× DO YOU
FOR ×
OLD STATEMENT
* The existing commercially-driven type industry offers no educational lisencing or discount for student use. Moreover, in educational environments students do not have access to an up-to-date collection of fonts. Concequently, students develop piracy habits and a lack of appreciation for the craft of typography.
I aim to create a web platform that facilitates an
exchange between type designers and students and hope to stir an excitment about good quality typography as well as to eliminate existing piracy habits.
PRECEDENTS
* GOOGLE WEB FONTS “Our goals are to create a directory of core web fonts for the world and to provide an API service so that anyone can bring quality typography to their webpages.” “All of the fonts are Open Source. This means that you are free to share your favorites with friends and colleagues. You can even improve or customize them and collaborate with the original designer. And you can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially – in print, on your computer, or in your websites.”
PRECEDENTS
*
THE LEAGUE OF MOVEABLE TYPE “It’s not always about the money, sometimes it’s also about making a contribution to the society, in this case, the design community. Giving one typeface away for free will most likely only boost sales, and it’s a good deed. We want more people to look at it like that: like they have a responsibility to do something good for their peers. We’re not asking type designers and type foundries to sacrifice profit, we’re asking them to contribute to a greater cause, to create a community where we not only have a high design standard for print and web alike, but also a community where we’re able to share our creations, knowledge, and expertise with our peers and the world.”
KEYWORDS
* education students professors designers open source licensing web fonts desktop fonts
ethics trust sharing systems tools ownership loyalty commercial
ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE FONTS THAT COME WITH YOUR COMPUTER?
EXPLORING LISENCING
PROTOTYPE
AMOUNT
HAVE YOU EVER PURCHASED A FONT?
QUALITY 30
40 35
5
25 20
25
4
YES
30
1
11 people said they had bought 1-3 fonts. A few others said they had bought an Adobe font folio that came with several families. 1 person said they had bought 10-20 fonts.
3
15
20
2
15
10
NO
10
1
5
5 0
NO
SOMEWHAT
0
YES
NO
SOMEWHAT
HOW MANY ILLEGAL FONTS WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE?
0
YES
SUPER GUILTY
67.5 % of students said they possess 30 or more illegal fonts.
2
3
ON A SCALE OF 1-GUILTY, HOW DO YOU FEEL?
0 0<10
1
56% of students interviewed said they did not feel guilty at all!
SOMEWHAT GUILTY
SOMETIMES
30+
RELATIVELY GUILTY
10-30
NOT GUILTY AT ALL!
DAFONT P22.COM HOUSEINDUSTRIES.COM
10 5 0
HISTORY
PHILOSOPHY
PROFESSOR
FRIEND
“They don't seem to be as good quality. I use them more for display fonts.”
CONTACT
“They are of poor quality, often do not have a very wide family. Usually they are just display fonts and no good text fonts.” “Lack of weight variations or alternates.”
WELCOME PAGE
“No variation in weight, and all of them have not been properly calibrated for spacing.”
STUDENT
TYPE DESIGNER
CLASSMATE
OTHER
FORGOT USERNAME/PASSWORD
“Most of them are horrible, and if they are very well done, they don't have the complete font family or missing ligatures etc.”
*NOT FULL FAMILIES (NUMBERS, SYMBOLS, LIGATURES)
“Kearning is off, not a fullfont family with italic, bold, etc., sometimes they are demos and so you can't actually use the full font, or there is DEMO written over it.”
*LACK OF WEIGHT VARIATIONS
“They are mostly small display families with very limited glyph sets and therefor limited use. A lack of weights, lack of styles, poorly kerned, they lack in the details.”
“The quality isn't always good, absence of different weights and inconsistencies across the font.”
