Whats the Big Fonting Deal

i’m going to talk about

two things with you all today

first i’ll reintroduce you to something

that is about 570 years old

and by reintroduce i mean

i hopefully make you appreciate it a

little more

fonts i’ll outline the gravity of the

humble font

and what it means for the means of

communication that you and me do every

day

as a visual communicator my experience

tells me that today

in this age is far more important to pay

attention fonts

than it has ever been before

we are the biggest consumers of fonts if

you actually look around you

everywhere you look there are fonts

be it whatsapp communications be it

signal

or discord that the kids use be these

posters on the walls

or your newspaper or packaging of the

products that you buy the supermarket

they all use fonts

some of these fonts do a great job some

not so good

and some are really miserable at doing

what they’re supposed to do

getting the message across so the

question is

what’s the big deal well today more than

ever

considering the amount of data that is

thrown at us given this age that we are

connected

with this device called the cell phone

which is in everyone’s hand

every other second you’re bombarded with

information

and as this sense of

urgency in sending the message across to

people increases day by day

there is no way that you can run away

from fonts because

fonts are used to get the message across

to you

so what do fonts actually do have you

ever thought about that

it’s not just about writing the words or

your sentence or your thoughts down

but what do they actually do for your

message

well for beginners they present your

brand with a certain mood

they represent the service and the

people behind it

and they paint a mood with the message

that comes along with it

does anyone know who the ceo of honda or

yahoo is

do you really care who the chairperson

of general mills is

no you don’t what fonts do over here

is they represent these brands with a

certain promise

a certain commitment and a certain

reassurance to each one of us

of what these brands are doing for us

so why should you really worry about

fonts is the big question over here

it’s not just about bold or italics or

underlining or changing color of the

font

for beginners fonts have

30 anatomical parts

i’m really not kidding this is a fact

and as if that was not enough

fonts can either save you a lot of money

or get you in

really really big trouble let me share

two stories with you

team to the government change your

typeface save millions

hashtag truestory so we had a teenager

who wrote to the us government and said

if you change your font

then you could save over 400 million

dollars a year in your

expenses how does that workout you ask

well any font has thickness it has width

and it has height that also dictates how

much paper it consumes

so you could be using a font that

consumes

paper and gives you about 60 lines per

page

but if you change it to another font you

could get maybe 70 lines per page

put it all together and you could

essentially end up saving a lot of money

so the kid was correct he wasn’t wrong

how microsoft fond brought down

pakistani prime minister

nawaz sharif seriously a font

not a zombie apocalypse nor alien

invasion

a font well amongst all the issues that

plagued

mr prime minister over here there was a

certain case of

all these assets that were fudged with

documents that came to hound him

the document was made using a font

called calibri which was introduced in

2007

but it was signed 2006.

hashtag true story

fonts are the visual adjectives to your

messages

now if you will

along with me if you can read the words

that come on the screen

and try to see if the fonts actually

represent the meanings of the word that

come on the screen

traditional respectable

reliable comfortable stable

objective masculine childish

modern strong stylish

chic clean feminine

serious lost

you could have a wonderful message but

choose the wrong font and your message

goes for a toss

you could use a really nice sappy love

dripping lovey-dovey font

or you could use a very monoblock

computer ai kind of font

figure out if she goes on a date with

you or not using the second font

now i’m going to take example of four

fonts to represent myself

research tells me that it works very

well if i use a font which is

very clean which is very modern

and which is very respectable the other

three really don’t work for me

today these are the platforms where we

put our most information on

and if you think about it the guidelines

and the limitations of the areas that we

can play with

is absolutely defined by them and we

cannot move out of them

it is within these guidelines that we

have to use fonts to get our messages

across

and you really don’t have a choice so

knowing which font works in what

platform is really

the key importance over here

so the question is how do you choose a

good font

it’s knowing where the font goes it’s

knowing who it is for

it’s knowing what you intend the font to

do

choosing a phone is like a wardrobe

conundrum you have this big party to go

for

you’re excited about it you open your

wardrobe and oh my god

what do you wear what is she going to

think if i wear this what will they

think if i wear this

is this going to make me fit in the

crowd or am i going to be an

outstanding person of the crowd i mean

you go for a beach vacation you don’t

carry your thermals or your duck down

jackets do you

or if you go for a skiing resort do you

carry a t-shirt and shorts

you don’t so knowing where your fonts

going and knowing what the messages

is the key to choosing the right font

fonts are pretty much the body language

of a business

fonts add mood and presence in places

where you are absent

if i share my business card with you and

then we part ways

it’s up to my business card my fonts to

leave a resonating image of my

interaction with you

remember seeing is believing till about

10 months back

all of us were meeting with each other

interacting

exchanging ideas and it was our energy

which helped

get the message across thanks to the

pandemic now we stuck in front of a

screen

with the internet connection and you’re

trying so hard

to get your message across to the person

using powerpoint or keynote

what is very common in all this fonts

secondly i talk about profile shots or

also known as headshot photos

how many of us are guilty of using

photos from a social engagement and

cropping it for

our profile images passport photos

i know a lot of people in the back bench

would be taking selfies the duck face

well we all do that let’s face it

a headshot is actually a very specific

kind of kind of photograph that focuses

to bring out the best of you

in front of everyone else and it’s not

only used by ceos and thought leaders

but today

given the way things are moving up fast

online it’s also used by every other

person to present their best self

forward

why does it matter because we make snap

judgments of people based on their

experience appearances

you me all of us you look at photos

you make a judgment you can’t run away

from it so therefore

it matters

for today’s event who are you going to

trust

remember the one app where if you like

someone

you swipe to the right if you liked them

really really a lot

you swiped up and if you were like ugh

you swipe to the left

so let me give you another example over

here 37 year old company major player in

east and northeast india

produces 350 plus tons of paper products

each month

this guy is going to run the business

actually he is running the business who

do you trust

true stories both photos taken from

their linkedin profiles

same person though by the way

or a 24 year old company ends into

investment in stocks

and handles a portfolio of 250 million

dollars plus

selective clients and about three

continents

am i going to trust one person on the

screen with my money

which one is it

today we are in the world of instant

gratification snap judgments are second

nature

and we are all guilty of this because we

all

know this is how we express ourselves

online

or this

with these little bits of information i

urge you to be very very careful

and to be very very wise when you choose

fonts for your presentations

and think twice before you put up a

photograph on social media

because remember that it’s saying over

there the internet

never forgets far deeper significance

then you realize your profile image has

and as my favorite fictitious character

in the world ever said

may you live long and transfer thank you

you