I have decided to first focus on typography, often overlooked and rarely done well. Typography is one of the most under appreciated aspects of web design, I believe that the font stacks picked for you website are a critical extension of your brand. If you would like to see an excellent presentation on typography take a look at what Jeff Croft put together. Cameron Moll also wrote an article to help us non-typographers pick practical typefaces.
I’m be no means a typography, I am however someone who greatly appreciates a well picked font stacks on a website. For Cosmicblend I have decided to break a little from the classic “browser safe” fonts, Cosmicblend is going to use:
body { font:120% Baskerville, Times New Roman, Times, serif; color:rgb(75,75,75); line-height:1.5em; }
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family:"Gill Sans","Gill Sans MT","Helvetica Neue","Helvetica",Arial,sans-serif; line-height:150%; }
This choice has not been made for the sake of breaking from the norm but rather because it was once mentioned to me that the most common task performed online is reading. Anyone looking for the services I provide will likely look through this website, they may even view it through any one of the emerging smartphone devices. The goal with this font stack choice is to create a pleasant, classic and hopefully timeless feel on the Cosmicblend website, I will not fiddle with the typefaces endlessly or even annually.
I understand the need in the web development/design community to annually (or at whatever interval) update the look of your website, however I also find strong appeal in the “Slow Design” approach. Ideally Cosmicblend will stand on the line dipping it’s toe in both ends of the pool, likely the font stack selection used for Cosmicblend will spend more time in the “Slow Design” end of the pool.
The font stack isn’t all resolved yet, perhaps later today it will be. While still on the topic of typography and design approaches I would suggest taking a peak at Travis Gertz’s Play Experiment or at Jason Santa Maria’s inspiring personal website.
