My new top 10 comes from 'Just My Type' by Simon Garfield. I believe actually having a 'top' set in stone with clear reasoning will guide me as to how I should present to the appropriate audience. There is a list of the worst fonts (designed by professionals) and here is a summary of the 8 presented in the book...
1. 2012 Headline
Good - we got the 2012 Olympics
Bad - we chose shit designs
How did we balls this up so badly. Disgraceful. I have not found a single person that likes our branding of therc 2012 Olympics. Why was this chosen, seriously (check out my Olympics post on DC to find my entire rant...). Alice Rawsthrorn states "it looks increasingly like the graphic equalizer of what we Brits scathingly call 'dad dancing' - namely a middle-aged man who tries so hard to be cool on the dance floor that he fails".
2. Ransome Note
Good - you can blackmail people...
Bad - ...badly
In a nut shell, do it aunthentically.
3. Neuland Inline
Good/Bad - same as Papyrus only Jurassic Park.
4. Papyrus
Good - available to everyone
Bad - overused eg. Avatar
"Papyrus is not a bad font on its own, but is so cliched and overused that its prominent selection for a genre-busting movement seems peverse. It also seems geographically inappropriate: as everyone who has written a school project over the last decade will tell you, Papyrus is the font you use to spell out the word Egypt."
5. Brush Script
Good - neighbors
Bad - used by so many corporations it has lost personal feel
Introduced Kylie Minogue... but was picked by so many people for so many mediocre designs, due to its personal feel, it became a face for corporations to communicate in a non-corporate manner. Hideous. Not hand-drawn.
6. Gill Sans Light Shadowed
Good - looks like a shadow... well done
Bad - massive headache
Headache inducing shadows. "The effect amuses for a very limited time, leaving cumbersome words that are difficult to read and lack all emotion."
7. Souvenir
Good - looks cool the first time you see it
Bad - quicky looses interest
"A souvenir of every ghastly mistake ever made in type design gathered together - with a few never thought of before - into one execrable mish-mash." - Peter Guy
8. Ecofont
Good - trying to be eco-friendly
Bag - not really
Designed to save ink by piercing holes in well known fonts such as Arial, Veranda and Times New Roman. On a negative, some fonts actually use more ink than other regular font choices. Reason for position on this 'worst fonts' list is that is it suitable for printing large documents in draft, but then maybe don't print them... thats way more eco-friendly.
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