She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS. – Henry James
And I think in fonts.
As a writer, I make sense of the world through the words I write. And the font I use to express those words makes all the difference between clarity and confusion.
Every January I pick a personal font.
It’s a practice I started six years ago, with the following selections:
- 2018: Gisha
- 2017: Tahoma
- 2016: Calibri
- 2015: Palatino Linotype
- 2014: Georgia
- 2013: Garamond
Each of these represented who I was at the time.
So you can see that the Font of the Year is a selection I take very seriously.
And the 2019 winner is ….
Lao UI.
I have chosen this font in honor of Lao Tzu, whose book, Tao Te Ching, has become very important to me.
Although I will never be as wise as Lao Tzu, I can at least express myself through his fonty cousin, Lao UI.
Outside of the Mr. Tzu, the font itself works for me for these reasons:
- The top of the letters reach upward, representing growth, positive change, and a spiritual rising,
- The bottom part of the letters remain comfortably settled, representing a feeling of being grounded, solid, and surefooted.
- The overall sense of the font is strong, elegant and confident.
These are the qualities I strive to develop in 2019 (which Groupon promised me was going to be a good year).
One font at a time.
And I will do this one written word as a time, because as the non-fonty Lao says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
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