Schlegel Chapter 2 Reflection

Reading chapter 2 affirmed my belief that good type is both an art and a science. There is so much that goes into the making of a font, the effort and attention to detail it takes to create a beautiful, effective, balanced typeface is monumental. Every letter that was displayed was painstakingly crafted and drawn and redrawn until it
was perfect, and I'm so impressed by the designers before me who
have had the dedication to create type. It's a shame that so many people overlook type in general - to most, fonts are just a means to a standard Times New Roman paper or a funny photo with comic sans. There is a quote from Jared Spool that I don't 100% agree with but I think applies in this situation: "Good design, when done well, should be invisible." I think that typefaces have some of the best designs possible, and they definitely go unnoticed in our everyday lives.


I really enjoyed reading about the different families of fonts. I had never heard of Cheltenham, but I think it's impressive how many variations there are while they all still retain the same core properties.

In addition to families, I thought reading about the classification of typefaces was interesting as well. I knew very basic classifications, like sans serif, serif, and a couple like egyptian and old style. However, it was new to me to see the differences between the sans serif family especially. I had never heard of grotesque, neo-grotesque, humanist, or geometric. Now that I know these though, I'm going to be better able to distinguish between them and use the correct terminology when talking about them.