From the desk of Mr. Monk

We had a nice session with Caroline Archer regarding the Longwill website. We brought the schools concerns about legibility and stuff and Caroline helped us to show that you dont need it set in comic sans at 48pt.

She had done some research for her PHD regarding childrens typography and how they respond to it. So you think kids find it easier to read sans serif fonts?

FAIL.

Kids acctually can’t tell the difference. They’re growing up in a world with the biggest variety of type and exposed to it like never before in history, go figure!

Think children need fonts set at huge sizes to be readable?

FAIL.

Can you say MTV? We’re dealing with kids that have digital screens everywhere. Ever heard of a Nintendo DS? What’s better is that Longwill has a partnership with Sony, so that every child has a PSP with a Go!Cam installed for transmitting video messages to and from school. I think it’s safe to assume that these kids are more than familiar with type for screen. Everything on a PSP is not set in Comic Sans 48pt. Why? Because there’s no need for it, and these kids are probably better at reading from a screen that you are. Also, this could probably appear very patronising. Not great.

The one thing that did stop me in my tracks is that children read longer line lengths easier than shorter ones. Keyword; ‘easier’.

I rest my case.

As I previously mentioned, I had a consultancy (coffee) meeting with Rob Sharl and John Barratt. It was very helpful and just what I needed because since Bal’s been away it’s been tricky to keep in touch with how I should be keeping myself for uni.

Rob basically broke down Font Lorry after ripping it apart. I mean this in a good way. He raised very important points;

• What the hell is Font Lorry?
  • Users get confused
    • And as a result, the bugger off
  • Too many buzz words!
    • “Online distribution platform for emerging typographic talent”
    • Wha?
• Design is great, but if you aint got the ‘big idea’ you aint got jack.
  • Gulp
• If I am to keep it as an open market-place there are going to be problems.
  • Shed load of up-keep.
  • It’s eBay.
    • Why don’t the users just sell via eBay
      • They do.
        • Shit.
  • I’ll end up with a shop full of crap.
    • Brings us back to ‘What is Font Lorry’
      • Look at my original brand values.
      • Do I want the crap to represent my brand
        • No.
  • Terms & Conditions could become a minefield setting limits.
  • In essence: I think I could be well out of my depth here!
  • Too many competitors that could do it better than me.

This was a real punch in the stomach. But it was needed. It was clear that I’d been so busy in my bubble believing my own babble that I had missed how flawed the overall business model is!

Business model?

You heard me, I have to stop thinking about this as a uni project. there is no close date on this sketch book. This will carry on, thus I need a solid business model.

So what is it. Well, John and Rob proposed a few snazzy ideas. As I was still smitten over the whole ‘helping students’ thing, they suggested compiling an annual of student typefaces. It might work. Lets do the maths; 50 faces, you like 4, you will use too. At a good price, this is pretty clever.

Then Rob mentioned ‘Apple’ (almighty Steve, how we love you). If we take the iPhone app store as an example then it seems to fit into place. He asked me this; “If Apple doesn’t make the money back to host the Apps, why do they sell them?”

Errrrrr…

“Because they make a loss to make a bigger sale. It pushes for a greater volume of iPhones. Thats where all the money is.

Nice scheme. People feel like they’ve got a bargain. Ha. Well I thought about how I could apply this to Font Lorry. Originally I had Typefaces, Merchandise, wallpapers and essays.

Apple does one thing; and does it well. I need to do the same.

So I’m dropping wallpapers and essays. Goodbye. I’m left with the font foundry and merchandise. You don’t need 3 chances to guess which one will draw in the crowds (it’s merchandise). This is nice. Fonts are expensive. Merch isn’t. The merch will drive the sales of Fonts. I can put prints using the faces in the merch store and then people wil want to use the face so they come back.

Now I was getting somewhere. One problem, theres loads of designer merch out there. How am I different. get this; I’m going to deal in exclusive limited edition typographic merch. Basically its all about impulse purchases. I don’t need to explain why this works!

Yes this requires investment, but it means that I get to hand pick every item in the store, which also means there will be no rubbish.

So there you go, Font Lorry is changing from a free-for-all student marketplace, to a bespoke typographic boutique dealing in exclusive products.

Sue, Matt and I have started looking for premises for Smile. It’s exciting. We had a look round the Bond and The Arch in Digbeth. These places are nice. They’re like little walled villages.

Pros:

• 24 hour access
• Nice surroundings
• 2nd Floor studios have a nice view
• Kept on about doing ‘deals’
• Potential incubator space if we find smaller companies to work alongside
• Close to other creative industries
• Lots of potential work just inside the bond (Must be careful not to slip into small-time jobs!)

Cons:

• They don’t scream ‘design’
  
  • They look more like offices.
• Price per square foot is expensive
  • Plus theres an additional service charge per square foot!
• Parking spaces are very expensive p/a

www.thebondco.net

Plus was held at Fazeley Studios which are also for rent. I think we’ll have a look round there as well at some point.

Font Lorry isn’t even live and it’s changing. 

After a meeting with a clever web guy - Rob Sharl - There are things that need to be changed in a big way. Design is secondary to the big idea, and at present, that idea is getting lost. Therefore the idea is evolving.

More to come.

Earlier today I laid down the first sentence of my dissertation, officially confirming that it has begun. It’s a bit late to be honest and I really couldn’t get motivated, so I went and spent too much money on some beautiful books meaning that I had to do something otherwise I had wasted money, right?

It’s entitled “How effective is typography on mobile devices?” and it’s quite interesting that it is going to be written on mobile devices and exclusively online. That’s right, I will write it using web technology. By this I mean, Google Docs. I’ve already encountered some very nifty features and it allows me to utilise the knowledge from my third year projects. I hope to prove points about CSS3 @font-face properties by using it to control my essay.

That’s right. It’s big and its fat and its a genuine update.

I’ve been really quite about this because I’m weary about people viewing the work in process stuff, but now, I feel that Font Lorry is almost ready for public consumption. The design process has been meticulous. I’ve taken tone of voice into consideration, whilst my main priority is always on the hierarchy of content.

In terms of the web UI, It’s been fun working out how to lead the users eyes to specific content parts. As a technical piece, it has been real hard work. The built in shop system was naf. Unfortunately I only found this out after I spent 8 hours configuring the shopping cart system. I’ve had to move to a much less flash, but 10x more effective PayPal shopping cart system. This shouldn’t bear too much of a problem on a small, bespoke shop like Font Lorry.

As soon as I have a decent amount of content to launch, hitting the big red button shouldn’t be far off.

Good eh.

I seriously neglected this diary because I’ve been so busy updating all my other sites. I even installed the bookmarklet to make this easier.

I’m sorry.

Anyway, I’ve got loads of stuff to link to etc, so theres going to be a whirlwind of updates. This post is simply the calm before the storm.

Here comes the noise…

Scratch that last bit. I’ve just found out I can date posts, so I’m going to fool you all into thinking that you missed all my posts by posting them back in time!