#kerning and the #nbalockout
The confidence in my own design sensibilities and aesthetics were temporarily shattered recently as a result of checking Twitter more often then I should. An omnipresent vortex of time wasting links.
The following is a synopsis of my Twitter related thoughts throughout the workday:
“Hmmm, I’m not sure if that gradient is the best it could be… I better clear my head by checking Twitter.”
“Oh the NBA labor talks must be getting close to a deal, I better check Twitter.”1
“I bet there’s some news about the new Beach Boys ‘Smile’ box set release date… now where’s that Twitter feed.”2
“I wonder what is happening on Twitter right now.”
And that is when I found it: “it” being a game that is so painfully simple, yet impossible to perfect. I would like to think of it as a designer’s kryptonite. Called Kern Type, it is a game where the user sets the spacing of the letters in a given word using the mouse or arrow keys.
This process itself is called kerning, which Wikipedia defines as “the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result.” The important part of that definition (and the part that gets a designer’s brain salivating) is the combination of the word “font” along with the “…to achieve a visually pleasing result.” Every designer thinks they know a couple things better then everyone else: a) fonts and b) how to make all things visually pleasing. Here I am finding out that there is a game that will actually tell me that I am right about the way I space out letters in a word, and further validate myself as a designer for all to see. How perfect.
Now here comes the frustrating part. I’m playing this game and things start going awry from the get-go. The first challenge is spacing the letters A and V in the capitalized san-serif word “WAVE.” Easy. Done. 100 out of 100 – I was sure of it. Wait, 74 out of 100?! I can’t believe it…at all. How can this be?! I know fonts. I know spacing! Okay, this must a result of the controls being a little wacky and faulty programming. I had better really try this thing.
The next word was ‘Type’ in a font that looks like New Times Roman.3 Bam! 100 out of 100. I am a design genius and this game just proved it. Next word ‘Holly’ in a font that I can only describe as mutant Impact meets chunky serif font stepchild. The results are less than encouraging. 61 out of 100. The subsequent results kept getting more and more depressing. A 75, a 68, 64, 82…
By this point I was a combination of defeated, frustrated, and nervous. Nervous that anyone in the office might look my way and see my computer screen and notice my score. I turned and cautiously glanced at my co-workers out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to make sure that none of them had seen how poorly I had scored, while at the same time ranking them as to how proficient I think they are at type kerning and who would pose the largest threat to the “obviously there must be something wrong with it because I am not averaging in the 90+ range” type game.
Needless to say, I spend the rest of the day in between my projects trying to obtain the unattainable. To score a perfect 100 out of 100 on every challenge that Kern Type offered. I blame Twitter, the creators of Kern Type and myself for being too stubborn to realize that there is no definitively correct way to space type in a word. It is all subjective, even though we as designers strive for perfection every day.
That’s what makes us good designers: the fact that we are trying to make things visually pleasing even though there is no right or wrong. I guess that could be taken as the moral of this article. That or the moral being that if you want to cause a permanent addiction that will consume all of your designer’s productive working hours and make him or her second guess their career choice and aesthetic sense of right and wrong, then go ahead. Send them this link. Just don’t blame me. Blame Twitter.
1 The deal being a resolve to the current NBA lockout5 in which the current CBA agreement has expired. The players union and the owners are negotiating a new labor agreement in which one of the main sticking points is the BRI, basketball related income, and how that split will be made. This is a big deal because it’s keeping Minnesota Timberwolves fans from seeing Spanish rookie Ricky ‘Menor Billete’ Rubio in action.
2 ‘Smile’ is the lost Beach Boys album from 1967, which was a response to the Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’ which in itself was a response to the Beach Boys album ‘Pet Sounds.’ It was shelved after band member Mike Love4 decided it was too ‘out there’ and hasn’t seen the light of day since. Disk 5 has been my main playlist for the past week. There is nothing more exciting then 26 different versions and outtakes of ‘Good Vibrations’ and assorted demos like this.
3 Every designer thinks they can name any popular font known to man just by looking at it even for a split second.
4 Minnesota Timberwolves all-star forward Kevin Love is the nephew of Beach Boys singer Mike Love and is an avid Twitter user.
5 I wrote this before the NBA lockout was resolved.
