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