Book Review- Just my Type
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
I’ve always been fascinated by typography and other similar ideas like lettering. I think typography is really fascinating from a linguistics perspective and from a design perspective.
I haven’t reviewed very many non fiction books however this was a really enjoyable one to read. I think a lot of people don’t normally read books like these, however it was written really well.
For the average reader, I think it was easy to read and easy to follow. For a non-designer, I think they would also enjoy this book as well.
Each chapter focuses on a different typeface but it also goes through different typefaces chronologically. I think this would be a great introduction to type for new designers without boring anyone but also teaches you some interesting ideas about type.
I think the different sections in between chapters were broken up well and it’s easily a book you can skip around if you find one more boring. Some of the chapters were really short compared to others but I thought that made the reading easier.
I enjoyed the use of pictures throughout the book which I thought highlighted their points well and broke up large portions of text.
Ultimately typography is a visual means of communication so including the pictures makes sense.
I do think more picture examples of fonts being talked about would have been helpful because even for the designer, it’s hard to remember what every font looks like off the top of our heads.
The book employed some humor throughout the different sections which I thought was delightful and goes into the different and sometimes weird ways fonts are used in our life.
““One thing was for sure: no one wanted a repeat of Christopher Barker’s Bible of 1631, which omitted the negative from the seventh commandment so that it read, ‘Thou shalt commit adultery.””
I think for the average person, this book might help you consider all of the different ones you see every day.
For the designer, I think they could pick up some good lessons from this book.
If you’ve ever enjoyed the documentary, Abstract, on Netflix and Youtube, then you would enjoy this book as well.
I think one of my favorite sections was about the typefaces used for road signs. It’s something everyone sees everywhere you go and it never occurred to me what font it was or how they selected it. I love the story behind it though.
Overall, I think this was a great book if you just enjoy typography or you want to learn more about it. It doesn’t take a degree to understand it and I think would be a great book for the new designer taking typography 101.
