Survey on Typography

[Member d0n…]

Hello to everyone on the forum!

I am glad that I have discovered it (seems quite recent) and I hope I will be able to contribute to the community in some way. I love the desing to begin with. 

I am currently working/researching for my PhD in the field of typography, specifically in advertising and I want to ask the administrators/moderators if it is alright for me to post a survey on typography here? (Thank you!)

Edit: Here is the link for the survey http://goo.gl/forms/Ga7koCPQbI 

The goal of the survey is to determine what are the current trends in typography (if there are any) Your help and contribution will be much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to share it with friends as I need as much as possible entries. I will publish the processed results here if someone is interested. 

Best wishes,

Aleksandar Donev

Edited March 31, 2015 by d0nev
Link added

[Ralf Herrmann]

… and I want to ask the administrators/moderators if it is alright for me to post a survey on typography here?

​Sure, that’s fine. 

[Ralf Herrmann]

Edit: Here is the link for the survey http://goo.gl/forms/Ga7koCPQbI 

​I find it really hard to answer your main questions about favourite and least favourite typefaces. 

When I choose typefaces, the choice is usually tailored specific to that current job and there are dozens of parameters involved. Beside the look of the fonts that needs to match the project and the design, there are lot of rather technical considerations: does the family have the number of styles I need? Does it have the language support I need? Does it have certain OpenType features (small caps, figure sets) I might need? Are webfonts available and with which pricing model? Is it suitable for longer texts? Is there a condensed version available for headlines or small table columns? How does it mix with other fonts? And so on and so forth. 

And all of these aspects together narrow down the selection until very few typefaces or even just one. But it isn’t really about the things you offer (Beautiful/Classic/Elegant …) as checkboxes. So I am afraid you might get results that don’t really reflect the reality. 

And one option or “checkbox” you didn’t mention is simply the “star factor” or “me-too effect”. Just like with books or music, there are always currents “hits”, and people will prefer those. People choose bestseller fonts because they are bestseller fonts. They pick a typeface, because that one big company has them as well. People might not admit that to you or they might not even be aware they do this, but it’s very clear that this effect has a strong impact on type choices. 

Edited April 3, 2015 by Ralf Herrmann

[Member d0n…]

Hello Ralf,

Thank you for your in-depth reply. I will try to clarify you the point as much as I can. 

First when I am asking about favorite and least favorite typefaces, maybe I should have asked which is your preferred choice for general use whilst you are designing something. Of course there is not "ultimate" typeface and various project have different demands for the style of type. The question is when you are designing something on which typefaces can you relay and you believe work the most. (For example some people go for Helvetica, Futura or other popular typefaces and they trust them)

The number of styles, language support, small caps, OpenType features and etc should not be considered. Only the name of the typeface/family. I am aware the difference can be great even though a typeface belongs to the same family. 

The answers I am offering as what is the reason for typeface is being used or not are based on the most frequent answers given in a similar survey  on trends in typography done by Antony Cahalan done 15 years ago. This is to determine the current trends. As you can see I am offering a text field to be filled in if the given reasons are irrelevant to you. 

On the third page from the survey I am asking which typefaces you have seen around you in the last 2 years, 10 years and which type foundry is mostly visible. 

The purpose of the survey is to determine the most used typefaces currently (mainly in commercial design) without considering much technical technical details. My thesis is about Typography in Advertising or the final use of typefaces in adverts ignoring the technical details in the process of their creation.

Thank you for your feedback.