If i were to sum up this book review in a few words and spare you of several minutes of reading, i would just say “Go buy it, NOW!”. Why? Because, if you’re dealing with type on a regular basis and have to constantly pick up appropriate typefaces for your projects, you probably know just how time consuming this task really is. “Type Style Finder” written by Timothy Samara and published by Rockport Publishers, helps you make the right choices by showcasing over 850 type styles (fonts for the more profane Internet users) in over 30 thematic categories. On the other hand, you could of course stick with a bunch of 30-50 core families, but after a while it might get boring.
When i started to become more involved in design and began to truly love typography, there were a number of interesting books on the subject, that really taught me a great deal. However, as useful as they were, most of them follow the same tried and trusted formula: some basic grammar and terminology, a little bit of history, some style considerations and a pinch of layout and grids. While that’s alright the first two or three times, eventually it gets old, when you have to read the same thing over and over again. That’s why, i almost lost hope of finding such a nicely organized type catalog that would save me hours spent browsing type specimens online.
I’ve discovered it by mistake, with a little help from Amazon’s related items list, while trying to wrap up an online order for a bunch of design resources. Initially, i had picked a couple of those “winning formula” typography books next to some color theory, photography and project showcase ones. Yet, once i saw “Type Style Finder”, i ditched the other two and went for this one instead. While there’s plenty of theory online, i wasn’t able to find a similar resource, even from highly popular web font shops.
The book is structured into two sections, the first one being more of an extended introduction, roughly 10 pages long. It’s hard to believe that anyone purchasing this item wouldn’t have some previous knowledge about the basics of typography. However, for the absolute beginner, it’s a welcomed primer which will put them up to speed on terminology, classification and various combinations between styles and color options.
The remaining pages make up four major chapters: Moods, Concepts, Time+Context, Age Groups. Each one has a various number of categories ranging from Romantic to Sporty, Corporate to Fantasy, Renaissance to New Age and Babies to Adults. Every one of these begins with a short introduction, which explains the main characteristics and visual clues that make a typeface belong to that certain group: the shape designs, the minor elements’ form or weight, historical or cultural hints and many more aspects. It’s followed by the actual list of type specimens and ends with a useful 10 color palette, a short rationale on the chromatic choices and several color combinations.
For each type style presented within this book, you’ll see the lowercase, uppercase, digits and basic punctuation signs along with the classic “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”. On the right side there’s a valuable info caption, containing the recommended usage (display, text and decorative text), the name, style and other specific attributes. You’ll even find the type foundry/font distributor complete with useful contact information.
While it would have been nice to see larger previews, you can always do that by downloading the respective type specimens online.
What i love about this book, besides helping me regain precious free time, is the fact that i can use it as a learning resource as well. After browsing the same category on several occasions, it becomes easier to recognize typefaces that share a similar style. Plus, you often get to know some noteworthy alternatives to the classic, often overused examples or go further and explore whole type families.
At the end of the day, “Type Style Finder” works for both the beginner and advanced designers. For the former, it acts a visual style guide, a practical manual jam-packed with examples. For the latter, it’s a great time saver and a good resource to help spark you imagination, especially when feeling like you had too much Helvetica for breakfast.
