Computer Arts - The secrets of great typography

I noticed that the most recent issue of Computer Arts magazine (October 2011) was an issue dedicated to typography so I bought a download issue. The articles are full of inspiration not through imagery but the opinions of designers do make you think outside the box, for example Craig Ward featured his opinion on type, urging us to move forward. 


"Why do we revert to tried and tested techniques an styles? And why do we celebrate it instead of trying to push things forward? Only a few studios today turn genuinely forward-thinking typography, the rest just seem happy to follow the herd. And that, perhaps that is the biggest crime of all."
This was a real eye opener for me, it may not of been meant to relate to every designer and not everyone would agree, but it's true to some extent. Although there are some lovely typefaces such as Helvetica and Baskerville (in my opinion), we should really be thinking of moving forward.




In the Magazine there was a feature called 'Kerning tricks of the pros' a really good read giving you tips on how to kern such as to blue your vision so that you concentrate on the contrast between the letters and space, and another great tip which i will definitely will take on is turn the word upside down so that you can focus more on the spacing rather than the word. The article gives the links of websites that will kern your text for you. This made me think differently about kerning, it's all about the flow of the lettering and the space surrounding it where as i only thought about the overall appearance of the type rather than the ease of the reader.
There were a few other statements that really were beneficial. "One might think that in order to fit a long word we need a narrow type, but it's quite the opposite we need a wider type that can breath and allow some white space." just a refreshing way to look at and think about typography, when using a large word i have always thought I need a narrow type, but i will no experiment around with type, at least try and think outside the box. 
The five must have fonts

• Akkurat
• Compendium
• Georgia
• Helvetica
• Knockout