TERMS OF SERVICE & PRIVACY
ACCEPT
HELP
BROWSE COLLECTION/WELCOME BACK
REGISTER
REGISTER
HELP
ACCEPT
TERMS OF SERVICE & PRIVACY
LOGIN
REGISTRATION FORM REGISTRATION FORM
STATISTICS PAGE
EMAIL VERIFICATION EMAIL VERIFICATION SETTINGS
LOGOUT
HELP
PHOTO PASSWORD UPDATE STUDENT INFO
POPULAR RANDOM SEARCH RECOMMENDED BY FOUNDARY/DESIGNER FOR YOU BY PRICE(?) SERIF BY STYLE SANS SERIF RECENT UPLOADS SCRIPT POPULAR DOWNLOADS DECORATIVE BY TAG WEB SAFE
UPLOADS
ADD TO/EDIT EXISTING FAMILY LIST OF PREVIOUSLY UPLOADED FAMILIES
TRENDS
NEW FAMILY YOUR STATS BASIC UPLOADER
TOP USERS
UPLOADER
TOP RATED MOST DOWNLOADED
ADD TAGS/ DESCRIPTION VIEW ADD STATISTICS
EDIT
YOU COMPARED TO OTHER USERS
LOVE THEM
They are scummy in quality.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
They aren't designed as well. My professor even used the word "ugly"!
HOW DO YOUR PROFESSORS GENERALLY FEEL ABOUT FREE FONTS?
OVERALL TRENDS
SPECIFIC TO YOU
UPLOAD PAGE
SETTINGS
INDIFFERENT
Because the ascenders and descenders are quite funky, or they can be too scripty, brushy, cartoony etc
PHOTO PASSWORD UPDATE STUDENT INFO BIO WEBSITE
SURVEY RESULTS
35
40
FONTFABRIC.COM ABDUZEEDO.COM 4SHARED.COM FONTHAUS.COM MEDIAFIRE.COM
FONTSHOP.COM
FONTSPACE.COM GOOGLEFONTS.COM VEER.COM EMIGRE.COM THEPIRATEBAY.COM FONTFEED.COM TYPOGRAPHE.COM
WHERE ONLINE DID YOU LOOK ILOVETYPOGRAPHY.COM SMASHINGMAGAZINE.COM AT/OBTAIN THESE FONTS? MYFONTS.COM FONTYUKLE.NET
ALL 15+
0
10-15
1-5
5-10
IN HOW MANY PROJECTS HAVE YOU USED A FREE FONT?
*POOR CHOICE OF TEXT FONTS
Because they're not "well designed"
HATE THEM
30
FONTSQUIRREL.COM TYPOGRAPHY.COM
*POOR KEARNING
WHY?
LOGIN
URBANFONTS.COM
WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT FREE FONTS?
FEEDBACK BOX
ADRESS
ABOUT
FORGOT USERNAME/PASSWORD
TORRENT
NEW.MYFONTS.COM FONTSTRUCT.COM
15
SITE MAP
HOUSEIND.COM LINETO.COM VANDELAYDESIGN.COM
FFONTS.COM
20
25
1001FREEFONTS.COM TYPEKIT.COM
25
20
GOOGLE.COM
Several students said they obtained their fonts at their work/internship. Others said they took them from the school database.
30
15
YOUWORKFORTHEM.COM
35
10
WHATTHEFONT.COM
HOW DID YOU OBTAIN THESE FONTS?
40
5
TUMBLR.COM
0
I would probably have to fake my font ownership to a lot of my work, spend a lot more money or use a lot of default fonts in my portfolio. I would have to substitute every single typeface I've used for free fonts, which would probably look like crap :(
It would inspire me to do the most I can with the fonts I have available to me. If they care about me using free fonts, I should be able to work with those fonts in a way that will impress. Then when I have the good fonts, I'll be able to do that much better
I’d be like fuckkkkkkk.
I'd probably start illustrating my own fonts..
I'd have to rearrange things, maybe design a few new pieces that use legit faces. Either that or I would actually invest in a couple of fonts that I tend to use often.
If I knew they would judge me for using a typeface illegally (were they able to find out, that is) then I would definitely be more cautious about using one.
