using web fonts: the basics

By Jessica Huddy

I recently attended an AIGA Boston event about the evolution of typography on the web. More specifically, what designers and programmers can now accomplish using web fonts. Gone are the days of being stuck with web-safe fonts, or using images in place of live text when something needed a little extra visual spice. More and more fonts are being adapted for use on screen, and plenty of new service providers are making things easier for everyone. 

Let’s start with the basics, which were provided in an introduction by Sam Berlow of Font Bureau: There are two ways to use fonts on a website. The first is to use a font service provider (such as Fontdeck or Typekit), which will take care of all the back-end details in exchange for a subscription payment (usually yearly). The other option, which the panelists generally agreed is better for large sites with many visitors, is to pay a one-time fee to purchase the fonts and then take care of the coding details yourself.* [read more]

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not all houses should look the same

In May, Jess attended AIGA Boston’s Inside the Designer’s Studio, featuring Paula Scher. Scher is a principal at Pentagram, an international design consultancy, and well-known in the industry; she’s developed identities and worked on projects for a broad range of clients, including The New York Times Magazine, Perry Ellis, the New York Botanical Garden, Tiffany & Co. and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, among others. [read more]

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word & image: together they make content

Content is king. We’ve heard that so many times and in so many ways that it’s become almost impossible to dispute. After all, what is there without content, right?

At studio-e, we think a little differently. Words are important, sure. As a copywriter, they are my daily tools; they are, in a sense, my purpose. And yet, they’re not everything. While I’d love to believe that people would read my words regardless of length or layout or appearance, regardless of the design, the fact of the matter is, they wouldn’t. [read more]

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inside the designer’s studio: chris pullman

Last night, Lynn, Jess and I, along with Jane Mazzarella, one of our clients from Harvard Business School, attended “Inside the Designer’s Studio: Chris Pullman,” an AIGA event. For 35 years, Chris Pullman served as vice president for design and visual communications at WGBH.

The talk was set up to mimic Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton. Designer Daniel Dejan interviewed Chris, asking him a range of questions, from “What were your earliest influences?” to “How did you transition from Yale to WGBH?” [read more]

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