Search engine optimization has become so important to companies on the web that they are cluttering their sites with jargon-laden copy in an effort to jump up the rankings, often overlooking the one thing that will keep people coming back: customer service. Now I’m not referring to the ability to return a faulty screwdriver without a receipt, but rather referring to the experience a user has upon arriving at the site. The keystone: ease of use.

Okay, so this topic has the potential to become a lengthy post, and/or debate, so I’m going to keep this brief and use one example for now: skype.com .

Skype is one of the simpler, most user-friendly websites I have seen in quite a while. Personally, I don’t need to know how they got started or the technology behind their service. My main goals in coming to the site are: 1. download the service and 2. find information on using the service. Right away, I see a button to download and a navigation tab that will take me to another page about using the service. In addition, there’s even a little blurb about what Skype is, a true revelation (sarcasm). Please notice, there are not endless paragraphs about voice-over IP service, or VOIP applications that contain repeated catch phrases just in the hope that a random international college student or a small global business will search Google for ‘United States voice over internet phone service’.

Don’t get me wrong, search optimization can be vital to the success of your business but what use is search optimization if the user never gets past the first page of your site? At blueye, we put a lot of thought into the designs that we present to clients. We want our clients to not only be happy with the look and feel of the site, but we want them to be happy with the results once the site goes live. As a designer, the biggest compliment a client can give me is telling me that they are making sales and that clients and customers are telling them how easy their site is to use.

Remember, simple can be a really good thing. History speaks for itself: the tuxedo, chocolate ice cream, the bicycle – all simple products, with plenty of users worldwide.

Blueye Blog » Design

In Our Opinion… Favorite Fonts

AMANDA:

BRICE:

And, just for fun, some fonts we’d love to have:

Three Simple Words: Ease, Of, Use