I would change all the fonts to helvetica :D This is something that I'm really worried about, but the truth is that almost all of my portfolio pieces are done through school and the school has the licensing. In fact, I don't think I've used a stolen font in a non-school project so far, but that will eventually change. I would have to eliminate a lot of my print work which means I have to rely on art rather than print.
IF YOU KNEW A JOB INTERVIEWER WOULD ASK YOU TO PROVE OWNERSHIP, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
PROTOTYPE
2
RANDOM PARSONS STUDENT INTERVIEWS
PROTOTYPE
3
INTERVIEWS WITH COMMUNICATION DESIGN SENIORS
http://vimeo.com/33329738
PROTOTYPE
3
WHAT DID I LEARN ABOUT STUDENTS?
WHY NOT BUY?
WOULD YOU USE COMMERCIALLY?
1. Too expensive 2. Would buy if they could try 3. Lack of appreciation 4. To have many options 5. We don’t know it’s wrong 6. When teachers give them away, we don’t need to pay!
NO!
PAUL SHAW
PROTOTYPE
4
“I still believe we need a way to improve the font options for students at Parsons.”
PROFESSOR INTERVIEWS
WILLIAM BEVINGTON “[have] the school to put together a very small collection of fonts, from certain suppliers and have them sold, in bulk, at an extremely competitive cost for students.” “Maybe have 10 innovative font designers today who have done some great revivals, real laborists of passion and incredible technical achievment.”
JEN EBY “I think it is hard [for students] to pay for [fonts] until [a project] is earning money for you.”
PROTOTYPE
5
Students have to pay a fee to have access to a library of ~50 fonts that updates/changes
Students get a free membership for most fonts in the database but for special ones, they have to pay extra. Students get a free membership and have unlimited access to a database of fonts.
Students have to pay a fee to have access to a library of ~50 preselected fonts.
Students pay a fee to have unlimited membership access to database of fonts.
SCENERIO $ SCALE
PROTOTYPE
6 WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY?
1 They thrive
on exchange.
What can we, as students, offer you in return?
2 There are
ways to avoid free riding. How can we screen our members?
3
Open means innovation. Closed systems are restrictive and limit innovation.
4 They bring
like-minded people together.
This type of network is invaluable.
5
Open because we can be. We now have the technology to rebuild social collaborative systems.
MIDTERM FEEDBACK
* After a semester of being worried about stepping on the industrysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; toes, I was told to just go ahead and make something.
So I started to brand and build.
BREAK?!
*
where students & designers meet
browse by
search...
login area
type profiles
ANORACK Brass Fonts view now
about liscencing contact/jobs/ privacy policy/ sponsors
tag cloud/ advertising
SHARE
a
BUT...
* After spending time over break trying to come up with a name, look and feel for the website, I realised that attempting to harness and brand this thing was too much for one lonely designer. An issue as such should be expressed in a universal visual language. This could, ideally, be a collaborative project; bringing designers and design students together to build something that satisfies everyone.
So I stopped branding.
BUT...
* When Jane suggested I make a documentary, I imagined the power it could have in educating the design community about this issue, as well as get them thinking about how it may be solved.
The documentary, paired with its own website, will act as a call to action for any contributors. Together, we may even come up with something I never imagined on my own.
NEW STATEMENT
* The existing commerciallydriven type industry offers no educational lisencing or discount for student use. Moreover, in educational environments students do not have access to an upto-date collection of fonts.
I aim to discover exactly why this is. Is it that the type industry is so private that it will not open their markets even for purpose of bettering education? Do they prefer that students pirate their fonts and pay for their bad habits as professionals? Or is it simply that this issue has never been discussed before?
PRECEDENTS
* Exit Through the Gift Shop
Helvetica
Press Pause Play and many, many more.
NEXT STEPS
* get equiptment research lots. how to interview 101 and documentaries galore. write a loose â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;scriptâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with narration and some corresponding questions choose who I will interview start interviewing!